Mass Effect’s Casey Hudson and Dragon Age’s Mark Darrah both depart Bioware

General Manager of Bioware Casey Hudson and Dragon Age Executive Producer Mark Darrah have both announced that they are departing Bioware in a surprise shake-up at the top of the company.

Making their announcements via their respective Twitter accounts, the pair have also each posted their own blog to the Bioware website with their decisions to leave, with Casey Hudson saying that he was “Incredibly fortunate to have had a career where I’ve been able to work with brilliantly talented people, create entire worlds from our imaginations, and see them being enjoyed by millions of people around the world.” He explained that he “made the decision to retire from the studio and make way for the next generation of studio leaders.”

Mark Darrah meanwhile, said in his own leaving post: “This has been a very difficult decision for me. The team of amazing developers on Dragon Age, make my life fuller and better. They have taught me so much. But the strength of the team is also what makes this possible. I know that Dragon Age won’t just survive without me, it will thrive.”

In a complimentary statement from Laura Miele, Chief Studios Officer at Electronic Arts said: “thank Casey and Mark for everything they have done for the BioWare community, and particularly for our players. They will always be an essential part of the studio’s history, we appreciate their many contributions, and we look forward to seeing what they’ll each do next”

Miele also outlined how the studio would be continuing work on both the ongoing new Mass Effect and Dragon Age projects at the studio, saying in the case of the latter that Christian Dailey would be taking over the reigns of Dragon Age 4 (as we’re calling it for now) while a search for a new general manager to replace Hudson was already underway. The new Mass Effect project has already been headed up by Bioware’s Mike Gamble since last year.

It’s the second time Hudson has departed Bioware following his stint as project director on the Mass Effect series between 2007 and 2012, with him previously leaving in 2014 to take on new challenges at Microsoft, only to return in 2017. One of his final moves before this departure was to help announce the Mass Effect Legendary Edition —a remastering of the original trilogy—for release on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC next Spring.