The Old Republic lead writer confirms departure from BioWare

Newsbrief: More departures for Star Wars: The Old Republic, as the MMO's lead writer Daniel Erickson has confirmed to Gamasutra that he has left BioWare Austin to pursue a creative role elsewhere. "I can confirm that I am parting ways with BioWare," he told us. "After seven years learning from the best in the business I am again looking for ways to grow as a creative leader and an artist." "Unfortunately that means leaving behind the studio I helped start and finding a new group of brilliant people to learn from," he continued. Erickson's departure comes as former The Old Republic executive producer Rich Vogel confirmed this week that he has joined Bethesda Softworks, where he will head up a brand-new Austin-based game studio. Following declining subscriber numbers for The Old Republic, BioWare announced in July that the game will go free-to-play this fall. Gamasutra recently examined exactly what went wrong for the game.