Microsoft-owned game publisher Blizzard Entertainment has announced that Johanna Faries will be its new president, effective Feb. 5.”It is an honor to join you next week in this new capacity,” Faries wrote in a blog post Monday. “Today also brings some mixed emotions. The loss of talented teammates in recent days is hard to hold side-by-side with the immense excitement I feel about joining Blizzard.”Faries’ announcement comes just days after Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees across its gaming businesses, affecting staff at Activision Blizzard, Xbox, and Zenimax, home to Bethesda Softworks, MachineGames, and Arkane Studios. Former Blizzard President Mike Ybarra also shared on X that he was leaving his role.”The news of my appointment may no doubt bring up a range of reactions, questions, even concerns,” Faries wrote in her announcement post, which was also shared on LinkedIn. “Activision, Blizzard, and King are decidedly different companies with distinct games, cultures, and communities.”Faries also expressed a “sensitivity” toward acknowledging the core differences between Activision and Blizzard. While the incoming president didn’t specify the culture variations between the studios, Call of Duty’s gritty, militaristic shooter games present a dramatic visual and tonal contrast to Blizzard’s colorful trading card game Hearthstone and fantasy MMORPG World of Warcraft, for example.
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Prior to stepping up at Blizzard, Faries was at Activision as its general manager for the studio’s first-person shooter franchise Call of Duty. Faries also spent 11 years at the National Football League (NFL) on its business development, marketing, and licensing teams.Blizzard’s latest executive hire comes on the heels of a rough month for the broader gaming industry. While thousands of game industry workers suffered layoffs in 2023, 2024 has already seen over 6,000 employees lose their jobs, with Unity, Riot Games, Discord, and Twitch among the biggest making cuts.
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