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Stuart Black - formerly of Criterion's Black, and lately Codemasters' upcoming  Bodycount fame - is expected to leave his current employers this October, according to Eurogamer. He's yet to give any official reason for the departure, but rumours point to a post-E3 fallout.

"Having created a great vision and direction for Bodycount, Stuart has decided to move on after three years with us," said Codemasters Guildford studio manager, Adrian Bolton to Eurogamer. "He will see out his design role until October and, through the transition period, will continue to work with the talented development team that will take the game through to completion."

Black is known for his outspoken views, and was quoted in OXM earlier this year lambasting the current state of shooters, saying, "There's a lot of cover-based shooters out at the moment. But when a guy hunkers down behind something, you've just got to sit there and wait for him to pop his head up. Pops up, couple of bullets to his head, pops back down again.. and I'm waiting for him to pop back up again? F***ing boring. I can't be bothered hanging around like that."

Yes, well, sentiments like that aren't going to make you popular in the industry, and Gearbox's Mikey Neumann had this to say on Black's resignation:

I don't know why Stuart Black's headlines for today don't read "Guy who sh**s on everyone else's games can't finish his own.

No love lost between Neumann and Black then.

Bodycount is set for release in the first quarter of 2011... without Stuart Black.