Blizzard President and Chief Design Officer Are Leaving, Survival Game Cancelled - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 25 January 2024 / 5,162 Views
Blizzard's president Mike Ybarra and its chief design officer Allen Adham announced they are leaving the studio and Blizzard's survival game has been cancelled.
Microsoft confirmed it plans to name a new Blizzard president next week.
"I want to thank everyone who is impacted today for their meaningful contributions to their teams, to Blizzard, and to players’ lives," said Ybarra in a statement posted to Twitter. "It’s an incredibly hard day and my energy and support will be focused on all those amazing individuals impacted – this is in no way a reflection on your amazing work. If there’s anything I can help with, connections, recommendations, etc., DM me.
"To the Blizzard community: I also want to let you all know today is my last day at Blizzard. Leading Blizzard through an incredible time and being part of the team, shaping it for the future ahead, was an absolute honor. Having already spent 20+ years at Microsoft and with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard behind us, it’s time for me to (once again) become Blizzard’s biggest fan from the outside.
"To the incredible teams at Blizzard - thank you. Words can’t express how I feel about all of you. You are amazing. Continue to do incredible things and always keep Blizzard blue and the player at the forefront of every decision.
"To all of those impacted today - I am always available to you and understand how challenging today’s news is. My heart is with each one of you."
I want to thank everyone who is impacted today for their meaningful contributions to their teams, to Blizzard, and to players’ lives. It’s an incredibly hard day and my energy and support will be focused on all those amazing individuals impacted – this is in no way a reflection…
— Mike Ybarra 🎄 (@Qwik) January 25, 2024
Microsoft's game content and studios president Matt Booty in an internal memo obtained by The Verge stated, "As many of you know, Mike previously spent more than 20 years at Microsoft. Now that he has seen the acquisition through as Blizzard’s president, he has decided to leave the company."
He added, "As one of Blizzard’s cofounders, Allen has had a broad impact on all of Blizzard’s games. His influence will be felt for years to come, both directly and indirectly as Allen plans to continue mentoring young designers across the industry."
Microsoft today announced it is laying off 1,900 employees at its gaming division. The layoffs are primarily at Activision Blizzard, however, some at Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda/ZeniMax will also be impacted.
The 1,900 laid off is about eight percent of the Microsoft Gaming division that has around 22,000 employees.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Mike wasn't particularly liked during his tenure at leading Blizzard. Not as bad as J Allen Brack, but that's a low bar to begin with. 2 cancelled projects with the Overwatch 2 PVE and now Odyssey, and his complete disregard for StarCraft recently at Blizzcon. Can't say he did a terrible job, but didn't do a great one either.
Last original Blizzard co-founder gone with Adham. He wasn't really in the public eye but I just know he was big on Blizzard making mobile games, even defending Diablo Immortal and ensuring everyone knew that Blizzard would be making mobile games on all their IPs, so I can't really say he will be missed much either.
No announcement as to who is going to lead Blizzard. I hope it's Chris Metzen, but he's most likely comfortable in leading the Warcraft IP.
Hard to say if it showed any promise but a bit iffy to see Blizzard's first new IP since Overwatch getting canceled.
Jason Schreier is reporting that Odyssey was still years away from release. But it's far from Blizzard's first game to be cancelled deep in development though. You gotta wonder if it was turning into another Redfall and devs just didn't want to work on it.
Well it seems microsoft is doing a lot of consolidation since they aquired activition blizzard.
I wonder if they wouldn't have been fired if say.. Microsoft didn't buy them out.
*Comment adjusted for my own stupidity.
There's another article concerning those being fired. But we all know Bobby would've continued running them into the ground and still letting sexual harassment be rampant. It's not like Bobby wasn't susceptible to mass layoffs either after record revenue and profits in 2019.
Also, the state of the games industry is right now, layoffs at ABK would have been inevitable.
looks at headlines for both articles before you posted this
So sick of people not giving the real reasons they are leaving. Evil corporations have a vindictive stranglehold on freedom of expression, and the gaming media is also part of the coverup.
Lots of high profile dev’s don’t want to work at Xbox and that is a massive problem. Mikami, Ybarra and many others.
And I can’t blame them when clowns like Matt Booty are still there.
