Gears of War studio boss Rod Fergusson heads to Blizzard to work on Diablo

Rod Fergusson, the head of developer The Coalition and arguably the main figure behind the Gears of War series, is leaving the company. He will join Blizzard, where he will manage the Diablo franchise.

Fergusson says on Twitter that he will join Blizzard from next month, where he will be supervising the Diablo franchise. He does not give more details about this, but Fergusson will probably focus on Diablo IV.

He says that he started working on Gears of War over fifteen years ago, but now it’s time for a new adventure. He started at Microsoft in the 1990s and joined Epic Games in 2005, where he worked as an executive producer on Gears of War titles, among other things. He left there in 2012 to work on BioShock Infinite at Irrational Games, but left again a year later. Fergusson returned to Gears of War when Microsoft acquired the rights to Epic Games in 2014. He then joined Canadian Microsoft studio The Coalition, which is responsible for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Gears of War 4 and Gears 5.

The last game in the series that Fergusson has been working on is not Gears 5 released in 2019, but will be Gears Tactics. Unlike the other games in the series, this will be a turn-based strategy game based on the world of Gears of War. The game will be available on April 28.