14 DAY TRIAL // Rob Pardo, the chief creative officer of video game developer Blizzard, announces that he is leaving the company for which he has worked for 17 years in order to try out new challenges for the next chapter of his life and his career.
In an official announcement the developer states, "Before I even joined Blizzard, I was already a huge fan of the company and its games. In particular, I was extremely passionate about the emerging genre of real-time strategy games. It was a dream come true when I was given the opportunity to work on StarCraft, which at the time was being created by a very small team by today’s standards."
Pardo goes on to say that Blizzard is the best company in the world in which to play the role of a game designer and praises both the environments and the freedom that all employees are offered.
He adds, "I’m really proud of the contributions I was able to make to Blizzard’s accomplishments. 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."
The game maker also has kind words for the community of players that has developed around titles ranging from World of Warcraft to Starcraft II and the upcoming Heroes of the Storm.
Rob Pardo is not yet willing to say exactly what he plans to do next when it comes to his gaming career, but claims that over the summer he will spend more time with his family, play video games and learn how to create a competitive deck in Hearthstone.
He also promises that he will continue to stay in touch with Blizzard fans using his official Twitter account and that he will make an official announcement about his next projects.
At the moment, Blizzard is hard at work on the Warlords of Draenor expansion for World of Warcraft, which is set to be launched at some point in the fall and will introduce new areas for the MMO, while also tweaking all the core classes and adding more levels for gamers to gain.
At the same time, the company is working on Heroes of the Storm, its Multiplayer Online Battle Arena title that is supposed to compete with League of Legends from Riot Games and DOTA 2 from Valve.
In the long term, Blizzard should also deliver the final installment in the Starcraft 2 trilogy.