Blizzard veteran Chris Metzen has announced a surprise return to the company six years after he announced his retirement from the games industry.
In 2016, Metzen announced his shock retirement after 23 years with the company.
“The reason I use the word ‘retire'”, he said at the time, “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.”
Now, he has announced plans to return as a creative advisor working on the Warcraft franchise, as confirmed by Warcraft general manager John Hight on Twitter.
Hight wrote: “It is with great joy that I announce Chris Metzen has joined the Warcraft Leadership Team as creative advisor.
“Chris’s focus initially will be on World Of Warcraft, then his work will expand to other projects across this growing franchise.”
“Chris was one of the original team members working on the Warcraft universe back when it began in 1994, and we are so happy to be reuniting him with the world he helped creative.”
— John Hight (@JHight_Gamer) December 15, 2022
Last summer, Metzen issued a statement following the news of the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard.
He said: “There is no excuse. We failed too many people when they needed us because we had the privilege of not noticing, not engaging, not creating necessary space for the colleagues who needed us as leaders.”
“Words are cheap. Not sure what grand, sweeping promises really do either, Accountability starts with people. Not corporations, or platitudes, or ‘values cast in iron around a statue,” he added.
Metzen is known to have worked closely with World Of Warcraft’s former creative director Alex Afasiabi, who was named in the Activision Blizzard lawsuit.
The lawsuit itself states Afrasiabi “was permitted to engage in blatant sexual harassment with little to no repercussions” and that he would harass female employees during Blizz Con.
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