After 28 years of working at Blizzard, co-founder Frank Pearce is leaving the studio. After Mike Morhaime, he is the second of the three founders of the company to leave now.
Who is Frank Pearce? Pearce is one of the three co-founders of Blizzard Entertainment and was already onboard when the company was still called “Silicon and Synapse”. He is one of the longest-serving employees.
He worked as a programmer on games like The Lost Vikings, Diablo, and StarCraft. He later took on the position of Chief Development Officer and was responsible for the entire development department at Blizzard.
Similar to Mike Morhaime, he then took on a consultancy role in the company before his resignation and is now bidding farewell to Blizzard with warm words in a blog post.
Words cannot express how grateful I am to have been part of Blizzard, our games, our colleagues, and especially our community. Before Blizzard, I struggled to find a place where I felt I belonged.
Frank Pearce
Bad sign or normal after 30 years of work?
What do the fans say? The announcement that another founding member of Blizzard is leaving the company was received rather coldly by the community.
In the Reddit forums and on social media, fans wish Pearce all the best and thank him for the games of their childhood. However, many of them see a dark future for Blizzard, as apparently more and more members of the “old guard” are leaving the company.
Man, Blizzard has bled a lot of talent in the last couple of years.
BioDomeWithPaulyShor
Especially on Twitter, the reactions are negative. Under Blizzard’s tweet about the resignation, GIFs of sinking ships and burning buildings pop up. Players perceive the resignation as another sign that Activision is taking more control and exerting pressure on Blizzard.
— JoN DeaN (@BaltimoreActual) July 19, 2019
However, there are also other voices. People warn the community against panic and say that resigning from a company after 30 years of work is not an unusual thing. User DwilenaAvaron wrote:
This is not a sign of the apocalypse. This is how life works. 30 years is a damn long time.
Which employees have also left? This is not the first time in recent months that a longtime employee has left Blizzard. The most prominent example is CEO Mike Morhaime, who just became a consultant less than a year ago and then left Blizzard entirely.
Other examples of significant personnel changes at Blizzard include:
- Layoff of almost 800 employees
- Kim Phan, who was responsible for eSports for 13 years
- Nate Nanzer, head of the Overwatch League
After the resignations of Morhaime and Pearce, only Allen Adham remains of the original co-founders of Blizzard.
What do you think of the resignation? Is it completely normal after 30 years or is Activision taking more control?
