BlizzCon 2014: Chris Metzen during the Overwatch reveal
Chris Metzen gets a little verklempt at the Overwatch reveal at BlizzCon 2014.
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Blizzard loses a 22-year veteran as executive Chris Metzen retires

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

Blizzard Entertainment said so long to 22-year veteran Chris Metzen on Monday. In a blog post on the company’s forums, Metzen said that he has decided to retire so that he can rest.

The 42-year-old Metzen has certainly earned some rest after working for such a long time on the company’s core franchises such as StarCraft and Warcraft. He was a senior vice president of story and franchise development, and he wrote many of the stories and lore behind the company’s biggest games. He also did voice acting and character art.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.