Another familiar face from Blizzard is saying goodbye. Brian Holinka is no longer working on World of Warcraft.
In recent years, and especially in the last few months, there have been repeated reports that some of the most well-known developers are saying goodbye to Blizzard and thus also leaving the World of Warcraft team (or other Blizzard titles). Now another developer in a leading role from Blizzard’s MMORPG has been affected: Brian Holinka.
Who is Brian Holinka? Holinka worked at Blizzard for almost 11 years, mostly on World of Warcraft, but he was already active in the gaming industry before that. In 2004, he worked on “Desert Combat” for Battlefield before moving through several studios and companies (including DICE, THQ, and Kaos Studios), before starting at Blizzard in 2012 and taking on the role of Lead PvP Designer.
In 2017, he left that position to work on an unannounced project – only to return to the WoW team in 2018.
Currently, there’s a lot to do in WoW:
What has Brian Holinka worked on? Holinka was mainly responsible for PvP in World of Warcraft in the past and often had to endure criticism because the PvP community (partly justifiably) has been criticizing the state of PvP for many years.
As a “Lead Combat Designer”, Holinka was involved in quite a few systems of World of Warcraft starting in 2018. He oversaw not only the design of all classes and their abilities but also large projects, such as the return of talent trees for Dragonflight.
What is Holinka doing next? Holinka is not completely disappearing from gaming. Instead, he is drawn to Greg Street, whom many know as “Ghostcrawler”. Until recently, he was the lead developer behind the “League of Legends” MMORPG but unexpectedly left Riot to found his own independent studio. It seems Holinka is joining him.
For WoW fans, it is certainly a shame to lose a long-standing face – but everyone else can look forward to what he and Ghostcrawler come up with and when we will get to see the first images of that.
