Ben Brode's new studio is called Second Dinner

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And it's "up and running."

Earlier this year, Ben Brode, Hearthstone's booming, bearded and beloved former director, abruptly announced that he was leaving Blizzard to help start a new company that would "probably make games." Today Brode took to Twitter to formally announce that company: Second Dinner.  

As you can probably imagine, details are scarce at this early stage. The studio's official Twitter describes it as "a brand new game company." It's also got a website which simply says "we're still having first dinner right now." In other words, Second Dinner is a thing and it's going to make games, but that's about all we know. 

Brode's Twitter bio says he'll be working as Second Dinner's chief creative officer, but it's unclear who else will be joining him at the studio. At the very least, we know it's passed the idea stage: Brode says Second Dinner is "up and running" and that he's excited to make games again. 

Brode said as much when he left Blizzard. "I’m looking forward to designing, programming, and actually creating things again," he wrote in his farewell post. In his time as Hearthstone's director, Brode shifted away from a design role and became more of a leader, not to mention the face of the game. As Tim said, Hearthstone won't be the same without him, but it's also going to be interesting seeing what he does in the creative hot seat at Second Dinner.  

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.