In light of the sexism scandal surrounding Activision Blizzard, a new development is emerging. According to a blog post from Blizzard, the president of Blizzard, J. Allen Brack, is leaving the company. Brack was previously an important figure in the MMORPG World of Warcraft.
Where does the information come from? Gaming journalist Jason Schreier tweeted the news at 2:15 PM German time.
He writes: “Blizzard president J. Allen Brack is leaving the company. Activision Blizzard just informed the employees of this. Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will take over as ‘Co-Leaders of Blizzard.'”.
How certain is this? This is very certain. Jason Schreier is regarded as a well-connected industry insider. He recently published internal emails that were circulating at Blizzard. Therefore, it is certain that he has sources at Activision Blizzard.
When such news is communicated to the entire Blizzard staff, it is plausible that someone would immediately pass this information to Schreier. Blizzard apparently leaks like a sieve.
Blizzard confirms rumor immediately
Update: The news is now official. In a blog post, Blizzard announces that J. Allen Brack is stepping down (via Blizzard).
He will be replaced by a new mixed leadership duo. The job description is referred to as “Co-Leader”:
Jen Oneal joined Blizzard in January 2021. Until then, she led the Activision studio Vicarious Visions. This merged into Blizzard to work on Diablo 2 Resurrected. So far, she has supported the “Diablo” and “Overwatch” brands at Blizzard as Executive Vice President of Development.
Mike Ybarra has been with Blizzard since 2019, coming from Xbox, and is primarily responsible for technology and Battle.net. He was previously “Executive Vice President and General Manager of Platform and Technology.”
More on MeinMMO: These are the two new bosses of Blizzard – What they have done so far
In a statement, Blizzard makes it clear:
The focus of both leaders is to make Blizzard the “safest and most welcoming workplace for women and people of all genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations, or backgrounds.”
It is clear: This change in leadership is clearly a response to the sexism scandal that has been occupying Blizzard for days.
This is J. Allen Brack: J. Allen Brack took over the leadership of Blizzard in 2018, as president of the company. Previously, Brack was an important figure in WoW. He coined the legendary phrase: “You think you want it, but you don’t want it,” which he used to dismiss a question about “WoW Classic.” This made him, for over years, a figure of hate for part of the WoW community.
Before him, one of Blizzard’s founders, Mike Morhaime, served for years as the “CEO” of the company. Observers had already seen Brack continuing only as “president” as a loss of power for Blizzard to Activision.
Video from BlizzCon put Brack in trouble
What has happened recently? Blizzard has been under intense fire from critics for a little over a week. A California agency has filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard.
J. Allen Brack had positioned himself as an opponent of this macho culture at Blizzard in an internal statement. However, a video from a BlizzCon many years ago has turned against him. It casts a negative light on Brack:
A 10-year-old video could be causing trouble for the Blizzard CEO right now
New leadership duo reportedly signals a new beginning
What’s behind it: The new male/female leadership duo can now be seen as a sign that Blizzard wants to make a fresh start. Ybarra has only been with Blizzard for 2 years, and Oneal has been there for even less than half a year.
The “old guard” at Blizzard seems to be compromised by the events of the last few weeks. Many veterans from the old days no longer work at Blizzard anyway, as there has been an exodus of executives in recent years.
