Mike Morhaime is Leaving Blizzard

[korijenkins]

Oh for fuck's sake. He's been doing this job for nearly thirty years and he's rich as hell.

It's not ominous. He's retiring. You know, that thing that half this forum will probably never get to do because human beings suck at planning?

Or maybe because the economy is in the toilet and most people are living paycheck to paycheck.

[Auxora]

I would agree with the others that it's reading too much into it to assume this was a negative about Blizzard. This was likely just 6 months for him to be available to his successor to make sure the transition goes well, since it is such an important role.

We could maybe insinuate that Morhaime didn't give Blizzard a long lead time with his notice, and otherwise they could have done that transition/handoff in the 6 months leading up to his retirement. But there are so many different reasons for Morhaime to not give them 6 months advance notice that he was leaving that it would be total conjecture to guess why he didn't. Maybe it was a spur of the moment decision (sometimes a bad day at work does it when you are old enough to retire), sometimes external family/health reasons can change plans on short notice, or he could have just wanted to keep the fanfare around him leaving to a minimum. It's even possible that he did give them a long notice that he was retiring, but it just took a while to identify his successor to start that handoff.

[Muajin76]

I heard that Erickson from google will be taking the place as Blizz's CEO. This true?

[JRZoid]

It's activation definitely fire all of ya...You do not have that creative mind you bastards. I for-see more Nerfism and the Casual approach.

[gkai]

Blizzard needs to part ways with Activison. Stock will crash, but it'll be better for the company long term. Start going back to what made your company successful instead of trying to make everything a purchase in your games. People want to support blizzard games, but they've been coming out with such utter shit lately it's hard to really back them anymore.

[Koward]

Blizzard needs to part ways with Activison. Stock will crash, but it'll be better for the company long term. Start going back to what made your company successful instead of trying to make everything a purchase in your games. People want to support blizzard games, but they've been coming out with such utter shit lately it's hard to really back them anymore.

They will never pull off a Bungie-like separation. No matter the games, the Warcraft/Starcraft/Diablo/Overwatch intellectual properties are far too valuable.

[Astalnar]

Good riddance. Since we're not allowed to discuss anything of substance and reasons, let it just be said, I'm happy Activision seems to be cleaning house. At this point, I wouldn't give a damn if they decide to close down Blizzard.

[Sansnom]

so he stepped down from CEO and took an advisory role, and now he's officially leaving ?

very ominous ...

Maybe not. Many high level personnel needs to give long notice period before departure, can be as long as one year. Depending on their position, they are placed on paid leave or some form of consultancy role during that period.

So the advisory role could be due to this.

[Jetstream]

Or maybe because the economy is in the toilet and most people are living paycheck to paycheck.

You don't get to blame the economy for the forty to fifty years most adults are in the workforce.