Magic Soup Games founders J. Allen Brack, Jen Oneal and John Donham answer our queries

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It looks like there is life after Azeroth.

Ex-Blizzard veterans Jen Oneal, J. Allen Brack and John Dunham have formed a new game studio dubbed Magic Soup Games. They spend a long time building big businesses at Activision Blizzard, but they left at a turbulent time after shakeups at the company as it saw lots of turnover in the wake of leadership changes and harrowing sexual harassment lawsuit.

They left Blizzard at a difficult time, and we subsequently saw the stories company’s reputation brought down with the lawsuit and ongoing unionization efforts. There was very little said about each leader as they departed, and in some ways I was surprised they didn’t join big companies instead.

But it is clear that the three leaders combined have some powerful leadership skills. That should make them a magnet for talent and future funding rounds. And while there are only five people on the team now, Magic Soup Games should be one of the startups to watch in the future.

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I submitted written questions to the founders and these are the answers I received back. I followed up with more questions and they answered a lot of them.

Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

GamesBeat: You left Blizzard during a tough time, under tough circumstances. How difficult was it? Was there a kind healing process, or process where you had to clear your head, to go through before doing this? How does this feel like a fresh start in the wake of leaving