Bioware veteran heading Mass Effect-like Exodus' studio steps aside, leaving team to "polishing and tuning" ahead of 2027 release

Hasbro say James Ohlen "felt his work on the game was complete"

Long-time Bioware creative director and lead designer James Ohlen is stepping away from his role as studio head at Archetype Entertainment, developers of Mass Effecty sci-fi shooter Exodus. Ohlen co-founded Archetype back in 2019 with Exodus, which is heavy on Matthew McConaughey and space bears from what we've seen thus far, being the studio's debut game. Following abother trailer at last week's Geoff Awards, it's now set to come out in early 2027.

The news of a role shift for Ohlen under Archetype parent company Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast comes via report from Bloomberg. "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 corporate comms vice president Abby Hodes told the site in a statement.

She added that Ohlen will be staying on at Wizards of the Coast as a creative consultant, having "asked to shift his creative focus" to tabletop RPGs. Revealed back in 2023, Exodus has looked in all of its trailers to be banking on a marriage of Mass Effecty roleplaying with time dilation-infused choice and consequence, while sprinkling some lens-flarey McConaughey movieness on top for good measure. I can't say I'm 100% sure it'll be my cup of tea, but the bears and frogs in the 2024 trailer certainly nudged it slightly in that direction.

Bloomberg cite Archetype co-founder and general manager Chad Robertson as having recently re-affirmed that Hasbro ideally want Exodus to not only find success as a game, but to balloon out into a bunch of other media they can earn dough from. As such, Ohlen's shift to tabletoppery arguably isn't as surprising as it could be, though it does maybe seem a bit strange from the outside that the studio can shift into polish and tune mode with a year and a bit still to go before the game dons its spacesuit and jumps out of the airlock. Fair play if that's just a case of having been smart with deadline timescales, though.

Alongside Ohlen stepping down, the report cites Wizards of the Coast as having recruited former Blizzard vice president and Dreamhaven co-founder Paul Della Bitta to run one of their divisions. In less seat-filly news, those pesky coastal wizards also lifted the cover on magic-heavy action adventure Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons at the Geoffs, with a trailer really craking up the smoke machines and declaring it'll be out in 2027 just like Exodus.