Diablo 4 - New Game Director

Blizzard has announced that Diablo 4 had a new game director, Joe Shely (reported by Polygon).

Diablo 4 has a new game director

Designer Joe Shely steps up to lead next Diablo

Joe Shely is the new game director of Diablo 4, Blizzard Entertainment revealed Thursday. Shely replaces former Diablo 4 game director Luis Barriga, who exited Blizzard in August in the wake of a lawsuit against the company alleging a toxic workplace environment that subjected female employees to gender discrimination and sexual harassment.

Shely has been a member of the Diablo 4 development team since 2017, Blizzard said in his official developer bio. His responsibilities include “guiding efforts to deliver the deep, compelling systems and visceral combat Diablo is known for, and has been the overall caretaker of the combat experience,” Blizzard said, and he led the team responsible for the first playable demo of Diablo 4 at BlizzCon 2019.

“I’m honored to continue the vision of Diablo IV as its new Game Director, and I’m humbled to represent the team pouring their hearts into this game,” Shely said in a blog post published Thursday. “Like many of you, our team has been reflecting upon recent events. A lot has happened since our last blog and the hard work of practicing the values we aspire to must continue. In parallel with that important work, development of Diablo IV continues too.”

Shely has been with Blizzard since 2005, and has served as designer on World of Warcraft, senior designer on Diablo 3, and contributed to the development of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty.

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