Industry legend Warren Spector is retiring: ‘I’m feeling like I’ve done what I set out to do’

Warren Spector is one of the industry’s most storied developers, particularly among fans of immersive sims. His leading roles on games like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Deus Ex—and you know what, even Invisible War and Deadly Shadows, which are probably better than you think—established him as one of the field’s most admired and enduring names. And now, after doing it for more than 40 years, he’s calling it a day.

“Let me cut right to the chase. 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.”

Spector said he’s had a “great career” and wouldn’t change a thing, but added that he’s coming up on 44 years as a developer, a span that’s seen him work on tabletop RPGs, board games, and “more digital games than [he] can remember,” as part of teams ranging in size from a dozen people to 800. “I’ve worked for big companies and done startups,” he wrote. “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. (Feel free to get in touch about those last two.) Also there’s a keyboard here just waiting for me to get my piano chops back.”

That reflects something I’ve always respected and admired about Spector: He’s commonly held up as the “creator” of this game or that (I do it myself) but he’s made a point in the past of reminding people that these aren’t solo ventures.

“You don’t ship anything, let alone anything good, without a great team. The Deus Ex concept may have been mine, but the game itself, and all kudos aimed at it, belong to the great, great team that bought into a vision and made it a reality,” he said in 2025, marking the 25th anniversary of Deus Ex. More recently, he took a similar stance with Epic Mickey, calling out Disney for failing to give “the team at Junction Point” proper credit for bringing Oswald the Lucky Rabbit back into the public eye.

Spector said he has mixed feelings about his retirement, saying there are three games in particular he’d still like to make: “One is very big… one is very small… and one I don’t know how to make which scares me.” But the business has changed, “and it’s just not as much fun” anymore—and, he added, “there’s a new generation of developers coming up who deserve their time in the sun.”

He also hasn’t had much luck with his more recent venture at Otherside Entertainment, where he serves as studio director. Otherside’s debut game, Underworld Ascendant, was a catastrophe, and while Thick as Thieves, released earlier this year, came out in far better shape, it failed to catch on with players and ended content updates just a couple months later. The studio had also been working on System Shock 3, but that came to an unhappy end in 2020 when the project was taken over by Tencent and, as far as anyone knows, subsequently left to die. It’s doubly unfortunate because those are exactly the kind of games Spector is known for and should be able to crush, but it just hasn’t worked out.

Despite that, I’ll always hold out hope that Spector comes back someday, but mixed feelings or not, he does sound ready to pass the torch. “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 concluded. “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.

“Will I come back? Never say never. But I think it’s time to ride off into the sunset. Now stop reading and make great games.”