In rather unexpected news, Blizzard co-founder Chris Metzen has returned to the company.
Metzen joins the Warcraft team, where he will help oversee the future of the franchise he created. His return was announced by Warcraft franchise Senior Vice President and General Manager John Hight on Twitter.
— John Hight (@JHight_Gamer) December 15, 2022
“It is with great joy I announce Chris Metzen has joined the Warcraft Leadership Team as Creative Advisor,” read Hight’s statement. “Chris’ focus initially will be on World of Warcraft, then his work will expand to other projects across this growing franchise.
“Chris was one of the original team members working on the Warcraft universe back when it began in 1994, and we are so happy to be reuniting him with the world he helped create.”
Metzen, who retired in 2016, led a wave of departures among Blizzard’s founding staff. Though the companies had been merged for some time, Metzen’s departure created the first opportunity for the Activision end of the business to gain the foothold in Blizzard it had sought for years. While many other founding Blizzard staff have gone onto new roles at a startup called Dreamhaven, Metzen has been tempted back to his old stomping ground.
Also, that very pointed use of the phrase “growing franchise” is not lost on me. You’re not slipping that past anyone, Mr. Hight. Beyond the Arclight Rumble mobile game, the Warcraft franchise hasn’t meaningfully grown in years. With Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard buyout looking more and more likely, and Phil Spencer’s reported interest in legacy franchises like Warcraft and StarCraft, could War4 finally be on the table?
Do we dare to dream?
If I can editorialise a moment longer: it must have been hard to watch the beloved company he built be so badly mismanaged over the last few years. Scandals, predatory monetisation, BlizzCon gone, World of Warcraft‘s popularity in freefall, and a C-Suite seemingly content to run the company’s reputation into the ground if they stood to make an extra dollar from it, all plagued the company in the wake of Metzen’s departure. I feel for the guy. I do. I can understand how he could be tempted into coming back, even in an advisory capacity.
With World of Warcraft at its lowest ebb after the scandals and a pandemic period that saw it bleed a huge chunk of its audience to competing MMO Final Fantasy XIV, it makes sense to turn to someone who knows the franchise like the back of his hand for help.
World of Warcraft fans, I pass the question off to you: Does Metzen’s return do anything for you? Is this the fresh start Warcraft needed? Does it need to look back and learn from the past, or should it now turn its eyes to the future? Let me know down below.
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