Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce ends 28-year career at company
"The time has come for me to step away from Blizzard and pass the torch to the next generation of leaders," says Pearce
Blizzard co-founder and chief development officer Frank Pearce has announced his departure from the company after 28 years.
It comes after president and fellow co-founder Mike Morhaime revealed he was stepping down in October 2018, with his full departure effective April this year.
Of the original co-founding trio, now only Allen Adham remains, having left Blizzard in 2004 and returning in 2016 to serve as senior vice president.
"The time has come for me to step away from Blizzard and pass the torch to the next generation of leaders," said Pearce in a blog post on the company website.
Pearce was invited to join the company by Adham and Morhaime in 1991 when it was called Silicon & Synapse.
In the early days he worked on now iconic Blizzard titles such as Diablo and StarCraft, along with less notable games like The Lost Vikings, and Blackthorne.
"Like many of us, Frank is an introvert," said Blizzard president J. Allen Brack. "Thus many of you haven't seen a lot of him publicly, nor seen the deep impact he's had on Blizzard, and on the culture specifically.
"But Frank has been here from the beginning, building and expanding the foundation and championing the values behind everything Blizzard does. Blizzard is better because of Frank Pearce."