Drew Karpyshyn leaves Bioware

For years, Drew Karpyshyn's writing  has been inextricably linked with Bioware's RPGs. That era appears to be coming to a close.

Yesterday, Karpyshyn announced that he would no longer be working with Bioware, but that the parting was his decision and was on amicable terms. He will be using his time to work more on his book series. Thankfully, it appears that he will not be leaving the Star Wars universe entirely, as he is still going to be completing another novel set in the Star Wars: The Old Republic period.

Simply put though, those are some big shoes to fill for future releases and for future SWTOR content.

If you haven't read any of Karpyshyn's written work, I highly recommend it. His Darth Bane series remains, in my mind, one of the best pieces of Star Wars Expanded Universe fiction that has been written to date. Karpyshyn gets the Dark Side right. He draws attention to the differences in Sith ideology (between Bane and the Brotherhood of Darkness, for example) in a way that makes you realize that the Dark Side is far less uniform than we see in the films and in a lot of the Expanded Universe. He also manages to create a character that, while undoubtedly evil, you want to cheer for.

Karpyshyn's contributions to Star Wars and to RPGs are substantial and will not soon be forgotten. I wish him the best and hope to read his original novel, Children of Fire, as soon as he has it completed.