Former Mass Effect project director Casey Hudson is returning to BioWare to become the studio’s general manager, coming back from three years in wandering the desert of Microsoft. He’ll replace Aaryn Flynn, who is leaving the studio entirely after seventeen years. Hudson left BioWare in August 2014, after helping lay the foundations of the game that became the Destiny-lookin’ action-RPG Anthem. After several games that haven’t quite clicked, can Hudson get the studio back on track?

Flynn doesn’t say quite why he’s leaving, only that he had been “contemplating changes in [his] own life for some time” when he heard Casey fancied a crack. Hey, it’s none of our business. And better a vague answer than a polished-up, PR-approved one, right?

As for his own return and ascendance, Hudson says that leaving “was the most difficult decision of my career”. He explains that he “needed some time off, needed a bit of change, and wanted to get involved in the new wave of disruptive technologies that were emerging.”

Aye, disruption’s always less fun than you’d hope for. All those detentions, writing lines after school…

Hudson is becoming GM at a difficult time. While he was away, Dragon Age: Inquisition turned out to be an unsatisfying end to the trilogy, Mass Effect Andromeda was a bland and troubled (and reportedly faltering) start to something new, the fantasy action-RPG Shadow Realms was cancelled, and Anthem looks yeah, sure, whatever. Still, Hudson says he thinks of BioWare “as home” and seems confident about the future.

“When I look at the stunning progress Aaryn and the team has made with Anthem, and the other projects in the works, I truly believe our best is yet to come.”