The situation at Blizzard has only gotten messier over the past few weeks. Add to the pile of confusion the departure of another lead game designer, and now, Blizzard's future is even more uncertain.
In just a couple of weeks, Blizzard went from being one of gaming's most revered game companies to one of its most despised. A lawsuit from the State of California began Activision Blizzard's public fall, the State trying the company for repeated inappropriate and often discriminatory workplace conduct towards its female employees. From this moment, the gaming world collectively gave its support to the victims, with employees even staging a walk out in a protest of the company's management. Now, in the fallout of these events, the President of Blizzard, J. Allen Brack, has stepped down and it seems, another lead designer is leaving as well.
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Principal Designer at Blizzard, Craig Morrison, announced his departure from the company yesterday on Twitter. He notes that he had been planning on leaving the company for some time, but felt that with everything that has happened in the previous weeks, was not the right time to have done so. Morrison takes the time to give thanks to everyone he was able to work with, saying, "It'll always be the people I remember." Activision Blizzard has not given a formal statement on Morrison's leave, nor has he disclosed where this decision has come from.
Morrison worked at Blizzard since 2013 in a variety of roles on the World of Warcraft team. For six years Morrison served as the Design Department Manager for the World of Warcraft design team, working on expansions like Battle for Azeroth in 2018 and Classic in 2019. Most recently he served as the Principal Designer on the Shadowlands and Burning Crusade Classic expansions in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Beyond working in the game industry, he is a professor in the Computer Game Science major at University of California, Irvine, and is a frequent public speaker at game conventions like GDC and PAX.
In the replies to his tweet, Morrison has received plenty of well wishes from colleagues and former students alike. Based on these interactions, it is clear that Morrison is a respected individual within the gaming community and perhaps one of the finer employees to have been at Blizzard. The situation the company faces is not an easy one, and although Morrison has stated that his departure was in the works for some time, it would not be surprising if the company's current status had something to do with his decision.
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