Chris Metzen. Mike Morhaime. Jeff Kaplan. Blizzard has seen a number of big name departures from the studio over the last few years. According to new reports on the studio's acclaimed details that a lot of the people who have left Blizzard are moving to independent.

IGN recently spoke to a variety of sources, both inside and outside of Blizzard to create a report which describes the renowned developer as a company that is at the crossroads. It is worth noting the number of former Blizzard designers are creating or joining independent game studios.

In charge of bringing about that change is no other than ex- Blizzard chief executive Mike Morhaime, who retired from Blizzard in the year 2019 following more than 2 years. In 2020, he launched Dreamhaven an online game company that has the aim of giving "agile studios to concentrate on their art and create their own ideas with WoTLK Classic Gold," while "providing support and resources for the long run." Three development studios currently operate in operation under the Dreamhaven banner: Moonshot Games, Secret Door along with Lightforge Games. Every studio is home to a plethora of ex- Blizzard talent.

Chris Metzen, who worked as the lead designer for Starcraft and who served as creative director on some of Blizzard's biggest games, including World of Warcraft, was one of Blizzard's first high-profile-departures when he left the company in 2016. In the year 2018, Metzen founded Warchief Gaming, a tabletop RPG firm that has had immense successes through Kickstarter. His setting for his fantasy campaign, Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent was able to meet its Kickstarter goal of raising funds in just 11 minutes. It is currently at over $1.2 million.

Ben Brode, the former game director of buy WoTLK Classic Gold who left Blizzard in the year 2018 following 15 years of working for the company He then founded Second Dinner, an indie studio comprised of mostly ex-Blizzard developers currently working on the development of a Marvel game.