Diablo 4 director Luis Barriga, lead level designer Jesse McCree, and WoW designer Jonathan LeCraft have left.
Activision’s Los Angeles office in 2018 (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) UPDATE 8/12: Activision Blizzard has confirmed three senior employees have left the company, they are Luis Barriga, Jesse McCree, and Jonathan LeCraft. In a statement given to IGN, the company said, «We have a deep, talented roster of developers already in place and new leaders have been assigned where appropriate. We are confident in our ability to continue progress, deliver amazing experiences to our players, and move forward to ensure a safe, productive work environment for all.» Luis Barriga was the director on Diablo 4 and Jesse McCree was lead level designer on the project. Jonathan LeCraft was a designer working on World of Warcraft. No explanation has been given for their departures or clarification on whether they were fired. All three men no longer appear in the company directory and can’t access the company’s Slack channel anymore. UPDATE 8/3: J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard Entertainment, is stepping down. He’ll be replaced by Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra, who will serve as co-leaders of Blizzard. Oneal was previously EVP of development at Blizzard, and Ybarra was EVP and General Manager of Platform and Technology at Blizzard. The news comes several days after employees staged a walkout because Kotick’s apology over the lawsuit statement did not «address critical elements at the heart of employee concerns,» including an end to forced arbitration, pay transparency, and more worker involvement in hiring. UPDATE 7/28: Following reports that Activision Blizzard staffers would stage a walkout on Wednesday, CEO Bobby Kotick has stepped in to apologize for the company’s initial statement on the lawsuit, calling it «tone deaf.
