Russell Brower Leaving Blizzard
Russell Brower was the senior director of audio and lead composer of Blizzard Entertainment. We will miss him and wish him the best moving forward.
Originally Posted by Russell Brower (Blue Tracker)
To anyone familiar with my work at #Blizzard,

It’s with a heavy heart that I post this status update, but as they say, “all good things…”

I’m extremely proud of the amazingly talented team I helped build and the creative output we’ve accomplished together over these past 12 years. As the company has grown, the topography of the Sound team has adjusted accordingly, and the last couple of years have been no exception. With the success of a “sound de-centralization” initiative, my current position of overall Sr. Audio Director/Composer is no longer relevant and is being eliminated.

Today is my last day, though there is an excellent chance I will continue to contribute to Blizzard’s projects as a freelance composer. Obviously, I have a lot to figure out, so I do not have any further information to share as to what I will be doing next….yet. (Except for my solo album— that is well under way; stay tuned!)

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to EVERYONE reading this: all of our Players, Music Lovers, and the countless new friends I’ve made worldwide, for the incredible and indelible life experiences I have enjoyed while at Blizzard. Especially the Players— each of you have truly enriched our lives by playing our games, meeting us at #BlizzCon and #Nerdtacular, attending our music concerts the world over, enjoying our soundtrack albums and sheet music— the list goes on and on. We have so much to be proud of and I am truly grateful to each of you and to all my Blizzard colleagues for putting up with me over the last 12 years and teaching me so much.

I look forward to staying in touch with ALL of you, be it here on FaceBook, Twitter (handle-change coming up), and at future concerts (actually I have several #VGL shows still to come this year in Europe, China and Brazil.)

WATCH THIS SPACE for news of my solo album, the first track of which I just recorded in June with 51 of the FINEST studio musicians in Los Angeles!!! #AFM #Local47 FTW!

Wishing each of you all my best, with tons of gratitude,

Russell Brower
a.k.a. RB
This article was originally published in forum thread: Russell Brower Leaving Blizzard started by chaud View original post
Comments 315 Comments
  1. Eleccybubb's Avatar
    Well good luck to him in future endeavours. Must say some of the work he did at Blizzard was top notch.


    Wonder how long it will be before we get the usual "another rat fleeing the sinking ship" crap?
  1. Utigarde's Avatar
    Honestly, this is probably the saddest "Leaving Blizzard" post besides Metzen's for me. His music has been there for half my life, and my entire gaming lifetime. Certainly shaped my tastes more than basically anyone else in music. Will miss him.
  1. Rixis's Avatar
    The music has probably been the single most consistently great part about WoW. A little unfortunate, hope he keeps well.
  1. Sfinna's Avatar
    I'll miss him, but I am curious of this 'sound de-centralization' process he mentions. Sounds like an interesting thing; this is just speculation, but I assume this process makes it easier for new composers to join the team; a lot of new composers popped up in MoP, WoD, and Legion.
  1. Velshin's Avatar
    Really sad to see him go..the fact that WoW music is the main reason I started playing WoW back then in vanilla makes his leaving even sadder...
  1. Arrashi's Avatar
    Im actually kinda glad he is leaving. Don't get me wrong, he is great artist responsible for one of most iconic aspects of wow. Its just that after WoTLK, his work on wow became very...repetitive ? MoP had few good tracks, but both WoD and Legion really felt like more of we already have.

    I really hope someone with compltely fresh approach will work on music for 8.0 onwards.
  1. Thelxi's Avatar
    Sound decentralization initiative lol.
  1. McNeil's Avatar
    The music has always been a great part of the game thats always been consistent in quality. Sad to see him go after doing such a great job for a long time.
  1. mmoc87bdcc5ac3's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    Wonder how long it will be before we get the usual "another rat fleeing the sinking ship" crap?
    There should not be .

    With the success of a “sound de-centralization” initiative, my current position of overall Sr. Audio Director/Composer is no longer relevant and is being eliminated.
    Looks to me he got fired. Most likely due to with reorganizations / rebuilding the sound design team and he didn't really fit / wanted any other spot that most likely would be a downgrade for him.
  1. Pull My Finger's Avatar
    His work is one of the reasons why I'm so attached to the game after all these years. I hope that the very special identity of the music doesn't get lost after these "de-centralization" measures. Not sure why they'd let an art lead go, especially one like him.
  1. Raetary's Avatar
    this is sad.

    his work was amazing.
  1. Frumpy Frumpy Frak's Avatar
    RIP :'(

  1. Liliannan's Avatar
    He is not leaving by choice, his job was made redundant. He even responded to someone on Twitter saying it wasn't his choice.
    I wish him all the best. The music he contributed to WoW will be around and loved for all time. It really makes the game enjoyable and adds to the atmosphere and feeling of it all. Of course he had a great team to help him but he composed some great work.
  1. Aeula's Avatar
    The music is one of the few things that has never gone to shit in this game. Shame he's leaving.

    Wait. He was 'made redundant'? Blizzard got rid of the guy responsible for some of their most iconic music because of MONEY? Jesus Christ this game is going down hill. Fast. They're milking it for the last few drops they can get and then they'll toss it aside.
  1. Galateacyc's Avatar
    That's a pity - I liked the music. The music and the art teams were last doing a superb job on WoW. Guess someone from the art team is next on the chopping block.
    Incompetence *cough**SuchAsHazzicostas**cough* typically cannot stand competence, so this was saddly inevitable. I believe Parkinson's Law calls it injelititis.

    Best wishes to you Mr. Brower, and thank you for caring.
  1. Djuntas's Avatar
    How can his position have been made redundant xd That seems a bit odd.
  1. Adoxe's Avatar
    He said on twitter that it was not his choice. No idea what that initiative thing is but sucks that he's gone, the music was one of the only good parts of WoD and never disappointed, hopefully it stays that way.
  1. Ulfric Trumpcloak's Avatar
    Another one bites the dust. The ship has officially sank to the bottom of the sea.
  1. mmoc1c0b124cfa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Liliannan View Post
    He is not leaving by choice, his job was made redundant. He even responded to someone on Twitter saying it wasn't his choice..
    Without having done any research, I assume "sound decentralization" means that Blizzard will from now on hire external composers instead of having their own ones. Maybe its for the better, Diablo 3's and SC2 soundtracks left a lot to be desired and WoW's newer soundtracks - while still decent - got more repetitive after Wotlk, which probably is unavoidable if the same people stay in charge of the soundtracks, at some point they run out of fresh ideas.
  1. DarkAmbient's Avatar
    You have to wonder what the hell is going on at Blizzard when someone like Russell Brower is made redundant. Seriously, what the actual fuck?

    That said, perhaps the suits are worried about sliding sub numbers and feel like a shake-up of the old guard is necessary to bring some new life into the game.

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