Goodbye EA, Hello Blizzard

Everything is now sorted, and everyone who should already know knows, so I can break the blog silence on this, as I know my blog friends will be interested.

Although I don’t talk much about work on this blog, it’s something of an open secret that I worked at EA Los Angeles for the past 5 years (as a cursory look at my “about” page gameography would reveal). Recently Tiberium was cancelled, a bold move for the company and probably a good sign in its drive for quality. As lead engineer, I was one of roughly a third of the team who kept their jobs at the studio, and one of just a handful who had a choice of what to do next. But the cancellation of a project is naturally also a time to look around at other opportunities.

My brother-in-law had emailed me back in August, saying “I’m trying to convince the wife to let me go to Blizzcon; it’s just after my birthday this year. Can I crash at your place for a couple of days?” So I had emailed a contact at Blizzard and got us a couple of passes. When Tiberium was cancelled, I got a few weeks off work, so it gave me a chance to attend both days of Blizzcon, get my resume up to date, and be a little more interested in possibilities for me at Blizzard.

So it was that I ended up chatting to some of Blizzard’s senior engineers at Blizzcon, and watching the finale show with my BiL from the VIP rooms above the crowd. And heading down to Irvine last week for an interview process that I found stimulating, fun and challenging in all the right ways. A few days later, I had a very attractive offer from a great company with great people and great games.

So yesterday, I headed in to EA (although I’m still technically on vacation), resigned, and cleared my office. It wasn’t an easy decision; EA have been good to me, and I respect and like my ex-colleagues, who are still working on some promising titles. But the opportunity I have at Blizzard is a great one. So I am starting there a week on Monday.