Former Xbox executive Mike Ybarra announced on Wednesday that he’s now joined Blizzard as the company’s executive vice president and general manager. He shared this announcement in a tweet through his personal account to say that he’ll officially take on his new responsibilities starting on November 4th. Since sharing the announcement, he has received a round of congratulations from Xbox fans and those he used to work with at Microsoft.

Ybarra’s tweet can be seen below where he announced his arrival at Blizzard. He said he and the rest of the team would be working with all their energy to “serve gamers with incredible content and experiences.”

This announcement follows another from earlier in the month when Ybarra said that he’d be leaving his role with Xbox at Microsoft. He announced his departure in a tweet as well and said he was “super excited” about what his next steps would be.

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) 24 October 2019

Xbox’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb and head of Xbox Phil Spencer both replied to the announcement to wish Ybarra well at the new position with Blizzard.

Many of the comments which came in reply to Ybarra’s announcement from this week echoed those sentiments and congratulated him on the new position, it was impossible to ignore those who pointed out the unfortunate timing of the transition. Ybarra’s arrival at Blizzard comes in the middle of a storm of subscription cancellations, anti-Blizzard sentiments, and other forms of protests where possible amid the company’s decision to ban a pro-Hong Kong Hearthstone player.

Those actions taken by estranged or former Blizzard fans will likely continue into the BlizzCon proceedings that are scheduled to begin on November 1st. Blizzard has largely gone quiet about the Hong Kong incident short of another statement where the company defended its actions and lessened the banned player’s punishment.

It’s unclear if Blizzard will even address the situation at all even if its fans are adamant to do so, but it’s more likely that the convention will try to stay as focused on the games as possible. If you’re interested in what Blizzard has and might have planned, its BlizzCon schedule that went up this week framed what’ll happen during the convention. Standard events like details on updates for Overwatch and more were found there, but there are also placeholders for six different mystery announcements that are expected to be big reveals.



Posted: Oct 26, 2019 8:31 am
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/10/24/xbox-boss-mike-ybarra-joins-blizzard/