Spector was the creator behind Deus Ex.
The creator of Deus Ex, the action role-playing game franchise originally developed by Ion Storm, has announced his retirement. In a LinkedIn post, Warren Spector said he was a month away from his 44th year as a developer and had worked on tabletop games, 17 digital games, ran small and large teams and helped people with their careers. Now, his age and health are catching up with him, and it was time to “write some books, do a lot of reading, do some lecturing, maybe do some consulting.”
Spector also said that there are still three games he would like to make, but that the business has changed and it’s not as fun for him anymore. While he admitted that he tried to retire in the past but changed his tune, he said he thinks he means it this time. He is typically regarded as a founding father of immersive sim games, characterized by giving players the freedom to solve problems in a variety of ways.
On Deus Ex, wherein you play an anti-terrorism agent in a dystopian cyberpunk setting, Spector also served as director and producer. He worked on several Ultima titles as producer and writer, as well as on Disney’s Epic Mickey for the Wii as director. His latest game was Thick As Thieves, a stealth-action heist game, released just a few months ago. He also worked on System Shock 3, but Tencent took over that project and its status remains unclear.
