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Blizzard's chief creative officer Rob Pardo departs after 17 years

"I'm really proud of the contributions I was able to make."

Blizzard's chief creative officer Rob Pardo has left the studio after 17 years with the company.

Rob Pardo.

The former exec wrote a lengthy statement about his time at Blizzard on the company forums. He noted that "it was a dream come true" to work on Starcraft back in the day as he was "extremely passionate about the emerging genre of real-time strategy games." He also claimed that "Blizzard Entertainment has been simply the best place in the world to be a game designer," so it seems as though he really enjoyed his time there.

"I'm really proud of the contributions I was able to make to Blizzard's accomplishments," he stated. "From building lasting games, to supporting the growth of eSports, to extending the Warcraft world into a feature film, and of course to being able to celebrate our shared passions with the Blizzard community online and at BlizzCon."

So why'd he leave? It's not clear. We've reached out to Blizzard to see if his departure was of his own accord or if he was pushed out, but we've not heard back yet. He seemed optimistic about the future though.

"I look forward to playing Blizzard games as a player for many years to come. Most important, now I have plenty of time to learn how to build a competitive Hearthstone deck," Pardo said.

"My priorities are to enjoy the summer with my family, play plenty of games, and think about what's next. The game industry is such an exciting place right now with PC gaming thriving, the new consoles, mobile games, and virtual reality becoming an actual reality. It's like having an empty quest log and going into a new zone for the first time."