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Blizzard technical director Dunham departs the company

Blizzard technical director Dunham departs the company

The technical director of Blizzard Entertainment, Amy Dunham, has stepped down from her role at the company.

In a post on Twitter, the developer pointed out that the three most senior women at the World of Warcraft maker had all decided to leave the firm this year.

This comes in the wake of Blizzard co-head Jen Oneal stepping down from her position after just three months and production director Julia Humphreys leaving the firm in May of this year.

"Look at who a company puts in a decision-making capacity over its core business," Dunham wrote.

"For a brief period in 2020, there were three women in leadership of game dev teams at Blizzard (>= Director roles). They were Julia, Jen, and me.

"And all three of us were the first women to ever serve in our specific roles, and we were also the most senior woman in the company for our respective disciplines. All left this year.

"Before you make commitments to recruit more woman (usually at entry-level, where people have less choice to turn down opportunities), figure out and fix why all of your senior women choose to leave."

This comes in the wake of a damning lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard that lays out a toxic working culture, particularly for women and minorities.

Dunham joined Blizzard in 2014 and worked on titles including StarCraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm, as well as some behind-the-scenes technical work and an "unannounced incubation project".

PCGamesInsider.biz has reached out to Blizzard for comment.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.