After 12 years on the firm, Warcraft normal supervisor and SVP John Hight is departing the corporate for an unknown new endeavor.
In a put up on Twitter/X at present, Hight introduced his departure, thanking the group for its help:
After 12 unbelievable years at Blizzard, I’ve determined to step away & begin a brand new quest.
It was a troublesome choice, however I really feel like now’s pretty much as good a time as any: Warcraft is in an incredible place because the universe turns 30.
I’ve been so honored to serve all the heroes of Azeroth.
— John Hight (@JHight_Gamer) June 13, 2024
Hight joined Blizzard in 2011 as govt producer and VP on World of Warcraft, earlier than being promoted to Warcraft GM in 2021. During his tenure, he oversaw the launches of Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion, Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands, and Dragonflight. He additionally was concerned within the releases of each Hearthstone and Warcraft Rumble, and the 2016 Warcraft movie. Prior to his time at Blizzard, Hight held management roles at EA, Atari, and Sony engaged on God of War 3.
We chatted with Hight concerning the Warcraft franchise just some months in the past on the Game Developers Conference. There, Hight expressed hesitation on the thought of Blizzard going all-in on the movie enterprise in the way in which that different sport studios had been, and confidence that World of Warcraft particularly would proceed to evolve “for an additional 20 years” so long as it was in a position to hold adapting. He additionally defined intimately what Blizzard was and was NOT doing with AI expertise. And we attended his GDC discuss how Blizzard rebuilt its relationship with gamers after main participant dips all through the Shadowlands growth.
IGN has reached out to Blizzard to verify who will likely be taking on Hight’s roll as Warcraft normal supervisor.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a narrative tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
