Writer Christie Golden Let Go in Latest Round of Blizzard Lay-Offs
Today Christie Golden, writer, author, and storyteller, announced on Twitter that she is no longer an employee at Blizzard and was let go in the last round of layoffs.
Golden has been working on Blizzard IPs for over 25 years, the last 6+ directly as an employee on Blizzard's Story & Franchise Development Team. While never an employee on the World of Warcraft team directly, Golden contributed cinematic scripts and short stories for the franchise while at Blizzard.
Separately, Golden has written novel tie-ins for the game both before and during her employment at the company. Some of Golden's notable contributions to WoW are:
- Most of the in-game cinematics for Battle for Azeroth
- Many of the Anduin/Sylvanas in-game cinematics for Shadowlands
- The Afterlives: Maldraxxus short film
Golden is responsible for creating and/or fleshing out several major characters, including Anduin, Draka, Dagran, and Baine. In close collaboration with Chris Metzen, Golden introduced Thrall to the world. Golden is also directly responsible for Azeroth's two moons, the Kosh'arg festival, and other world and cultural influences. Golden has penned many, many WoW novels including Sylvanas, the Shattering, Rise of the Horde, Before the Storm, and Blizzard's first NYT bestselling book, Arthas.
Besides working on WoW, Golden helped consult on Odyssey, and wrote for Overwatch, StarCraft, Diablo Immortal, and Hearthstone. Golden's short story, Stone by Stone, gave Overwatch its first award for fiction. Golden is the New York Times Bestselling author of over 50 novels and franchise tie-ins for IPs including Star Wars, Star Trek, Halo, Assassin's Creed, and more, as well as authoring her own original works.
Without any doubt, Golden's contributions helped define the face and the feel of the game, shaped the lore, and added incredible depth to the world in a way that has become a benchmark for the genre. Losing Golden's direct experience and talent is a major loss for Blizzard and for the
