Legendary video game developer Rod Fergusson is departing Gears of War studio The Coalition to head up the Diablo franchise at Blizzard.
Rod Fergusson has announced he is soon to take charge of the Diablo franchise at Blizzard Entertainment.
Fergusson has worked on the popular Gears of War series since 2005, following it from inception at Epic Games to managing development at first-party Microsoft studio, The Coalition.
In a Twitter post announcing the move, Fergusson said:
“Starting in March, I will join Blizzard to oversee the Diablo franchise. Leaving is bittersweet as I love our Gears family, the fans, and everyone at The Coalition and Xbox. Thank you, it has been an honor and a privilege to work with you all.”
Gears of War has come a long way under Fergusson’s stewardship. Last year’s Gears 5 is regarded as one of the most accomplished games in the series. As well as being a technical and artistic showcase, it’s also an excellent example of Microsoft’s efforts to improve accessibility in video games.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer also took to Twitter to publicly thank Fergusson for his work. He said:
“Thank you @gearsviking for the passion and effort you’ve brought to Gears and Xbox and the work you’ve done to build the world class team at @CoalitionGears. Best of luck on your next journey.”
Fergusson joins Blizzard Entertainment at a critical time, with the company no stranger to controversy. The reveal of Diablo Immortal at Blizzcon 2018 was an all-round disaster, and this year’s release of Warcraft 3: Reforged has been plagued by bugs and performance issues. The company also acquitted itself terribly in response to democracy protests by Hearthstone players in 2019.
Suffice to say, Blizzard has a lot of work to do to regain the trust of its players. The arrival of Fergusson, however, is certainly good news for in-development dungeon-crawler, Diablo 4. Best of luck, Rod.
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