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Mike Morhaime, co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment and long-time president of the studio, immediately left his post. While Morhaime will remain as strategic advisor, World of Warcraft Executive Producer J. Allen Brack took over the presidency of Blizzard Entertainment, the company announced Wednesday afternoon.
Brack has worked at Blizzard for 12 years and led the World of Warcraft team for this duration. Along with Brack, development director Ray Gresko and Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham also joined the studio's management team.
As for Morhaime, he expressed gratitude to the Blizzard community for this announcement.
"I want to thank all the talented and hardworking people at Blizzard for their dedication, creativity and passion," said Morhaime. "It was a privilege to lead this team. I am also very grateful to the community of Blizzard players for their support. "
Morhaime co-founded Blizzard as Silicon & Synapse in 1991 and was president since 1998; He also assumed the role of CEO in 2007. In addition, he participated in many Blizzard games as a developer, including as a programmer, producer or executive producer on titles such as The lost Vikings, the three Warcraft games, the first two games Diablo, the original game StarCraft and World of Warcraft. Morhaime was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Arts and Interactive Sciences in 2008. He is also the bassist of Blizzard's internal metal band, Elite Tauren Chieftain (called ETC).
Wednesday's announcement comes just two years after the retirement of Chris Metzen, a Blizzard veteran. Blizzard fans will probably learn more about this transition when the 2018 BlizzCon debuts in November, while Morhaime traditionally gives the opening speech.
Longer messages from Morhaime and Brack to the Blizzard community are available on the company's website.
Correction: Blizzard announced this news on October 3, which is a Wednesday and not a Thursday. We edited the story to reflect that.
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