WoW Classic dev exits Blizzard, protests employee review system

One of the co-lead developers of World of Warcraft Classic has left Blizzard, and a new report from Bloomberg reveals that it’s allegedly over a dispute involving an internal employee review system. The ousted developer, Brian Birmingham, reportedly protested Blizzard’s “stack ranking” process, which would have required him to give employees lower reviews than they deserved in order to meet a quota.

Bloomberg revealed this system in its report. According to an internal email Birmingham sent to other members of the team, managers are expected to give lower rankings to a certain number of their staff, roughly 5%. The managers appear to have found ways around this directive over the past few years, but this year Birmingham was allegedly forced to lower an employee’s rating from average to “developing” in order to hit the quota.