Blizzard Entertainment, the famed company behind beloved franchises such as Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft has been going through some changes at the top of its ranks. The company already had one founding member Mike Morhaime, stepped down from his role as president last year. And this year it has now been confirmed that another longtime executive member will now be taking his leave from the company as well.
Co-founder and long time executive Frank Pearce, has officially announced that he has decided to leave the company. Pearce helped start Blizzard about 28 years ago back when the company was known as Silicon & Synapse. After such a long stint with the company he revealed within a statement on Blizzard’s website about his departure. The statement does not infer that the executive is leaving Blizzard for another company or to start his own, but states that Pearce is looking to spend his time exploring more personal endeavors such as spending time outdoors, learning to play an instrument, and other passions.
Current president of Blizzard J. Allen Brack also released a statement in regards to Pearce’s announcement of his departure. Like many of us, Frank is an introvert,” Brack wrote. “Thus many of you haven’t seen a lot of him publicly, nor seen the deep impact he’s had on Blizzard, and on the culture specifically. But Frank has been here from the beginning, building and expanding the foundation and championing the values behind everything Blizzard does. Blizzard is better because of Frank Pearce.”
Brack had nothing but praise for Pearce and gives him credit for making Blizzard better as a whole even though he wasn’t primarily in the face of the public or in the limelight during his time with the company. It isn’t known whom will be taking Pearce’s place but it is clear that they will have some pretty big shoes to fill.