Gears of War studio head is leaving to work on Diablo

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Rod Fergusson will defect to Blizzard in March.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Gears of War veteran Rod Fergusson has announced he will leave his role as studio head at The Coalition in March. Come that time, he'll be in charge of overseeing the Diablo series at Blizzard, presumably with a focus on Diablo 4.

Fergusson made the announcement today on Twitter. It's a big move: Fergusson has worked on Gears of War since its inception in 2005, with the exception of a brief stint at Irrational Games during 2012 and 2013. When Microsoft announced it had purchased the Gears series from Epic Games in 2014, Fergusson returned to the series. Despite his short stint at Irrational, Fergusson has credits on every shipped Gears of War game.

The last Gears game with Fergusson's involvement will be Gears Tactics, which is set to release on April 28. Gears 5 released last year to decent acclaim, with our reviewer writing that it's "a polished and surprisingly varied campaign married to stalwart PvE and PvP modes which gently refine the classic Gears experience". 

The news comes after a series of high profile departures from Blizzard last year. Founders Frank Pearce and Mike Morhaime both left the company during 2019, while former Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm directors Dustin Browder, Eric Dodds and Jason Chayes were also among the leavers. 

Shaun Prescott
Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.