Diablo IV and World of Warcraft team leaders have been fired by Blizzard

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The explosive discrimination lawsuit recently filed against Activision Blizzard has been a big PR eye for the Call of Duty and WoW publisher, but so far we haven’t heard much about real consequences. Now former Blizzard president J. Allen Brack fell for his sword, but so far that was it. Well, it looks like heads are starting to roll at Blizzard, and some high-profile names have been claimed.

According to an insider report from KotakuDiablo IV director Luis Barriga, Diablo IV chief designer Jesse McCree and World of Warcraft senior designer Jonathan LeCraft were fired today. All three men have long histories at Blizzard – Luis Barriga worked on WoW, Diablo III, and Overwatch before taking over Diablo IV, and Jonathan LeCraft has been working on WoW almost from the start. Perhaps the most prominent of the three men is Jesse McCree, who has been with Blizzard since the mid-2000s and is the namesake of Overwatch character McCree.

While Kotaku has not been able to confirm the exact reason for the firing of Barriga, LeCraft and McCree, they are almost certainly connected to the recent lawsuit. Both LeCraft and McCree are pictured alongside already fired WoW creative director Alex Afrasiabi in a photo taken in his infamous “Cosby Suite” at BlizzCon 2013, where drink and bullying would have flowed freely. Some sources claim that the Cosby Suite’s nickname refers only to the room’s ugly carpet, which is said to resemble an ugly “Cosby sweater,” not his later assault trial, but others have disputed that.

For those who haven’t kept track, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has filed suit against Activision Blizzard for gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment with the publisher of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Activision Blizzard’s Official Response to the Suit accuses the DFEH of being “distorted” […] and false” descriptions and insists the painted image “isn’t the Blizzard workplace of today.” An open letter objecting to the official response was signed by thousands of current and former Acti-Blizz employees, and was released last week. staged a strike. Acti-Blizz CEO Bobby Kotick would eventually apologize for the company’s initial response, calling it “tone deaf.” As mentioned earlier in this article, Blizzard president J. Allen Brack has been replaced by relative newcomers to the studio , Mike Ybarra and Jen Oneal.

Activision Blizzard has confirmed the recent layoffs, telling Kotaku that “Luis Barriga, Jesse McCree and Jonathan LeCraft are no longer with the company.”

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