New Leadership at Blizzard - J. Allen Brack Steps Down
In a very early workday news release Blizzard has announced the stepping down of Studio leader J. Allen Brack.
Quote from BlizzardTo all members of the Blizzard Community,
We want to let you know about an important leadership change at Blizzard Entertainment.
Starting today, J. Allen Brack will be stepping down as the leader of the studio, and Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will co-lead Blizzard moving forward.
Jen joined Blizzard in January as executive vice president of development, where she’s been providing senior development leadership and support to the Diablo and Overwatch franchises. Jen is the former head of Vicarious Visions (which is now part of Blizzard Entertainment).
After many years at XBOX, Mike joined the company in 2019 as the executive vice president and general manager of platform and technology, where he’s been overseeing the evolution of Battle.net and our development services organization.
Jen and Mike have more than three decades of gaming industry experience between them. Moving forward, they will share responsibilities over game development and company operations.
Both leaders are deeply committed to all of our employees; to the work ahead to ensure Blizzard is the safest, most welcoming workplace possible for women, and people of any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or background; to upholding and reinforcing our values; and to rebuilding your trust. With their many years of industry experience and deep commitment to integrity and inclusivity, Jen and Mike will lead Blizzard with care, compassion, and a dedication to excellence. You’ll hear more from Jen and Mike soon.
The following is a message from J. Allen Brack:
“I am confident that Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will provide the leadership Blizzard needs to realize its full potential and will accelerate the pace of change. I anticipate they will do so with passion and enthusiasm and that they can be trusted to lead with the highest levels of integrity and commitment to the components of our culture that make Blizzard so special.”
Finally, thank you all for being a part of the Blizzard community, and for your passion and determination for safety and equality for all.
they are being eaten alive by online haters. this kind of operation are always bad moments
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I'm guessing he thought he knew what he wanted but he actually didn't.
When they move to reshape the company’s whole culture, they throw out the good with the bad. With the departure of Metzen, Morhaime, and now Brack, along with Jeff Kaplan and Ben Brode a while back, it’s not at all clear that any of the top-line people still at Blizzard have any responsibility for the great games that the company has built its reputation on, or have a track record suggesting they’ll deliver games of that caliber in the future. Bringing in recent hires to run the studio also probably signals the end of any remaining vestiges of Blizzard’s independence from Activision. This is how BioWare went from being BioWare to just being another mediocre EA studio.
(next scandal occurs)
"Wh-what happened??? We changed leadership and all that!"
she just joined January? WTH HAHAH
"Stepped down." XDDDDD
Like he had a choice.
pls dont be woke
has nothing to do with that
If stepping down over a huge case of sexual misconduct sounds like "being woke" you might have been watching too much Fox News
Imagine thinking Fox News is conservative.
I can't find any social media presence of Jen O'Neal, so that's generally a good sign. Woke people tend to want everyone to know, at all times, how progressive they are.
Update: Nevermind. Saw Mike Ybarra's Twitter... and yeah, it's bad.
Good riddance
Yeah, I mean, not trying to get the mob going or anything, but I think people want to see someone actually admit there was a problem in the company and someone is being punished for it. Or many people are being removed for their part in the issue. Certainly there are individuals that HR can identify have shown the "frat culture" behaviour that was referenced in the original lawsuit.
Literally who?
Read between the lines, this was a forced resignation of the CEO - Brack is being punished for his role in the mess.
- No admission that anyone did anything wrong anywhere in this press release.
- No mention of J. Allen Brack leaving the company or actually doing anything to atone for his role in the mess.
This is just a shuffeling of hats to appease people.
Color me unimpressed.
Exactly this! I wonder when will they realize that this particular situation might actually be a bit more serious than their usual 'Execute corporate response pattern 33-C'.
So far lots of empty words and gearing up to suppress any dissent via hiring union busting firm and assigning Fran Townsend to 'deal with the rabble'..
I know that many good people over there genuinely care and are fighting to make things better in their own way, but until it actually dawns on the corpo-rat bigheads, nothing will happen.
If you honestly believe any company would ever admit wrongdoing while a lawsuit is underway, the color of your glasses is the rosiest.
Oh i think it dawned on upper management how bad the situation was shortly after things started. That's why they have followed the playbook as it is currently unfolding.
They know they are screwed if the employees and the communities get their way and they are holding on through every diversion and every slowing tactic they can till this situation blows over or runs out of fuel.
And then it's back to business as usual.