On Friday, Ben Brode dropped a major announcement to Hearthstone players. The Game Director is leaving Blizzard and it was his last day with the company that launched his career.
In an emotional blog post, Brode wrote, "After 15 years at Blizzard and almost 10 years working on Hearthstone, I have made the incredibly difficult decision to embark on a new journey. Man, that was a hard sentence to type." He goes on to detail the highlights of his career at Blizzard and express how proud he is of the 80+ members of the Hearthstone team.
Brode first joined Blizzard at the age of 20 as a game tester. He worked his way up the ladder and was named Lead Designer of Hearthstone in 2015. Brode has become known for his larger than life personality and creating a direct communication channel with the Hearthstone player community. A YouTube video was just released this week by Ars Technica, where Brode answers Hearthstone questions from fans.
Hearthstone fans were quick to respond to Brode's blog post with supportive messages. "Good luck and enjoy your journey," wrote Blizzard user Märu. "I actually never wrote something like that before but you will be missed."
He was also supported by many high profile streamers, such as Disguised Toast who tweeted, "Thank you for everything you did for Hearthstone. The amount of enthusiasm and passion you brought to the scene was incredible. Our interactions are some of the funnest I’ve had. Will miss your presence and I can’t wait to hear about your next project! Best of luck!"
As for Ben Brode’s next venture, he hasn’t outlined the details just yet. He has said that he has plans to start a new company and that he’s very much looking forward to feeling “scrappy and a little scared”. Though it’s unclear what the company will be working on, it seems gaming will still be in Brode’s future.
