Blizzard loses another employee. The former lead artist of World of Warcraft and Diablo Immortal, Glenn Rane, is moving to a new studio. Rane’s works have likely been seen by each of you at least once.
Who is the employee? Glenn Rane worked for over 19 years, first at the parent company Vivendi and then directly at Blizzard. He started as a concept artist, eventually becoming a supervisor and even lead artist.
Which artworks has he created? During his time, he worked on almost all projects at Blizzard. You know his artworks from many games, from BlizzCon and the box cover of The Burning Crusade. His portfolio includes, among others:
- Key arts for various WoW expansions such as Battle for Azeroth and Mists of Pandaria
- numerous loading screens from WoW
- the hero portraits in Hearthstone
- class artworks from Diablo
- cards from the WoW trading card game
One of his most famous works is likely the Lich King Arthas Menethil, as he sits on his Frozen Throne with his sword Frostmourne in the ice before him (cover image). He also immortalized the later Lich King Bolvar Fordragon and the Warchief Garrosh Hellscream. You can find his gallery on his official website (via glennrane.com).
Arthas on his throne. 
The key art of Battle for Azeroth. 
The Demon Hunter in Diablo 3. 
Garrosh kills Cairne Bloodhoof. 
The Hearthstone card “Assassinate”. 
The cover of The Burning Crusade. 
Garrosh Hellscream.
Employees leave Blizzard and start their own studios
Where is Rane now? On May 12, Glenn Rane announced that he will be working as Art Director and co-founder at Lightforge Games (via Twitter). Lightforge Games is an indie studio founded by several ex-employees of Blizzard and Epic.
The studio is currently planning a new role-playing game, consisting of elements from Minecraft or Roblox and tabletop RPGs. The developers promise a “revolution” of the RPG genre.
Their experiences in the gaming sector include work on WoW, SWTOR, Overwatch, Fortnite, and The Elder Scrolls Online (via PCGamer).
What is happening at Blizzard right now? Rane is just the latest in a series of well-known employees who have left Activision Blizzard recently. Before him, others had already left:
- Mike Morhaime, one of the founding fathers of Blizzard, who founded his own studio with Dreamhaven
- the icon “Papa Jeff” Kaplan, the beloved head of Overwatch
- Omaz Gonzalez, the ‘father’ of WoW Classic
- David Kim, a former game designer for WoW, StarCraft 2, and Diablo 4
Many of the employees who recently left Blizzard had previously worked at the game studio for well over 10 years. After such a long time, it is relatively normal to reorient oneself. Nonetheless, many fans and players are saddened to see familiar and beloved faces leave.
At Blizzard itself, however, there has also been a rather negative development in recent years:
WoW, Overwatch, Diablo 3: Blizzard has lost nearly every 3rd player
