The MMO world has been buzzing today with the news, and it’s leaving many in shock.
Without much warning at all, Rob Pardo, the Executive Producer and Cheif Creative Officer at Blizzard Entertainment and a lead designer of World of Warcraft, has left the company. Pardo, who is 44, joined the team of Blizzard in 1997 after being involved with Interplay for a short period of time. He has been part of the design of many of the games, including StarCraft, StarCraft: Brood War, Warcraft 3, Diablo 3 and was even working on the next expansion for World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor. Before Pardo was ever made the chief creative officer, he held the position as executive vice president of game design within Blizzard.
His name is in many of Blizzard’s game design credits, and he spoke out in a Blizzard.net post about his decision to leave the company. He has expressed his desire to not announce what his next plans in his career are, or even what his goals will be, though he has said how he wishes to spend his summer with his family and considering what his next move will be.
“I’m looking forward to new challenges in my career, but I will always cherish the time I spent with you all and the amazing and collaborative teams at Blizzard,” Pardo wrote. “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.”
While it appears that Pardo has left on his own accord and in good terms with everyone, it doesn’t make this any less of a great loss for Blizzard and the gaming industry. We can only hope that we will see him begin his next chapter within the industry, be it on another team of developers or even perhaps his own company – Hey, we can dream, can’t we?
Pardo has promised that he will attempt to be communicative about his next career move via Twitter for his fans, but nothing else about his future plans has been said. Blizzard has yet to announce who will step in to take Pardo’s place.
Heather Williams
@Olaris_Rhea
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