Deus Ex director and immersive sim legend Warren Spector is retiring, despite having "three games in particular" he'd still like to make

He's also not ruling out a return if it strikes his fancy

Warren Spector, Deus Ex director and general household name of the PC gamingverse, has announced his retirement from game development. Though, he's not completely closed the door on making a comeback down the line, alluding to three games in particular that he'd still like to make if the right circumstances popped up.

"I'm retiring from game development," Spector wrote on LinkedIn, "At least I think so. I've been here before and changed my mind but this time I'm pretty sure I mean it."

He continued as follows:

I've had a great career. Wouldn't change a thing even if I could. But the reasons to retire are simple: I'm a month away from my 44th year as a developer. I've had the chance to work on tabletop roleplaying games and boardgames. I've worked on more digital games than I can remember - 17 full games, I think, and 9 or so add-on packs. Gratifyingly, some of those games are still being played 15...20...30 years later. And most of them have been in a genre that has had influence beyond what I or anyone else expected. I've run teams as small as a dozen and as big as 800. I've worked for big companies and done startups. I like to think I've helped some insanely talented people along in their careers. (That last is the most important.)

With all that behind me and with age and health (my business) catching up with me I'm feeling like I've done what I set out to do. It's time to write some books, do a lot of reading, do some lecturing, maybe do some consulting.

Building on what he said earlier in the post, Spector made clear he has "mixed feelings" about stepping away. "I mean there are three games in particular I'd still like to make," he wrote. "(One is very big... one is very small... and one I don't know how to make which scares me.) But the game business has changed and it's just not as much fun for me anymore. Plus there's a new generation of developers coming up who deserve their time in the sun."

So, while adopting a "never say never" attitude to a potential return down the road, the legendary dev is off to a new chapter. "To all of you reading this I want you to remember that games are not a solved problem yet - there is, I hope, plenty of experimentation and innovation to come," he added as a closing message. "And to all you young developers out there, I've said it before and I'll say it again, your job is to make people forget people like me ever existed."

Having worked on board games and TTRPGs in the 80s, Spector moved into game development around the start of the 90s, working on the likes of the Ultima series and System Shock under publishers Origin Systems. Then came the part of his career he's best known for - stints at Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm which saw him have a hand in getting the Deus Ex and Thief series off the ground. The former Spector directed, before overseeing both Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows. He subsequently took the helm of the Epic Mickey series at Disney Interactive Studios.

Spector's more recent work has had a tougher time of it. Having joined Looking Glass co-founder Paul Neurath at OtherSide Entertainment, the dev consulted on 2018's disappointing Ultima spiritual successor Underworld Ascendant and worked on stealth game Thick As Thieves, the latter drawing mixed reviews when it released earlier this year. Layoffs at OtherSide followed, with a multiplayer immersive sim called Argos: Riders on the Storm being cancelled.

Regardless of whether this is the end of his career, Spector'll go down as one of the key architects of some foundational PC games. For more in-depth ruminations on his journey, check out any of the interviews with him in our back catalogue, as well as his chat with Nic (RPS in peace) about books and Spector's own blog.