Blizzard Confirms Co-Founder's Departure

Thanks to GameSpot for its article confirming the resignation of Blizzard co-founder and vice president Allen Adham. This move comes after earlier high-profile departures from Blizzard in 2003, but a spokesperson "denied it was related to Vivendi's recent reaffirmation of ownership of the developer, as some have speculated.", but rather due to the "cumulative effects of 'working the long hours and doing the game crunch for many years'" GameSpy has further information, noting that Adham "...started coding games while studying at UCLA. The success of his first two games, Gunslinger and Demon's Forge, encouraged him to strike out with a new game company, Silicon & Synapse, which would eventually evolve into Blizzard in 1994." According to the spokesperson, Adham "plans to go back to school and move into the area of financial investment."

Comments

Another one!?

[Leffe]

Are there anyone left at Blizzard? It seems like they are leaving every month or so.

I, for one, would like to work at blizzard... for a while... damn, professional programming is boring. I can understand them, even if they are not coders.

blizzaaaarrd!!!!

[hytmal]

oh man, ouch, blizzard, ouch. im in the same frat that this guy was in in college (presumably UCLA). i hope maybe he can still get me a job there :-\... -- david

Re:blizzard going down?

[Rallion]

Um...I fail to see your point, really. The quality of service of any hacked service is going to be terrible compared to Blizzard's. Absolutely terrible. They have no reason to lose sleep over it. World of Warcraft is going to make about a majillion dollars anyway.

Re:What does Vivendi see

[dedazo]

The people who run Vivendi are probably the same as PHB's everywhere - they think software developers and artists are commodities that can be replaced as required. They "stick it" to someone who wants a raise or whatever and replace them with some clueless n00b who can't cut it. Then they'll fire that guy and try another one. And another one. Then the game tanks and they scratch their heads, blame it on the weather or something and move on. I've seen it many times.