Is Chris Metzen's Retirement a Sign that the Industry Needs Change?

Back in September, Chris Metzen retired from making video games at the ripe age of 42. If any of that is news to you, then I don't know what to tell you. The news was plastered everywhere. To sign off his decades at Blizzard, he released a farewell letter to all of his fans. There, he mentioned that it was time for him to move on and focus on his family. And just like that, one of the minds behind every major IP in Blizzard was gone. Well, earlier this week, Scott Johnson sat down with Metzen to record an episode of his podcast. The main topic for discussion was Metzen's retirement and how he made that choice.


Fair warning, it's around an hour and twenty minutes long.

A lot of what Metzen says is eye-opening. Specifically, he mentions having panic attacks with a heaping side of self-doubt. He was hounded by the sense that if what Blizzard makes isn't perfect, then it isn't good enough. Add all of that with the failure of Project Titan and the arrival of a new baby, and retirement is the only sane choice.

Metzen is 42 years old, and the pressure of making video games wore him out mentally, emotionally, and physically. And I bet this story isn't unique to just him. This is another sign that there is far too much unfair pressure on game developers. It takes a ton of work to build a loyal fanbase, and it takes even more to keep it. And it doesn't help matters that the move vocal fans just happen to be whiny, ungrateful brats.

Here at GamerzUnite, I took it upon myself to cover the Sombra ARG. I spent countless hours digging through Reddit, YouTube, and the Overwatch forums for the latest happenings. I've stated before that I got tired of the ARG pretty quickly, and that's true. It did have some pretty major flaws. However, that was nothing compared to what I found in the Overwatch forums. The vast majority of threads contained some form of poisonous whining, either from the OP or others. Oftentimes, I'd see complaints about a lacking update. Then the next day, I'd see the same people complaining about that same damn update. I couldn't make sense of it then, and I can't now. The only thing I can say is that I'm damn surprised Metzen made it as far as he did before getting out of dodge.

If this trend continues, there won't be enough game developers to go around. Let's learn from what happened to Chris Metzen. Let's learn from all of the other stories just like his. If we don't, then all we're going to do is push everyone away until there's no one left. Then who will you complain about?