According to
this PR, the founders of the company that created popular computer game series "Diablo" have left their positions at a unit of game publisher Vivendi Universal Games, the company said in a statement on Monday. In a statement, Blizzard Entertainment said Blizzard North co-founders Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer and David Brevik, along with a fourth employee, Bill Roper, "resigned from the company to pursue other opportunities." (thanks Paul Younger) In a follow-up to the Vivendi press release, Blizzard also made a statement:
"I speak for everyone in our company when I say how grateful we are to have had the opportunity to work closely with this group of individuals. Each one of them has made valuable contributions to many of our games, and we would like to thank them for all of their hard work over the years. We wish them nothing but the best and are confident that they will be successful in their future endeavors," stated Mike Morhaime, Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder.
"At the same time, we want to convey that Blizzard's success has never been attributable to any one person or small group of individuals, and I am confident that we have the teams in place to continue creating some of the best games in the world."
Blizzard does not believe that these resignations will cause any significant delays or have long-term negative effects on the "Diablo" series or other projects in development. The company has just launched "Warcraft. III: The Frozen Throne(TM)" and is also continuing development on "StarCraft: Ghost(TM)", a tactical-action console game, and "World of Warcraft(TM)," a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
Updated: GameSpot has posted up an article format chat with now former Blizzard vice-president Bill Roper as he talks about the sudden departure of the studio's management and these former Blizzard employees' new plans.
