World of Warcraft legend returns to Blizzard

One of the original team members on the development of Warcraft and Diablo has announced a return to developer Blizzard in an advisory role

Chris Metzen, one of the original team members to work on classic Blizzard games like Warcraft, Diablo, and ultimately World of Warcraft, will be returning to the company in an advisory role after six years away from the company.

Metzen left Blizzard back in 2016, reportedly to spend more time with his family, but the company has announced he’ll be returning as a creative Adviser on Blizzard’s Warcraft leadership team.

The news was announced on Warcraft series manager John Hight’s personal Twitter account, who warmly welcomed the Blizzard veteran back to the company.

“It is with great joy that I announce Chris Metzen has joined the Warcraft Leadership team as Creative Advisor,” Hight said in the statement, “Chris’s focus initially will be on World of Warcraft, then his work will expand to other projects across this growing franchise. Chris was one of the original team members working on the Warcraft universe back when it began in 1994, and we are so happy to be reuniting him with the world he helped create”.

Metzen primarily worked on the artwork and art direction on the original Warcraft game, which was released in 1994, before going on to take a much more involved role in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. He later helped create the fictional universe in the Diablo series, as well as helping with scripting, storytelling, and artwork across a number of titles at Blizzard in his 23 years at the company.

World of Warcraft dipped in popularity for some time, before fans started flocking back to the game with WoW Classic and the recent Dragonflight expansion. Picture: Activision Blizzard

World of Warcraft has had somewhat of a renaissance in recent years, between World of Warcraft Classic offering fans an official way to play the MMO as it was upon release and new expansions pleasing fans.

The newest World of Warcraft expansion, Dragonflight, had fans buzzing upon release, with many excited for the new features. Dragonflight allows players to fly around a gigantic new area on the back of dragons, as the name suggests, and introduces the game’s first ranged damage class in 18 years, the dracthyr Evoker.

Metzen worked heavily on the Diablo series, and was the lead writer on Diablo 3. Picture: Activision Blizzard

GLHF recently had the opportunity to talk to David Harbour, one of the stars of Stranger Things, as he talked about his love of gaming and specifically World of Warcraft. Harbour, who plays police chief Jim Hopper in Stranger Things, said that he finds every aspect of World of Warcraft fascinating, and used to spend hours at a time playing it.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.