Hamilton Chu, Hearthstone's Executive Producer, Also Leaves Blizzard Entertainment
In a tweet early this morning, Hamilton Chu responded to Ben Brode's leaving tweet with something very simple. Both of the ex-Hearthstone team members have set their Twitter bios to "Starting up something new!".
Quote from Hamilton ChuToday is my last day at Blizzard. 😢 Thank you for all the laughter and fun we shared. I will miss you.
Weird! It was mine too...
Not many were aware of Hamilton's involvement with Team 5 as he wasn't out there interacting with the community like Ben. Things he was responsible for though were writing most of the flavor text in Whispers of the Old Gods expansion and the strategic planning and business operations on the Hearthstone side of things. He also headlined Blizzard's strategic Initiatives Group which included business ops for World of Warcraft. It would appear that this isn't only a blow to Hearthstone, but also other areas at Blizzard.
Quote from Developer Bios - Hamilton ChuAs executive producer for Blizzard Entertainment's Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Hamilton Chu provides the leadership and direction necessary to deliver players a Blizzard-quality gaming experience. In his role, Chu is responsible for strategic planning and business operations, providing management support for the development leadership, and generally tanking issues for the team whenever necessary.
As head of Blizzard’s strategic initiatives group, his other duties include leading business operations for World of Warcraft and managing Blizzard’s creative development department. Before joining Blizzard Entertainment, Chu served as a producer on Halo and Halo 2 for Bungie before going on to sell his soul to the MBA gods.
In his spare time, Chu enjoys reading comics, writing stories, and pwning noobs of all shapes and sizes.
Which beloved developer is leaving the Hearthstone team next to work alongside Brode and Chu?
blizzards already crumbling like a jammy dodger after big brodes departure, who can blame them
Man, something weird is going on at Blizzard HQ
I think I know what it is. Activision. Kobolds & Catacombs didn’t do as well as they hoped, and the shareholders aren’t happy about that.
Yeah, people are moving on with their careers.
People are too quick at starting up conspiracy theories and doomsay things on the internet.
It's very probable that the two of them got sick of working on the same thing for over 10 years. It happens, probably burn out.
They probably don't even feel they can keep giving 100% to something that took so many years of their life already. I believe that they are leaving together to start something on their own, that very probable.
That doesn't mean Hearth is going down the drain or anything. It's just that people move on. And also people move up! They probably weren't even as hands on on the game as they used to be a few years ago. The team now has 80+ people and many of them have been taking their responsibilities for a while ago. Nobody just says "I'm done, I'm out" and leaves the next day in an industry like this. At least no one as passionate as Ben has always been. This was a probably a long time coming thing and I'm pretty sure we won't feel it as hard as we expect.
If anything it's possible that all the improvements we've been getting (tournament mode, more value on pre-orders, more events, no dupes on legendaries, etc) is due to new blood joining in and trying to improve the game in new ways.
Just see how the revival of Nintendo came along with many new producers and talent being brought in and given the permission to try things out. Things need to change and move on to improve.
I hope Ben and Chu do great things and I'm very thankful for all that they have done to this game and community. I'll miss them, but I'll keep playing and loving this game and I'll definitely check out whatever both of them decide to bring us in the future. Let's all hope for the best on both sides.
Good-byes don't need to be a bad thing. I, for one, am staying positive over all of this.
It’s hard to stay positive whenever I think of card reveal season and never hearing the legendary laugh again. (Until Ben finishes a new game)
Something's certainly not right.
I know for certain BBrode didn't get fired, they're too smart for that. About Hamilton Chu, I don't know.
I think that they'll hire a good looking "female designer" -= possibly Hafu =- now just to keep the image of HearthStone, cause if Dave Kosak is going to be the new HearthStone's pretty face... :) .
Lmao kid when you get out of elementary school you might have more of an idea about how the world works lmao fucking idiot
This where crisis management comes into play. Rule #1 is 'Control the message' They need to get Dean and Mike onto the twitter to make some sort of statement. The silence is creating a vacuum for conjecture.
Or worse, Dave Kozak leaving. Kozak is the last fun one there, and the guy who makes the adventures.
A doctor was sent into Team 5's office today for a medical emergency after the team lost their mind which was the Asian resulting from a sudden heart attack which was Brode.
After a closer examination the Doctor reported that Hearth Stone team had lost consciousnesses during the examination and is believed 2 be DEAD.
if the game goes down the shitter doesn't that make it better?
Nicht gut my friend 😢
So Team 5 now will be Team 3.
Think they actually have a team 3, itsn't that the one that works on Wow?
Damn.... and yea. I remember him from Halo. :'(
You will be missed man. Good luck on whatever you do next!! <3
So they ACTUALLY fired the guy who named Dark Wispers?
Dark whispers is from gvg not wotog
You’re thinking of Wisps of the Old Gods
XDXDXDXD - someoftheflavortextsarejustamazing
They confirmed that the guy wasn't fired in the flavor text of Wispering Woods... although that card's text might also be a lie.
ONE. BY. ONE.