After the surprising departure of Blizzard CEO Jen Oneal, the sexism debate at game developer Blizzard (WoW, Diablo, Overwatch) has reignited. The former Chief Technology Officer of Blizzard states: In 2020, there were briefly 3 women in leadership positions. All 3 left the company in 2021.
Who is speaking? The tweet comes from Amy Dunham, who was recently the Technical Director at Blizzard, thus the Chief Technology Officer.
Dunham has an impressive resume; she has worked as a programmer or technician in senior positions on major MMOs and MMORPGs for 20 years, as highlighted in her LinkedIn profile (via linkedin):
- Dunham significantly developed the legendary PvP MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot, participating in 6 expansions and 27 patches. In the end, she shaped the studio in such a way that it could still be sold to EA.
- Then she co-developed Warhammer Online in 2006 and 2007.
- After that, she was involved in The Elder Scrolls Online for 7 years, leading the engineering team from day 1.
- In 2014, she joined Blizzard, working on Heroes of the Storm, on a new game that has yet to be announced, and on the technology.
Ask yourselves: Why are your most important women leaving?
This is what Durham says: After it became known that Blizzard CEO Jen Oneal is leaving the studio after only 3 months, Dunham writes on Twitter:
Look at who a company puts in decision-making positions in the “core” business. In 2020, there was a brief period at Blizzard when three women held leadership positions at Blizzard – Director roles. They were Julia, Jen, and I.
All 3 of us were the first women in these specific roles, and we were also the most experienced and highest-ranking women in the company in our fields. We all left the company this year. Before you promise to hire more women (mostly those at the beginning of their careers with few opportunities to decline offers), you should first find out and address why all your experienced women are choosing to leave.
Amy Dunham
Who are the 3 women she means? Dunham refers to:
- Jen Oneal – the head of Vicarious Visions was at Blizzard for almost a year. Initially, she was responsible for developing new games at Blizzard before becoming the head. In November 2021, she announced that she would leave Blizzard to focus on empowering women in the video game industry elsewhere.
- Julia Humphreys was at Blizzard for 10 years. Most recently, she was “Production Director” for Overwatch and Overwatch 2 – she switched to Ben Brode’s new company “Second Dinner” in October 2021.
- Amy Dunham was at Blizzard for 7 years. Most recently as Technical Director. It is unclear when she left Blizzard and what she is doing now.
Is Blizzard losing its key figures?
What lies behind it: Dunham does not specify the reasons why the women decided to leave Blizzard. By now, her tweets have been set to private and can no longer be viewed.
However, it seems that there are still issues at Blizzard, although the company has acknowledged in recent months the need to better treat and promote women.
According to Dunham’s statements, it is the women with choices who are leaving the company, while “newly hired women” often have to seize every opportunity that comes their way.
In light of the developments, some Blizzard employees have transitioned to companies founded by former Blizzard leaders like Ben Brode or Mike Morhaime. This could contribute to the fact that no new games have been released by Blizzard in 5 years, and the next two, Diablo IV and Overwatch 2, have been postponed indefinitely.
That especially the few women in leadership positions left the company in 2021, all 3 after the changes at Blizzard were announced, seems strange.
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