Blizzard President J. Allen Brack Steps Down to “Pursue New Opportunities”

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Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment president J. Allen Brack has decided to step down as the leader behind the popular but increasingly controversial studio behind the iconic WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises. His leave was confirmed in a new blog post published on the official Blizzard site today, which noted that colleagues Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will now steer the Blizzard ship going forward.

Oneal is a former head of Vicarious Visions who joined Blizzard in January as executive vice president of development to support the Diablo and Overwatch games, while Ybarra is an ex-Xbox employee who joined the company in 2019 as the executive vice president and general manager of platform and technology to oversee Battle.net.

A press release from Activision Blizzard states that Brack has left in order to “pursue new opportunities,” but his decision presumably has much to do with the troubling allegations made in a recent lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing last month that claims Activision and Blizzard management encouraged sexual misconduct toward female employees and discriminated against women in their hiring practices.

The controversy resulted in a walkout involving hundreds of employees last week that gained much support from developers and players across the industry. Thousands of Blizzard employees have also signed a petition expressing their discontent with company executives.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

“I am confident that Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will provide the leadership Blizzard needs to realize its full potential and will accelerate the pace of change. I anticipate they will do so with passion and enthusiasm and that they can be trusted to lead with the highest levels of integrity and commitment to the components of our culture that make Blizzard so special.”

Sources: Blizzard, Activision Blizzard

Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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