Mass Effect Andromeda lead writer leaves BioWare, joins Bungie

BioWare has seen a number of high-profile departures over the past few months already, and now it’s seeing another, as the lead writer for Mass Effect Andromeda, Chris Schlerf, has announced his departure from the company.

Schlerf confirmed the departure from BioWare Montreal in a series of tweets this morning, which were spotted by Game Informer. “Sincerely one of the best experiences of my career — I’m incredibly grateful to have worked w/ such talented & truly wonderful human beings,” he wrote.

As for where Schlerf is headed next, he tweeted that he will be working with Bungie. While he hasn’t worked with Bungie before, he is no stranger to the company’s prior IP, having served as the lead writer for Halo 4 before joining BioWare in November 2014.

To confirm what some folks asked about a few months back, I am no longer working on ME:A at BioWare Montreal.

— schlerf (@schlerf) February 16, 2016

This departure comes on the heels of David Gaider, who played an important role in creating the Dragon Age universe, announcing his departure from BioWare to join Beamdog. Before that, Mass Effect Andromeda senior development director Chris Wynn departed the team, and now serves as the executive director of H1Z1 at Daybreak.

Given the amount of departures from BioWare in recent months, it could point to issues with the game, but in Scherlf’s case it could simply be that progress on Mass Effect Andromeda has moved forward to the point that his work is finished.

Schlerf was quick to say that he is proud of his work on Mass Effect Andromeda, and that he thinks the game “really gonna blow people away.” The game has not been given an official release date yet, but has been given a tentative release window of “Holiday 2016.”

Last week, Activision confirmed that the sequel to Destiny wouldn’t be released until 2017, but a large expansion to the game would be released this year. Regarding his work with Bungie, Schlerf simply said “we might have some interesting stories to tell …”