Drew Karpyshyn, the accomplished writer known for his work on titles like Baldur's Gate II, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, the first two Mass Effect games and Star Wars: The Old Republic, came back to Bioware a couple years ago after leaving the company in 2012 to write a novel trilogy.

　　He's worked since on both Star Wars: The Old Republic and the upcoming Anthem, but a few days ago he announced yet another departure from Bioware on his official blog.

　　Yes, it’s true. As of Friday, March 2, I am no longer an employee of BioWare/EA. Some of you might be thinking, “Wait, this sounds familiar!”. Yes, this is my second retirement from BioWare. Last time, I left to focus on my Chaos Born trilogy. This time, I’m leaving to pursue a number of other projects, including more original novels, an original sci-fi graphic novel I’m co-creating, and freelance gaming work. I know a lot of you are wondering why I’m doing this. For many people, working at BioWare would be their dream job and they can’t imagine anyone stepping away from it. But it was time for me to move on.

　　Everyone who works at BioWare pours their heart and soul into the games they are making. It’s creatively demanding and – at times – exhausting. In the past, I’ve managed to juggle outside projects with my work at BioWare, but it always took a toll. And there were always outside projects I had to pass on because they would represent a conflict of interest with BioWare or EA properties.

　　So I made the decision to step back (again) and focus on my freelance work. I’d love to say more about the novel(s) I’m working on, or my graphic novel project, but those details will have to wait a while.

　　But I’m not leaving games entirely. As of Monday, I’m officially working with Fogbank Entertainment and FoxNext Games. I can’t say a lot about what we’re up to yet, but I’m very excited to be part of the Fogbank team. I’ve worked with both Daniel and Alex before in my BioWare days, and I really like what they’re building. Obviously this release is a bit cryptic, but as more details of what I’m working on get announced, I’ll be sharing them on my Twitter feed and here on the NEWS page of my website.

　　As you've just read above, Karpyshyn will now be working with Fogbank Entertainment, a newly formed studio based in San Francisco, California and founded by FoxNext Games (which recently made the news for the upcoming Alien game in development at Cold Iron Studios).

　　Aaron Loeb, president of Studios at FoxNext Games, said in a statement to VentureBeat:

　　FoxNext is committed to developing quality gaming experiences, and Fogbank is going to help us to develop an interactive storytelling platform that allows us to expand on Fox’s catalog of entertainment while also developing new, unique fiction. Narrative and story-driven games continue to rank among the top grossing and most downloaded games across industry standards, and we’re assembling a team of people dedicating to furthering the form.

　　Fogbank is now composed of twenty industry veterans and the studio plans to double its size.