Ex-Far Cry boss Dan Hay joins Blizzard Entertainment
In Blizzard's look back at 2022, president Mike Ybarra revealed former Ubisoft producer Dan Hay has joined the developer. Hay was briefly mentioned as the general manager of Blizzard's unannounced survival game.
Hay was a longtime producer at Ubisoft, and a veteran on its open world Far Cry series. While at the French developer, he served as executive producer for the entire brand post-Far Cry 1. Shortly after the release of 2021's Far Cry 6, Hay departed Ubisoft.
Blizzard announced production on its currently unnamed title (Ybarra simply referred to it as "Survival Game") all the way back in January 2022. The title will be the developer's first new property since Overwatch, and Ybarra added that team's development size has doubled in the last 11 months.
"We are going on a journey to a whole new universe, home to a brand-new survival game for PC and console," wrote Blizzard in January. "A place full of heroes we have yet to meet, stories yet to be told, and adventures yet to be lived."
The Survival Game may also end up being Blizzard's first game released under the Microsoft banner, should the deal between it and Blizzard's parent company Activision Blizzard go through.
Hay isn't the only notable developer jumping ship over to Blizzard. Last week, news broke that former franchise development SVP Chris Metzen had returned after a six-year retirement. He currently operates as an advisor for the Warcraft leadership team, with a present focus on World of Warcraft.
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