After 23 years in various roles at Blizzard, Senior Vice President Chris Metzen has announced his retirement from the company. In an open letter posted to the Diablo III forums, he wrote:

For nearly twenty-three years I’ve had the very distinct privilege of shaping worlds and building games with the brightest creative minds in entertainment. I’ve walked with giants (and stood on some giants’ shoulders, too).

In short, I’ve had the time of my life.

Metzen has worked on most of Blizzard’s franchises, starting out as an animator on the very first Warcraft title. He’s best known for the work he did building the story and lore surrounding World of Warcraft, but he was also involved in developing the storylines for both Diablo III and Starcraft II.

For many, however, Metzen is best known as the voice of Thrall, the former Orc Warchief in World of Warcraft. It’s not known if he will return to voice the role in the future, and, for now, Metzen himself says that this is, in fact, a retirement, as he will not be moving on to other projects:

The reason I use the word “retire” is because I’m not going to some other company or starting up new projects or anything remotely like that. It’s been a long, amazing stretch of years. Now it’s time to slow it down. Rest. Lay around on the couch and get fat. Well, fatter.…

Seriously though, I’ll be focusing on the one thing that matters most to me in all the world—my family. They’re the core of my life and the source of my deepest joy and inspiration. In addition to raising our two little ones, we recently welcomed our new baby into the family! Being home with them all, having time and space to really live…to love my wife with all my strength…that’s my career now.

We here at Rocket Chainsaw Towers wish Chris Metzen all the best on all his future endeavours.