Three distinguished Blizzard staff have been let go from the corporate, as first reported by Kotaku, marking the most recent departures from the studio following a serious sexual harassment lawsuit introduced by the state of California. Diablo 4 sport director Luis Barriga, lead designer Jesse McCree, and World of Warcraft designer Jonathan LeCraft usually are not employed at Blizzard anymore, in accordance with Kotaku. Activision Blizzard confirmed the departures in a press release to The Verge after we revealed this story, however declined to touch upon whether or not or not Barriga, McCree, and LeCraft had been fired.
“We now have a deep, gifted roster of builders already in place and new leaders have been assigned the place acceptable,” a Blizzard spokesperson mentioned. “We’re assured in our capacity to proceed progress, ship superb experiences to our gamers, and transfer ahead to make sure a secure, productive work setting for all.”
Activision Blizzard has not shared why they’re now not on the firm, in accordance with a Kotaku supply. McCree seems to be one of many individuals photographed inside Blizzard’s so-called “Cosby Suite,” in a screenshot obtained by Kotaku, and appeared to take part within the “BlizzCon Cosby Crew” chat. McCree can also be the inspiration for the identify of the McCree character in Overwatch; Michael Chu, the sport’s former lead author, revealed in 2017 that the real-life McCree needed to “signal over his identify” to the Overwatch workforce as a result of they favored it for the gunslinging character greater than many different concepts. (Some Overwatch League casters have averted saying McCree’s identify on air.) LeCraft was additionally pictured within the Cosby Suite, in accordance with Kotaku’s new story.
We requested if Blizzard plans to alter McCree’s identify in Overwatch, and the corporate mentioned it’s checking into it. It’s attainable the corporate would possibly achieve this: days after the lawsuit hit, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft workforce promised to take away “references that aren’t acceptable for our world,” and has reportedly already eliminated quite a lot of WoW in-game references to Alex Afrasiabi.
Afrasiabi was a former World of Warcraft senior artistic director who was singled out within the lawsuit for his conduct, and Blizzard instructed Kotaku that it fired Afrasiabi for “his misconduct in his therapy of different staff.” He seems to have labored for the corporate till June 2020.
The departures of Barriga, McCree, and LeCraft observe those by former Blizzard president J. Allen Brack, who was named within the lawsuit, and former SVP of HR Jesse Meschuk. Workers walked out in late July to protest the corporate’s response to the lawsuit, and a shareholder launched a letter on Tuesday saying the corporate’s response doesn’t “go almost far sufficient.”
Replace August eleventh, 7:35PM ET: Added assertion from Blizzard and related context about one other fired Blizzard government.
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