BioWare's Walton Leaves To Join Playdom Austin

BioWare Austin's VP and co-general manager Gordon Walton is leaving the studio to take on an executive producer role at Playdom in Austin, as his LinkedIn page now reflects. Although Walton leaves the studio with its major project, MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, still in progress, BioWare wishes him well and in a statement to Gamasutra emphasized its "appreciation... for helping bring the game to the phenomenal state it is in today." According to the statement, BioWare's Rich Vogel remains BioWare Austin's executive producer and VP of production, and Star Wars: The Old Republic remains under the oversight of project general manager Greg Zeschuk and BioWare group general manager Ray Muzyka. "It is business as usual at all BioWare studios, where we remain committed to creating, delivering and evolving the most emotionally engaging games in the world," concluded the statement. Electronic Arts is the parent company of BioWare, which also develops the Mass Effect and Dragon Age role-playing franchises. Mobsters and Sorority Life creator Playdom, recently acquired by Disney for a handsome $763 million, is among the top developers of social games on Facebook. A 33-year industry veteran, Walton joins the ranks of many respected stalwarts, like Playdom's Steve Meretzky, Zynga's Brian Reynolds and LolApps' Brenda Brathwaite, who've left the core game development business to work in the social sector.