BioWare General Manager Aaryn Flynn unexpectedly announced today that he'll be leaving the company after a 17-year stint. His replacement as general manager will be Casey Hudson, the former Mass Effect series project director who left the company three years ago for a position as creative director at Microsoft Studios.

"I have been contemplating changes in my own life for some time, but when I heard that Casey [Hudson] had confirmed he was up for the task, I realized the opportunities before us," Flynn wrote on the BioWare blog. "I will be working with him over the next couple of weeks to help catch him up and do my part to set him up for success to be the best GM he can be."

The shake-up comes at a shaky time for BioWare, which saw Mass Effect: Andromeda receive a harsher-than-expected reception from critics and audiences earlier this year amid numerous launch-day technical issues. An extensive piece in Kotaku last month uses quotes from unnamed BioWare employees to highlight the difficulties that plagued the title's five-year development. A subsequent report suggests that planned single-player DLC for the game has now been canceled.

At E3 last month, BioWare debuted Anthem , a multiplayer-focused shooter that seems to owe its design more to Activision's Destiny than to BioWare's own epic, single-player RPGs. Flynn previously served as the director for Anthem, BioWare's first new franchise in over a decade, but that role has since been taken over by Jonathan Warner.

Three years ago, Hudson departed a 16-year career at BioWare, saying he'd "take a much-needed break, get perspective on what I really want to do with the next phase of my life, and eventually take on a new set of challenges." In a blog post today about "coming home," Hudson called that time away from BioWare "transformative for me, from having time to reflect on what I most want to do, to working with new technologies at platform scale."

"I think I speak for everyone who has worked with [Flynn]—and our fans—when I say thank you for everything," Hudson continued in his statement. "BioWare continues to hold a special magic—full of profoundly talented people, and an inspiring creative energy. When I look at the stunning progress [Flynn] and the team has made with Anthem, and the other projects in the works, I truly believe our best is yet to come."

Hudson served as one of the primary public faces of BioWare in the wake of controversy surrounding the ending to Mass Effect 3 in 2012. The company eventually released an "Extended Cut" DLC pack that amended the game's conclusion, a move Hudson said was intended "to provide the fans who want more closure with even more context and clarity to the ending of the game, in a way that will feel more personalized for each player."

Further Reading BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk announce retirement

Shortly after the Mass Effect 3 controversy, BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk announced they would be leaving the company 17 years after they created it. At the time, Flynn said he and the departing founders all thought "the studio is solid and the team here is ready to embark on a whole new era of games."