Blizzard Veterans Try Their Hand at Tabletop Games
Chris Metzen, along with two other veterans of Blizzard Entertainment, founded Warchief, a company that will develop tabletop games.
Chris Metzen left Blizzard Entertainment in 2016. The developer has been with the studio for over two decades and was involved in most of the team's projects, as well as being creative director of Overwatch. At the time, the developer said he wasn't going to look for a new job and wanted to focus on family life. It turns out, however, that Metzen lasted just four years on his retirement, as he had just announced the establishment of a company specializing in tabletop games.
The company was called Warchief Gaming. In addition to Metzen, the company also employs Mike Gilmartin, who previously served as Vice President of Quality Control at Blizzard Entertainment, and Ryan Collins, who was one of the designers working on the development of the card game Hearthstone.
No project has been announced yet. We don't even know what kind of games we can expect. They may be board and card games, but the creators also don't hide their adoration for miniature wargames and classic pen&paper RPGs.
Metzen's return to work is not a big surprise. He was only 43 years old when he left Blizzard, so a permanent retirement didn't seem likely. In an interview for Venture Beat the creator revealed that after leaving his previous studio he spent a lot of time playing various tabletop games and discussing their mechanics. This cured the feeling of professional burnout he felt after more than two decades spent in Blizzard Entertainment.
For Metzen, the key is that Warchief Gaming is a small company because he doesn't feel like managing big teams again. There are only three full-time employees in the studio. The modest scale of operations is to guarantee full creative control and allow developers to focus on creating fun games.
