Blizzard's master of lore is stepping away from the industry.
Chris Metzen has announced that he is retiring from Blizzard and the video game industry.
In a must-read statement posted onto the official Blizzard forums on behalf of Metzen, the legendary developer and designer announced his retirement by reflecting on the good times:
"Looking back at my years at Blizzard," says Metzen, "I see now how profoundly this idea has shaped my career. I see how profoundly my friends and coworkers at Blizzard have shaped me as a person. For nearly twenty-three years I’ve had the very distinct privilege of shaping worlds and building games with the brightest creative minds in entertainment. I’ve walked with giants (and stood on some giants’ shoulders, too)."
Metzen's official position at Blizzard has long been senior vice president of story and franchise development, but most fans know him as one of the godfathers of all Blizzard lore. One of the very first projects he worked on while a member of the company was a little game called Warcraft: Orcs & Humans which helped Blizzard become one of the premier development studios in the industry. Since his work on that game, one of Metzen's primary jobs at Blizzard involved helping to create those one-of-a-kind cinematic and story segments that are as synonymous with Blizzard as addictive gameplay.
Honestly, though, Metzen was much more of a renaissance man for the company. He pitched in on the development of nearly everything that came out of Blizzard's door, including serving as creative director of Overwatch, and even voiced legendary characters like Thrall (a role he intends to keep playing according to his Twitter feed).
According to Metzen, he's going to spend most of his retirement enjoying time with his family.
It's quite unfair that people such as Metzen so often don't become household names in the video game world due to the relative anonymity of the design process, but he deserves the respect of gamers everywhere for his contributions to the industry. We wish him the nothing but happiness.
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