October 23, 2019 11:27 PM EST
A handful of weeks back, then Xbox Vice President Mike Ybarra announced that he would be leaving Microsoft right after more than 20 years with the enterprise. He didn’t say at the time what his new location would be, but as of now, we know exactly where he’ll be heading.
Ybarra announced tonight through his private Twitter account that as of November four, he will be joining Blizzard Entertainment. Ybarra will take more than the function of Executive Vice President and GM. “I cannot wait to be component of this group,” Ybarra stated, also adding that he’ll be present at BlizzCon subsequent week as properly.
Ybarra is joining Blizzard in a time exactly where the game publisher and developer has been below a lot more scrutiny than ever ahead of. The backlash stems from a predicament that transpired earlier this month right after Blizzard banned a Hearthstone pro player that goes by Blitzchung for calling for liberation in Hong Kong when reside on a Blizzard stream. Blitzchung was initially banned from the Hearthstone scene for a year and forfeited his winnings from a current tournament as properly, but Blizzard then decreased the ban to six months and decided to also nonetheless give him his reward income. To lots of although, this predicament is nonetheless 1 lingering more than the company’s head and is some thing that probably requirements to be addressed in a a lot more direct manner subsequent week at BlizzCon.
With Ybarra taking manage of 1 of the a lot more prominent roles at Blizzard moving forward, hopefully, he’ll offer the transform that the enterprise requirements to guarantee that some thing like this will under no circumstances occur once more. Although Blizzard cannot undo the harm to its brand that it has certainly suffered more than the previous handful of weeks, let’s just hope that Ybarra’s leadership can be 1 that guides the enterprise properly in the future.
October 23, 2019 11:27 PM EST