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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."
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.
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
i wonder if this is because WOW is going to be really bad and they want to wash thier hands of it? i mean, a WOW alpha already leaked and there are ppl that have created a hacked server for the alpha already. it doesnt look good...
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Sounds like he wants to be a venture capitalist. Coming from a gaming background, he would be most qualified to fund similar startups. It will be interesting to keep an eye on him and see what happens.
Ususally founders get out when the growth curve of the company stops being exponential.
Can I have his stuff?
In whatever field of work he moves in to next. He's led Blizzard this far(From what could be described as a "small dev house") to the still-reigning(IMHO) king of the RTS games. I tip my glass to you, sir.
With a software company, even one with three outstanding franchises, however, the real assets are the leadership and the creative individual ('people'). Game consumers are very weary compared to other media consumers - you can get $8 for a lousy Spiderman 2, but you won't get $50 for a lousy Warcraft 4.
I wonder what Vivendi sees when they look at Blizzard. In their annual reports, do they discuss the awesome franchises of Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft? Or do they talk about the brilliant employees whom have a curiculum vitae (sp?) that includes making those franchises?
He'll finally figure out how many workers to have mining gold and chopping wood.
Blizzard will become a shell of its former self, produce at most two or three more titles and then be shut down.
That seems to be par for the course when founders leave, anyhow.
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Are we ever going to see another decent diablo sequel from this company? Looks like people are leaving left and right in this shady economy.
Not that 800x600 diablo II was that bad. But like capcom when the 2D-fighter team left, they haven't made another 2D-fighting game since. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was the last. Diablo II is probably done with too.