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Mass Effect writer Drew Karpyshyn is back at BioWare – to work on The Old Republic

Mass Effect 2

Drew Karpyshyn’s origin story is as compelling as any he gave to his companion characters. Once a loan officer, he went back to college after a car accident to complete an English degree – before writing the novelisation of Baldur’s Gate II.

He must have impressed BioWare: by the time of Knights of the Old Republic he’d invented meatbag-mocking droid HK-47, and afterwards led writing on Mass Effect 1 and 2 (and is therefore not responsible for any lingering disappointment you might be harbouring about 3’s ending).

His last job at the studio was in Austin, working on Star Wars: The Old Republic – and that’s where he’s returned, “at least for now”.

Karpyshyn left BioWare three years ago to work on his Chaos Born trilogy of novels, which he’s just finished. He’ll continue his paperback fiction, but on the side.

“Working at BioWare was a challenging but very rewarding job, and it’s good to be back as part of the team,” he wrote on his blog. “The thing I missed most about BioWare was the amazing people I got to work with, and luckily for me many of them are still there!”

That does not mean, he hastened to add, that a new project is in the works. Rather, “at least for now”, Karpyshyn will return to scribing duties on SWTOR.

Mass Effect 4 is in development at the newly-formed BioWare Montreal. What needs to go into it, do you think?