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Rod Fergusson exits Gears of War developer to become Diablo boss at Blizzard

Nice.

Gears of War chief Rod Fergusson has left Microsoft to join Blizzard as the new head of Diablo.

Rod Fergusson on stage at E3 2018.

Fergusson, who has worked on the Gears of War franchice for 15 years save a stint at Irrational to close out the development of BioShock Infinite, said: "now it's time for a new adventure."

He leaves Gears developer The Coalition after last year's launch of mobile spin-off Gears Pop!, mainline game Gears 5 and ahead of the launch of strategy spin-off Gears Tactics, which is due out in April 2020.

Fergusson joins Blizzard in March at a crucial time for the company. It's seen a number of high-profile controversies in recent years, lay-offs and departures, and the recently-released Warcraft 3: Reforged hasn't gone down well at all.

Cover image for YouTube videoGears Tactics World Premiere Trailer

As for Diablo, Blizzard announced Diablo 4 at BlizzCon 2019, and it's working on the mobile Diablo game, Diablo Immortal, which suffered a disastrous announcement at BlizzCon 2018 the company is arguably still recovering from.

Cover image for YouTube videoDiablo IV Gameplay Trailer

The news of Fergusson joining Blizzard comes just a few months after Mike Ybarra, the former Xbox exec who was with Microsoft for over 20 years, joined Blizzard as executive vice president and general manager.