Former Dragon Age Lead Writer David Gaider joins Beamdog

David Gaider

Former Dragon Age Lead Writer David Gaider announced his departure from BioWare a few weeks ago, saying that it was “time to move on to a new challenge.” Today that new challenge was revealed as Beamdog, the digital distribution platform, publisher, and developer that's currently working on a new Baldur's Gate.

“We're very pleased to welcome David Gaider to the company as our new creative director. Originally we advertised for the position of senior writer, but when David contacted Trent about the position, we upgraded the role,” Beamdog said. “David is well known for his design and writing work on Baldur’s Gate 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Origins. He brings 17 years of experience to our little team and we couldn't be happier to work with him. David will lead the writing team and direct new creative endeavors for the company.”

Gaider's long history at BioWare would make any new role noteworthy, but his move to Beamdog is especially interesting because of its work on Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear. Beamdog (and BioWare) co-founder Trent Oster said in December 2015 that it's “content complete” and so Gaider won't have much impact on that game, but assuming that it sells reasonably well (and on the strength of the name alone, I'm guessing that it will), further releases in the series seem likely. And more Baldur's Gate, narratively helmed by one of the main guys behind Baldur's Gate 2, is a very exciting prospect.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.