Ben Brode, a significant leader in the success of Blizzard’s much-loved game, Hearthstone, has recently announced his plans to leave the company. Brode expressed that his decision to leave was due to wanting to start off a new venture of his own. It is a loss that Blizzard will no doubt feel, particularly due to Brode leaving his role of game director of the popular card strategy game and how he was in the original launch team when Hearthstone was first being created.
In a post on the Battle.net forums, Brode wrote about how proud he was of not just Hearthstone’s accomplishments, but the team behind it. Considering that Hearthstone can boast of a fanbase of over 70 million players, we think Brode has more than enough reason to praise the team and the game.
Brode wrote, “people tell me that Hearthstone brought their family closer together, or that they became close friends with people they met.” He continued, “others tell me they were inspired by Hearthstone to become game developers themselves. It’s incredible to be a part of something that touches so many people.”
Hearthstone first debuted back in 2014, where Game Revolution gave it a 4/5 review. Since its debut, it has been going strong for a very long time and now has versions on iPhone, PC and various other mobile devices. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to say that Hearthstone has truly changed gaming for some fans, and Brode has been a big part of that process.
Brode originally worked as a pizza delivery man back in 2003, regularly bringing food to the Blizzard offices, where late night working sessions were the norm. He snagged a job as a game tester on Warcraft 3, working his way up into game design. Since then he became the lead designer of the game, an accomplishment that is no mean feat.
As for his venture, Brode made no mention of what it exactly was. He said, “I’m going to help start a new company,” he continued to say, “we’ll probably make games, but we haven’t figured anything else out, yet. I’m looking forward to designing, programming, and actually creating things again.”
