New Games On The Way From Blizzard As Mike Morhaime Steps Down

Not quite Blizzard HQ: Stormwind City's main gates from 'World of Warcraft' mark the entrance to the Blizzard World map in 'Overwatch.'Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment buried the news today as co-founder Mike Morhaime stepped down today after 27 years at the company, tapping World of Warcraft Production Director J. Allen Brack to take over as president.

Deep in the announcement by Morhaime, a tradition at Blizzard and a key piece of its core development, history and culture, and the response written by Brack, were three very important words about another founder, Allen Adham.

Another piece of Blizzard's past, Adham -- the original lead designer on World of Warcraft -- will, according to Brack's statement, not only be rejoining the executive team, but will be "continuing to oversee development of several new games." Adham "retired" in 2004.

These announcements didn't discuss what those games would be, of course. Speculation is now widespread that a Diablo announcement is in the works at BlizzCon, Blizzard's 35,000-person event in Anaheim (which draws millions of paid viewers online), now just a few weeks away. But games, plural, suggests that there may be some new IP on the way.

I did an interview a couple years ago with Morhaime; senior vice president and cofounder Frank Pearce; and Chris Metzen, the former senior vice president of story and franchise development, in honor of the company's 25th anniversary. Then, the trio spoke about mobile games as a possible future arena for new Blizzard IP development. Their popular digital card game Hearthstone had already launched at that point.

"If you look at Overwatch, if you look at StarCraft, we have multiple franchises that would lend themselves to that [mobile] concept,” Pearce said at the time; he's still with the company.

Morhaime will stay on as an advisor, he wrote in the announcement. Metzen retired almost exactly two years ago after 23 years of service.

Long service dates like these are unheard of in video games. Careers like Morhaime's, which spanned decades and franchises and multiple sales and divestitures and acquisitions and being acquired, are as unusual as the bigger-than-life bronze statue of the orc in the Blizzard Entertainment courtyard. But the core values stamped into metal plates around that statue -- gameplay first; commit to quality; play nice, play fair; and so on -- have been consistently kept alive at the company through the longevity of its leadership team.

Despite a passionate player base quick to identify (sometimes all-too-true) shortcomings in the company's new games, Blizzard enjoys an unusually strong reputation in the industry for producing quality titles, sometimes at the expense of traditional production deadlines. Morhaime played a strong role in that.

J. Allen BrackBlizzard Entertainment

His replacement, Brack, has been with Blizzard for 12 years, which is an eternity in game development and leadership but makes him the new kid on the block in some Blizzard meetings. (See: the Blizzard service awards, which are now at 25 years and counting.)

My experience with Brack after multiple interviews suggests someone practical and straightforward, with a wry sense of humor. He tends to be swift to judgment about what is best for the company's player base, which can sometimes bite him. But like all longtime employees of the company, living in the orc's shadow has appeared to have an effect on Allen, and I suspect his priorities are also skewed a touch more "player" than "bottom line."

Brack also announced that another decade-long Blizzard vet -- Ray Gresko, who worked on the launches of Overwatch and Diablo III -- will become the company's chief development officer.

Let's block ads! (Why?)