Jen Oneal has announced her decision to step down as Blizzard’s co-leader. It happened just three months after she embraced this role amid the harassment scandal. The studio will now be wholly led by former Xbox Live VP Mike Ybarra.
Oneal wrote a statement on the Blizzard official website, saying that she is still full of hope for Blizzard and “inspired by the passion of everyone here, working towards meaningful, lasting change with their whole hearts.”
On her new journey, Jen Oneal will explore how she can do “more to have games and diversity intersect, and hopefully make a broader industry impact that will benefit Blizzard (and other studios) as well.”
Activision Blizzard agreed to make a $1 million grant to Women in Games International, a non-profit organization, where Oneal is a board member. It will be used to fund mentorship and skill-building programs to make the games industry better.
Jen Oneal also noted that Mike Ybarra was very supportive, and she is confident of his leadership skills. “Mike and I have been working together to develop many of the actions we’ll be taking to continue making Blizzard a safer, stronger, and more inclusive workplace, and I know he plans on sharing some of those actions with you soon,” she wrote in the statement.
Mike Ybarra and Jen Oneal became co-leaders of Blizzard in August after the studio’s president J. Allen Brack stepped down from his position in the wake of the discrimination scandal.
In other news about Blizzard, the studio announced the cancelation of BlizzConline 2022 last week, saying it wants to focus on developing games and making the event more inclusive and safe.