Diablo III director moving on to other things

Jay Wilson of Blizzard recently announced that he will be moving off of the Diablo 3 team at Blizzard, and into another role at the company.  Wilson announced the news via the Diablo 3 blog on Battle Net.

“I wanted all of you to be some of the first to know that I’ve made an important decision about my future, and how that decision will affect the future of Diablo.

I recently celebrated my seven-year anniversary working on Diablo III, and while it’s been one of the most challenging and rewarding periods of my life, I’ve reached a point creatively where I’m looking forward to working on something new. The powers that be at Blizzard have been gracious enough to give me that opportunity. Over the course of the next several weeks, I will be moving off of the Diablo III project and transitioning elsewhere within Blizzard. This decision was not an easy one for me, and not one I made quickly, but ultimately it’s what I feel is right.

The first thing I want to assure you all is that this will not negatively impact our ongoing support of Diablo III. The game was not made by one person, far from it, and the team that poured their passion and considerable talent into it isn’t going anywhere. We have lots of things planned for the future, and those plans will carry forward as normal. I also won’t be abandoning the team, and will remain available to them during the transition period while we determine who will take over duties as game director.

To that point, you shouldn’t be surprised if you see a job posting for a game director on Diablo III, as we want to make sure we explore every opportunity to find the best possible leadership for the project. We’re looking forward to finding this person and hearing what kind of fresh ideas they can bring to the table.”

Fan reception of Diablo 3 was mixed after the always online component of the game, tripped Blizzard up out of the gates.  Lack of endgame content and myriad of other complaints have constantly flooded the forums for the dungeon crawler, with many of the complaints aimed squarely at Wilson.  After so much direct abuse from fans, Wilson left Twitter after months of harassment.