Jay Wilson, former Diablo 3 game director, is leaving Blizzard

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Wilson says it's time to return to his original passion.

Jay Wilson, the former game director of Diablo 3, announced on Twitter today that he is leaving Blizzard, and the videogame industry, at the end of this week.

“Sad to say after 10 of the best years of my life this will be my last week at Blizzard, and in the games industry,” Wilson wrote. “I'm leaving to pursue my original passion, writing. It's what I was doing when I fell into this job, and I've always wanted to return to it.” 

Wilson's time at Blizzard wasn't without controversy. He took heat for Diablo 3's real-money auction house, despite sounding in the pre-release days as though he viewed it primarily as a player-positive service rather than a profit-making venture. But he acknowledged at GDC 2013, a year after Diablo 3 came out, that the auction house “really hurt the game,” a comment he made just a few months after leaving the Diablo 3 team to work on Project Titan, the canceled MMO that eventually morphed into Overwatch. He also has an “Additional Design” credit on the World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor. Prior to joining Blizzard, Wilson worked as a designer at Relic on games including Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.   

The PC Gaming Show returns to E3 on Monday June 13, featuring game announcements, updates to existing favourites, and conversation with top developers. You can find out what to expect here, and also book free tickets to attend in person at pcgamingshow.com. The PC Gaming Show will be broadcast live through twitch.tv/pcgamer from 11:30 am PT/2:30 pm ET/6:30 pm GMT, but be sure to tune in beforehand to check out The Steam Speedrun, in which one lucky winner will buy as many games as they can in three minutes.

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.