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Rob Pardo Leaving Blizzard Entertainment
Originally Posted by Rob Pardo (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Every ending is a beginning and today marks a new beginning for me.

After 17 years at Blizzard, with long and careful contemplation, I have made a difficult and bittersweet but ultimately exciting decision to pursue the next chapter in my life and career.

Before I even joined Blizzard, I was already a huge fan of the company and its games. In particular, I was extremely passionate about the emerging genre of real-time strategy games. It was a dream come true when I was given the opportunity to work on StarCraft, which at the time was being created by a very small team by today’s standards. It was tremendously fulfilling to get to know everyone on the team personally and to contribute our energies toward a shared goal in such a creative and engaging environment.

Blizzard Entertainment has been simply the best place in the world to be a game designer. The best aspect of designing games at Blizzard is that the entire company is passionate about the gameplay within each and every product. From the executive team to customer service to our global offices, every single person is a player and contributes to making the best possible games. It’s for very good reason that the first credit on every Blizzard game is “Game Design by Blizzard Entertainment.”

I’m really proud of the contributions I was able to make to Blizzard’s accomplishments. From building lasting games, to supporting the growth of eSports, to extending the Warcraft world into a feature film, and of course to being able to celebrate our shared passions with the Blizzard community online and at BlizzCon.

The Blizzard community is ultimately the reason why we come to work every day and pour our souls into every world and experience we create. Blizzard’s players are the most passionate in the world and your commitment and dedication are truly awesome to behold. Creating entertainment for you has been an incredible opportunity, and I know that you will continue to grow and become even stronger as a community over the years to come. It has been so meaningful on a personal level to help create joy for all of you.

I’m looking forward to new challenges in my career, but I will always cherish the time I spent with you all and the amazing and collaborative teams at Blizzard. It was both satisfying and humbling, and it made me a better developer and a better person. I look forward to playing Blizzard games as a player for many years to come. Most important, now I have plenty of time to learn how to build a competitive Hearthstone deck.

As to what I will be doing next, I don’t have an answer for you yet . . . but I will “when it’s ready.” My priorities are to enjoy the summer with my family, play plenty of games, and think about what’s next. The game industry is such an exciting place right now with PC gaming thriving, the new consoles, mobile games, and virtual reality becoming an actual reality. It’s like having an empty quest log and going into a new zone for the first time.

In the past, I haven’t been the most avid Twitter user, but I’ll strive to do better and keep you updated there—@Rob_Pardo. Please stay in touch!

Rob
This article was originally published in forum thread: Rob Pardo Leaving Blizzard Entertainment started by chaud View original post
Comments 591 Comments
  1. Sting's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimson View Post
    Is there any chance this is related to the backlash from his speech at MIT? Maybe he looked at everyone jumping on him and decided it's not worth it.
    Laughable to say the least.

    Sad to see such a veteran leave, time will tell what the impact will be.
  1. Yosemiteesam's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Infernix View Post
    Well....bye.
    Well put Curly Bill.
  1. mmocdd4fd472cb's Avatar
    Didn't see this coming, but his influence after leaving the WoW team was.. unthanked and unnoticed. I have the feeling he didn't get to make the decisions he wanted on Warlords of Draenor.
    Not a major loss for Blizzard in its current state as I see it.
  1. Blade and Soul's Avatar
    Holy crap...

    EDIT:

    I made a video with my thoughts after the initial shock of the news was absorbed. You can see it here if you want: http://youtu.be/-bM2flQMPxA

    I wish Rob Pardo the best and I thank him for all the work he has done on the games I enjoy so much, and the impact he has made on the video game industry as a whole!
  1. Xayl1's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tzalix View Post
    Doubt it. Any workplace can get boring after 17 years.
    17 years is also a lifetime at a studio in the gaming industry especially when you consider the indusrty standard of grueling working hours and god-complex riddled devs to deal with.
  1. Grokresh's Avatar
    I generally have no idea who this guy is but from the comments I am now concerned, wow doomed?
  1. Xilurm's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Grishnok View Post
    Good luck Rob.

