Blizzard has lost another of its co-founders in less than a year. Following Michael Morhaime’s exit in October, Frank Pearce announced yesterday he’d also be stepping down to “pass the torch to the next generation of leaders.” Senior Vice President Allen Adham is the last of the original trio left standing.
Pearce’s letter of leave suggests that he is simply retiring after 28 long but joyous years of being entrenched in the video game business. “I plan to spend more time active in the outdoors. I’d like to learn to play an instrument.”
Like many of us, Frank is an introvert. 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.