Chris Metzen announces retirement from Blizzard after 23 years

Chris Metzen has been a part of Blizzard for over two decades, and now, he’s retiring. Yeah, I’m just going to give you a moment to let that sink in.

Sad, right? What makes this news even worse is that Metzen is proper retiring, as in, he wants to kick back and relax (i.e. he won’t be working on any games in future). He explained why in a post over on Battle.net:

The reason I use the word “retire” is because I’m not going to some other company or starting up new projects or anything remotely like that. It’s been a long, amazing stretch of years. Now it’s time to slow it down. Rest. Lay around on the couch and get fat. Well, fatter.…

Seriously though, I’ll be focusing on the one thing that matters most to me in all the world—my family. They’re the core of my life and the source of my deepest joy and inspiration. In addition to raising our two little ones, we recently welcomed our new baby into the family! Being home with them all, having time and space to really live…to love my wife with all my strength…that’s my career now.

Metzen has had his hand in just about every Blizzard franchise since way back in 1994. He’s worked on Diablo, Warcraft, StarCraft, and more recently, Overwatch (as the creative director). He also happens to be the voice of Thrall, and many, many other characters.

Thank you all for letting me be a special part of your community. For letting me belong with you. We’ve shared countless adventures together and I’ve always been overwhelmed and humbled by your passion for our games as well your commitment to each other. Thank you for all the BlizzCon hugs, smiles, handshakes, and stories over the years. You will never know how much you’ve all touched my heart and inspired me to give my all into this craft.

No, thank YOU Chris. You’ve given millions of gamers fantastic worlds to get lost in, and you will be sorely missed!

Last Updated: September 13, 2016