Troy "Aether" Hewitt has left Carbine Studios.

The team at Carbine Studios will have to continue development on WildStar without community director Troy "Aether" Hewitt. Aether has made the decision to leave Carbine Studios and left a heartfelt farewell letter to the community he strived tirelessly to create. Hewitt cited recent family tragedies as the sole reason for his departure.

Aether's goodbye was genuinely gut-wrenching:

"So it’s with no small amount of heartbreak that I announce that I’m leaving Carbine... It was a decision I can only define as agonizing, but in the end, my family needs me. Please understand: I love this team and I believe that WildStar is going to be blockbuster game. I’ve spent five amazing years learning more than I could have ever expected from all angles of the business of making games. It’s an experience I’ll remember and value forever, working with people that have become more than coworkers, but lifetime friends. I will miss them terribly."

If you would like to read the letter in its entirety, you can do so by clicking here. The WildStar team has a huge hole to fill with Hewitt's departure. We at ZAM send our thoughts Troy's way and hope for only the best. The WildStar community has lost a valuable member, but as Aether put it "Take care of my peeps, and enjoy, won't you?"

Ian Nowakowski

Follow me! @ian_nowakowski