James Ohlen, the Bioware veteran who led development on upcoming sci-fi RPG Exodus, has stepped down from his position as the head of Archetype Entertainment. Ohlen’s exit comes just after the studio debuted a flashy new trailer at The Game Awards, as he says he feels his work on the game is done.
Ohlen has headed up the Wizards of the Coast-owned studio since its founding in 2019, working on the studio’s debut title Exodus. “At this stage, James felt his work on the game was complete and that the polishing and tuning were in great hands with the team,” Hasbro said in a statement given to Bloomberg.
Exodus is still fairly far from release, which is currently scheduled for early 2027. This is an unusually long window if the game is already up to the polishing and tuning stage. Just last week, Exodus received an epic new trailer at The Game Awards, focused on the journey of protagonist Jun Aslan.
While stepping down from his position at Archetype, Ohlen is staying on with Wizards of the Coast as a creative consultant in the realm of tabletop RPGs, with the Hasbro saying he had “asked to shift his creative focus.” Ohlen intended to retire from the video games industry altogether in 2018 when he left Bioware, and even formed his own tabletop company. After refusing multiple offers of work from various video games companies, he accepted a compelling offer from Wizards to lead Archetype in 2019, promised a higher level of creative freedom.
With Ohlen gone, Archetype still boasts a number of ex-Bioware employees on its team, including VP and general manager Chad Robertson, and lead writer Drew Karpyshyn. Exodus looks to share a lot of DNA with beloved sci-fi RPG Mass Effect, and both studio and fans are hoping the game will have a similar appeal to the Bioware classic.