Charles Boyd, the longtime creative director behind Star Wars: The Old Republic has stepped down and will be leaving after over 16 years at BioWare (and ten years of The Old Republic, just celebrating its 10th anniversary last December). In an official BioWare blog post yesterday, the company wished a mournful-but-fond farewell to Boyd, commemorating how his experience and work were instrumental to the success of The Old Republic; however, BioWare wanted to remind fans of their dedication to the franchise and its stories, feeling able to move on in the right direction with an incredible team backing the project. 

As such, the future of The Old Republic, as well as future Dragon Age and Mass Effect entries, will fall into the very capable hands of Eric Musco, former Community Manager turned Lead Producer who has served BioWare for over a decade, and Ashley Ruhl, now Narrative Director and overseeing The Old Republic plot as it continues to unfold. These two will be joined by lead writer Caitlyn Sullivan Kelly, UX director Alan Copeland, and Gameplay Design director George Smith. 

Closing out the blog post is a message from Charles Boyd, thanking the team at BioWare for the “amazing experience” it had been to have worked on something “from its initial vision to a colossal release and then an incredible live service for over a decade.” He continues on to say that he is excited to experience the expanding universe “alongside our players” as the team he loves releases the many “exciting things in the works.” With that, he says his goodbyes, concluding the 16-year career with BioWare – initially beginning on a team led by Daniel Erickson and writing the Trooper class’s story, among other elements, Boyd quickly became a lead writer and worked on most of the game’s important expansions until promotion to Creative Director in 2016.

As BioWare reminds, Star Wars: The Old Republic lives on as the team is working hard for August 2nd’s slated release of Update 7.1, adding a variety of new mission arcs for the Republic and Imperial players on Manaan, a new 8-player Operation, Weapon in Outfitter system improvements, and some revelations concerning the game’s pseudo-big bad, Darth Malgus.