J Allen Brack succeeds Mike Morhaime as president of Blizzard Entertainment

Activision Blizzard has announced today that Mike Morhaime will step down from his role as president of Blizzard Entertainment, to be succeeded by former executive producer J. Allen Brack.

"I want to thank all of the talented and hardworking people at Blizzard for their dedication, creativity and passion," said Morhaime. "It has been a privilege to lead this team. I'm also very grateful to Blizzard's player community for their support."

Brack has served in a number of roles at Blizzard since 2006, most recently as executive producer and senior VP for World of Warcraft. Prior to that, Brack was a producer at Sony for Star Wars Galaxies for nearly six years, and worked another six before that as associate producer for Origin Systems at EA.

"I am incredibly honored and humbled to serve as Blizzard's next president, and to lead one of the best entertainment companies in the world, thanks to the passion and dedication of our player community and employees," said Brack. "Blizzard was founded on the promise of making great games, and I plan to continue this fierce commitment to quality, our community, and our purpose. I couldn't be more excited about what's next given the strength of our pipeline."

In addition, Ray Gresko will step into the role of chief development officer, and Blizzard founder Allen Adham will join its executive leadership team. Gresko was most recently the executive producer for Overwatch after joining the company in 2008 to work on Diablo III.

Adham, meanwhile, co-founded the company with Morhaime and Frank Pearce, and has worked in a number of executive leadership roles during Blizzard's early days before departing in 2004. After referring to his departure as "probably the biggest mistake I made in my life," however, Adham returned in 2016 as executive producer of incubation to work on unannounced projects.