Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare have announced that its co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk are retiring.

Announced yesterday, both founders released statements online explaining their decisions for leaving the company they founded.

Ray Muzyka wrote in his post that he has decided to leave video games entirely and enter into a new area. He made his decision a while ago, having given EA a six-month notice back in April 2012.

“I’ve decided to move on to pursue an entirely different set of challenges. This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make; after thinking about it for many months, I made the decision to retire from videogames back in early April 2012 – at that time I provided six months’ notice to EA, to help enable a solid transition for my teams at BioWare.

“I feel the need now to move on to a new chapter in my career. With the growth of BioWare to multiple locations as part of a public company, following two decades of multiple successful product launches across many platforms and business models, I’ve largely personally achieved what I wanted in videogames; I now desire to take on a brand new entrepreneurial challenge. I believe strongly in the power of free enterprise to enable sustainable change, so my next ‘chapter’ will likely focus on an entirely new industry, something exciting, different and frankly downright scary – investing in and mentoring new entrepreneurs, and more specifically, the field of social/impact investing.”

Greg Zeschuk wrote in his post that he’s leaving due to his passion for creating video games dying out. He’ll be moving onto personal, beer related, projects and thanks fans and those he worked with for a great time with BioWare.

“After nearly twenty years working at BioWare I’ve decided it’s time to move on and pursue something new. This decision isn’t without significant pain and regret, but it’s also something I know I need to do, for myself and my family. I’ve reached an unexpected point in my life where I no longer have the passion that I once did for the company, for the games, and for the challenge of creation.

“Some of you will be curious what I’ll be doing next, and I can state that I’m not going to be working in games for a while, and there’s a strong possibility that I won’t be back. After my departure I’m going to be spending significant time with family and friends, as well as pursuing some personal passion-driven projects related to craft beer. The main project I will be working on is a web-based interview show called The Beer Diaries where I interview notable brewers and showcase their beers. If things go well, I’ll work on other beer-related shows, apps and projects. If not, I’ll have drunk a lot of tasty beers and may be back in games or even something else completely different. Ultimately time will tell.”

The formation of BioWare has had quite the impact upon the industry, with many RPGs coming from the team and causing waves in the western RPG world. TGH hopes that both men go on to enjoy their lives away from video games, and still remains hopeful that they could once again return to shake the industry again.