To be replaced by World of Warcraft Executive Producer, and 12-year Blizzard veteran, J. Allen Brack. A major shift for the studio as Mike Morhaime has been with the company since its days as Silicon & Synapse when it formed over 27 years ago. Morhaime has been the president of Blizzard since 2004, when he took over from co-founder Allen Adham.

As per his parting statement, "When Blizzard’s founder Allen Adham first invited me to join him in creating Silicon & Synapse (our original name), nothing could have prepared me for the amazing adventure that we would share for the next 27 years. Our original mission and values consisted of four simple words that formed our foundation: “We make great games.” We crafted that statement before we had even released our first game, but we were committed to living up to it."

Adding, "After many years of working with some of the industry’s most talented people to create games and worlds for you to play in, I’ve decided it’s time for someone else to lead Blizzard Entertainment. I will now serve as an advisor to the company I so love and admire. My duties as president of Blizzard will be assumed by my friend, colleague, trusted advisor, and longtime steward of World of Warcraft, J. Allen Brack."

With an additional statement, by J. Allen Brack, noting the focus will remain on creating great games, "One thing that won’t change going forward—our deeply held commitments that are core to who we are as a company: to gameplay first, to quality in everything we do, and to listening to and partnering with our community. BlizzCon, the IRL representation of our connection with the community, is just a month away and it’s a time of the year that Blizzard employees look forward to the most. And as usual, we have a few surprises."

Mike Morhaime will still serve as an advisor for future Blizzard endeavors. Allen Adham, Blizzard’s original founder and Frank Pearce, remain with the studio too.