gaming

Warren Spector, 70, retires after nearly 45-year career; 'Thick as Thieves' halts updates

Warren Spector announced his retirement from game development at age 70 after a career spanning nearly 45 years and 17 released games. Spector, a founder of the immersive sim genre best known for Deus Ex and Thief, said he no longer finds the same joy in the industry and plans to write books and provide consulting. His final release, Otherside Entertainment’s Thick as Thieves, launched earlier this year, was restructured from PvPvE to single-player/co-op, and will receive no further content updates after underperforming. Spector’s past work includes Epic Mickey, producing Ultima Underworld at Looking Glass, and an abandoned System Shock 3 effort.

• Spector made the retirement announcement on LinkedIn and described mixed feelings about leaving development.
• He helped define the immersive sim genre with titles such as Deus Ex and Thief while at Ion Storm and contributed to Ultima Underworld in the early 1990s at Looking Glass.
• Thick as Thieves was changed from a PvPvE immersive sim to a single-player and co-op adventure and Otherside Entertainment confirmed it will no longer receive content updates.
• Spector intends to write multiple books and offer consulting work; he previously worked on Epic Mickey and spent over a decade on the now-abandoned System Shock 3 project.