Warren Spector Is Retiring After 44 Years, and His Goodbye Is Worth Reading

Every so often the news is not a release date or a trailer, it is the end of an era. On Monday night, Warren Spector posted a statement on LinkedIn that opens without ceremony: "I'm retiring from game development. At least I think so." He admits he has said this before and changed his mind, but this time, he writes, he is pretty sure he means it.

If the name does not ring a bell, his games will. Spector produced Ultima VI and Wing Commander at Origin in the early 90s, had a hand in the original System Shock, directed Deus Ex in 2000 and Thief: Deadly Shadows a few years later, then surprised everyone by making Disney Epic Mickey. Most recently he co-founded OtherSide Entertainment, which shipped the stealth game Thick as Thieves earlier this year.

Forty-four years, seventeen games

The numbers in his farewell are remarkable on their own. Spector says he is one month away from his 44th year as a developer, with 17 full games and around 9 expansions to his name, made with teams as small as a dozen people and as large as 800. Some of those games, he notes, are still being played 15, 20, even 30 years later. He is not exaggerating. Deus Ex and System Shock effectively defined the immersive sim, the genre where levels are problems and players invent their own solutions, and you can trace their DNA straight into Dishonored, Prey and half the systemic games we cover today.

What he seems proudest of, though, is none of that. Helping talented people along in their careers, he writes, is the most important thing on the list.

Why he is walking away

The reasons are disarmingly honest. Age and health are catching up with him, and he feels he has done what he set out to do. The plan now is to write some books, read a lot, lecture, maybe consult, and get his piano chops back. He admits to mixed feelings, saying there are three games he would still like to make: one very big, one very small, and one he does not know how to make, which scares him. But his conclusion is blunt: the game business has changed, and it is "just not as much fun for me anymore."

There is no bitterness in the send-off, just a challenge. He tells young developers their job is to "make people forget people like me ever existed," and signs off asking everyone to stop reading and make great games. Asked if he might come back, his answer is never say never.

We doubt anyone forgets him, and honestly, nobody should. Very few people can claim they changed how games think, and Spector is one of them. Enjoy the piano, Warren. You earned it.