The Coalition’s loss is about to become Blizzard’s gain.
In an announcement on Twitter, Rod Fergusson, the head of the development studio behind the latest Gears games, announced he’ll make a move to Blizzard starting early next month. His official tweet confirming the switch is below, along with a picture of his soon-to-be-former team.
He also followed up with another tweet, explaining that he was ready for something new while still hyping The Coalition’s latest effort, Gears Tactics.
The move is surprising, considering he was one of the reasons the Gears of War series thrived over the past decade and a half.
Fergusson actually started with Microsoft back in 1996, initially joining technical support and working on Microsoft Train Simulator. In 2005, he moved over to Epic Games, where he served as executive producer and director of production for the earlier Gears of War games.
In 2012, Fergusson then went to work with Irrational Games on Bioshock Warfare, before settling back with Microsoft and Gears of War after the company purchased the franchise from Epic in 2014. Since then, he’s served as head of the studio, overseeing releases like Gears of War 4 and last year’s Gears 5.
He’ll become a massive addition to the Diablo team, especially now that the team is working on the recently announced Diablo IV, one of last year’s big BlizzCon highlights. It sounds like he will head up the team, though he didn’t name a specific position just yet.
With Fergusson on board, Diablo IV is bound to become that much more impressive. Watch the gameplay trailer below.
