Blizzard Entertainment’s chief creative officer Rob Pardo has announced that he will be leaving the company after an impressive seventeen-year tenure.
In a goodbye post on the Blizzard forums, Pardo was sad but optimistic for the future. ”After 17 years at Blizzard, with long and careful contemplation, I have made a difficult and bittersweet but ultimately exciting decision to pursue the next chapter in my life and career,” he wrote.
After joining Blizzard from Interplay back in 1997, Pardo worked on a variety of successful titles including StarCraft, Warcraft 3 and Diablo 3. He was also the lead designer on the ridiculously popular World of Warcraft, which probably went some way towards getting him on the Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list back in 2006.
He doesn’t specifically state the reason for his decision to leave, beyond saying that he’s looking forward to new challenges.
”I’m looking forward to new challenges in my career,” he says, ”but I will always cherish the time I spent with you all and the amazing and collaborative teams at Blizzard. It was both satisfying and humbling, and it made me a better developer and a better person. I look forward to playing Blizzard games as a player for many years to come. Most important, now I have plenty of time to learn how to build a competitive Hearthstone deck.”
Believe me Rob, you could spend a hundred years trying to build one of those. Pardo is already working on something new, but says he’ll only reveal what that is ”when it’s ready”.
