Warcraft General Manager John Hight Leaves Blizzard After 12 Years

ign.com:

After 12 years at the company, Warcraft general manager and SVP John Hight is departing the company for an unknown new endeavor.

In a post on Twitter/X today, Hight announced his departure, thanking the community for its support:

After 12 incredible years at Blizzard, I’ve decided to step away & start a new quest.

It was a tough decision, but I feel like now is as good a time as any: Warcraft is in an amazing position as the universe turns 30.

I’ve been so honored to serve all of the heroes of Azeroth.

Hight joined Blizzard in 2011 as executive producer and VP on World of Warcraft, before being promoted to Warcraft GM in 2021. During his tenure, he oversaw the launches of Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion, Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands, and Dragonflight. He also was involved in the releases of both Hearthstone and Warcraft Rumble, and the 2016 Warcraft film. Prior to his time at Blizzard, Hight held leadership roles at EA, Atari, and Sony working on God of War 3.

We chatted with Hight about the Warcraft franchise just a few months ago at the Game Developers Conference. There, Hight expressed hesitation at the idea of Blizzard going all-in on the film business in the way that other game studios were, and confidence that World of Warcraft specifically would continue to evolve "for another 20 years" as long as it was able to keep adapting. He also explained in detail what Blizzard was and was NOT doing with AI technology. And we attended his GDC talk about how Blizzard rebuilt its relationship with players after major player dips throughout the Shadowlands expansion.

IGN has reached out to Blizzard to confirm who will be taking over Hight's roll as Warcraft general manager.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.