A couple of weeks back, Xbox Live, Game Pass, and Mixer CVP Mike Ybarra announced that he was leaving Microsoft. This move was made by Ybarra after being employed at the company for nearly 20 years. At the time of departure, he did not say where he was headed next.
Now, Ybarra has revealed via a tweet that his next destination is Blizzard Entertainment. He will be joining the video game company on November 4 as its new Executive Vice President and General Manager.
I"m very happy to announce I"m joining @Blizzard_Ent as Exec. Vice President and GM starting 11/4 (will be at #blizzcon!). We will work with all our energy to serve gamers with incredible content and experiences. I can"t wait to be part of this team. #lucky #humble #gamers #serve pic.twitter.com/kZ8dRuF3pe
— Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) October 24, 2019
Ybarra will be present with the Blizzard team at Blizzcon 2019, which will be held from November 1-3. Incidentally, this is the same event at which the firm announced Diablo Immortal for iOS and Android last year, much to the displeasure of fans. More recently, Blizzard has also been embroiled in controversy in the past few weeks over the banning of professional esports player Blitzchung for supporting Hong Kong liberation protests.
Either way, it will be interesting to see what Ybarra brings to the table in seemingly troubling times for the video company. Earlier this year, Blizzard announced that its developer workforce would be increased by 20% in 2019. However, this change would come at the cost of employees in other divisions, 800 of whom have been or will be sacked this year.