Announced on the Blizzard message boards. He's not changing employers or companies, he's actually retiring.

http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20749037340

Shit that's pretty big, he has been the de facto face at the helm of Blizzard for a long time now.

Interesting if there will be any eventual/gradual change in direction for them.

Oh ok, that guy. The picture on the wiki is a bit old so it tripped me up some. Yeah, he's a big guy over there right? Had a hand in everything since OG Warcraft, according to that Danny O'Dwyer farewell video?

Good for him! Little I saw of him, he seemed like a cool dude. VP of Creative Development seems kinda important. Wonder what'll shift around and what's next for Blizzard. BlizzCon in a few months IIRC.

Metzen did a lot of fantastic stuff over the years. And lots of stuff I didn't like later on. Certainly a huge part of Blizzard so I wish him the best.

One of the greats.

Interesting to see what will happen over at Blizzard now, if anything changes. He was a pretty big shot over there after all.

Will he still come over to voice Thrall?

It is always crazy to me when people can afford to retire in their early forties.

@colossalghost: Yeah, when you help create the 3 main brands of Blizzard you get to wrap it up early. Those are credits that just keep giving. Dude lived the nerd dream. Now he will take a few years, refocus, and hell nowadays end up sending a rocket to Mars, or the center of the planet, who knows.

For good or ill, Metzen has contributed immensely to Blizzard and its games, it's gonna be said not hearing his voice in the games, at least for new characters. I'm interested in how much of an impact this will do to Blizzard games going forward.

I loved the artwork in the Warcraft manuals.

Does that mean Thrall's dead (haven't played through the whole shaman storyline yet)? Cause there is no other Thrall but Metzen!

Sad to see him go but so far it appears as if he's going out in a bang.

man I thought he'd be a lifer in this biz.

I may have not liked the way Blizz's stories/plots have gone in the last 6 years or so but there is no question he was absolutely instrumental in creating foundations for their deservedly well loved universes.