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Anthem’s lead producer leaves after eight years with BioWare

Ben Irving is moving onto new ventures

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Ben Irving has announced that he’s stepping down from his role at BioWare to work at another game company. Irving had been with BioWare for over eight years, and served as lead producer on Star Wars: The Old Republic starting in 2015, before he moved onto Anthem in April 2017.

“After eight amazing years at BioWare I have made the decision to move on and have accepted an exciting opportunity at another gaming company,” Irving tweets. “Since the first time I played Baldur’s Gate many many years ago, BioWare was the dream place I always wanted to work. I will forever be grateful to all the people who gave me the chance to work on great products with amazing people.”

Irving was based at BioWare Austin, which was established to work on The Old Republic back in the mid-2000s. Anthem development, which was originally conducted at the ‘main’ BioWare studio in Edmonton, moved over to Austin after the game’s launch, so that the studio could make use of its experience in running an online game to handle Anthem’s live service component.

The departure of Anthem’s lead producer will certainly raise some eyebrows given the game’s rocky first few months, but Irving says “I believe Anthem has a bright future – there is a great team working on it and I look forward to following its progress (and playing it!) from the sidelines.”

Exactly what that future entails remains to be seen. Anthem’s Cataclysm update finally launched with little fanfare earlier this month, but BioWare’s been quiet on what’s coming afterward. Whatever it is will have to have someone new in a major leadership position.