    I see that a pattern is happening here. The same pattern that happened when Blizzard North had disagreements with how decisions were being made from the higher ups and a huge amount of extremely good developers left Blizzard. IE the developers of Diablo 1/2 and many of the vanilla starcraft and wow developers couldnt take it anymore. Greg street has bailed now as well as Rob. Things are getting worse and worse and less like a company that cares about their consumers and games and more about their profits. Im sure we can thank Bobby K for that.
    Well his last work for WoW was TBC and then he joined again for WoD. And the bolded part of your comment is basically the half of Alpha and Beta of WoD.

    Soooo, what if it his fault in the first place?
  1. MasterHamster's Avatar
    And here comes the conspiracy theories that these goodbyes are meant to dispel.
  1. Xilurm's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Blade and Soul View Post
    Holy crap...

    Rob was the creative director/officer for ALL of Blizzard Entertainment. I don't know how to feel about this. With the expansion looming and lots of changes being made to WoW, I can't help but wonder what is going on now.

    I don't think this bodes well, and I have a bad feeling about this.
    He wasn't associated with WoW after TBC until WoD.
  1. Curlyfry's Avatar
    Lot of people putting on their tinfoil hats.

    Cheers! <[:^)
  1. Xayl1's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gortar View Post
    I generally have no idea who this guy is but from the comments I am now concerned, wow doomed?
    not likely to be honest. when a dude of his position leaves it isn't a quick all of a sudden sort of thing. the dev teams and people in the studio have likely known he was leaving for monthsand any impact to the development of the game has likely happened already for better or worse.
  1. OptimusDeadpool's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Grishnok View Post
    Good luck Rob.

    I see that a pattern is happening here. The same pattern that happened when Blizzard North had disagreements with how decisions were being made from the higher ups and a huge amount of extremely good developers left Blizzard. IE the developers of Diablo 1/2 and many of the vanilla starcraft and wow developers couldnt take it anymore. Greg street has bailed now as well as Rob. Things are getting worse and worse and less like a company that cares about their consumers and games and more about their profits. Im sure we can thank Bobby K for that.
    I find it funny people screamed for years that Greg Street needed to be fired, he leaves to work at Riot and all of a sudden the "reason" in so many peoples minds for the "downfall" of WoW wasn't the reason, and he bailed cuz he didn't like the direction of things that so many people thought he was responsible for.

    How about Rob wants a fresh start somewhere else, professionals do that all the time. Same with Greg. Wish Rob all the best in his future endeavors.
  1. mmoc5461ee9f4c's Avatar
    First Greg Street, now Rob Pardo...

    Is George R. R. Martin responsible for the human ressources @ Blizzard?
  1. Yosemiteesam's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Blade and Soul View Post
    Holy crap...

    Rob was the creative director/officer for ALL of Blizzard Entertainment. I don't know how to feel about this. With the expansion looming and lots of changes being made to WoW, I can't help but wonder what is going on now.

    I don't think this bodes well, and I have a bad feeling about this.
    17 years is a long time at one place. Probably a combination of him wanting to move on and changes at Blizzard. Out with the old in with the new. Which could be good or bad. Time will tell. People complain Blizz is not the same. Yes no kidding but no company ever stays the same these days and nothing last forever. I don't agree with everything Blizz does by far but still enjoy their games as a whole. They are still one of the tops in the industry but even that wont last for ever. Changes good or bad are inevitable.
  1. snackfeat's Avatar
    Don't even know who he is.
  1. Joey Ray III's Avatar
    now that's fucking unexpected. good luck to him.
  1. OGXanos's Avatar
    He's old school, their Chief Creative Officer, he has had a hand in just about everything over the years. Not a good sign, considering the community uproar as of late concerning changes. That said he hasn't been super vocal either. Just on occasion.
  1. Srg56's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Protar View Post
    I can't say I'm a big fan of him after his sexist comments but it is kind of worrisome to lose such an big name. Meh.
    One should be careful when throwing around big words like that.

    OT: Wow, this is bad. Really bad. What exactly IS happening at blizzard? First Street now Pardo? Who's next? Metzen?
  1. taliey's Avatar
    Queue the baseless speculations.
  1. Mirishka's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ralufar View Post
    Something is up at Blizzard...
    People take jobs, people quit jobs, people move on. Its called life.

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