Rob Pardo | |
|---|---|
 Pardo speaking atGame Developers Conference 2010 | |
| Born | (1970-06-09)June 9, 1970 (age 55) California, United States |
| Occupation | Game designer |
| Employer(s) | Bonfire Studios (2016-) Blizzard Entertainment (1997-2014) |
Rob Pardo (born June 9, 1970) is an Americanvideo game designer who is the founder ofBonfire Studios. He previously served asChief Creative Officer ofBlizzard Entertainment until resigning in 2014 after nearly 17 years with the company.
Born on June 9, 1970, inSouthern California, Pardo became interested ingame design after serving asDungeon Master for his friends'Dungeons & Dragons games.[1] In a 2014 interview, Pardo reflected that his competitive nature came from being the only child of his similarly competitive father. Dissuaded by the difficulty of becoming a film director, Pardo attended theUniversity of California, Irvine, intending to become a lawyer.[2] However, he joinedInterplay Entertainment after seeing a co-worker at hiselectronics store job apply at thevideo game developer.[1]
After briefly working at Interplay, Pardo was hired byBlizzard Entertainment in 1997 because of his skill atreal-time strategy games.[1] After working as a developer onStarCraft, Pardo was elevated to lead designer of itsBrood War expansion andWarcraft III: Reign of Chaos.[3] Next promoted to Vice President of Game Design, Pardo used his experiences playingEverQuest to guide development ofWorld of Warcraft.[4] In 2006, he was named on theTime 100 annual list of influential people, though Blizzard staff criticizedTime magazine for attributing their collective work to a single individual.[1][5]
After the 2005 closure ofBlizzard North restarted development ofDiablo III, Pardo recruitedJay Wilson fromRelic Entertainment to direct the game. Pardo was also responsible for proposing the game's controversialauction house, which would ultimately be removed in 2014.[1]
In 2008, Pardo initially supported development of a digital client for theWorld of Warcraft Trading Card Game, but he reassigned its developers to theBattle.net platform the following year. This pause would ultimately prove beneficial to the development ofHearthstone as a distinct game.[1]
After the success ofWorld of Warcraft, Pardo began planning for Blizzard's successorMMORPG under thecode nameTitan. However, frequent disagreements with lead writerChris Metzen led todevelopment hell with staff divided between incompatible visions. In 2013, Pardo was namedChief Creative Officer, and he used this new authority to reboot development ofTitan.[1] On July 3, 2014, Pardo left Blizzard, partially under pressure from Blizzard CEOMichael Morhaime to resign.[6] Despite criticism of Pardo's leadership, theTitan project would ultimately be reworked into thehero shooterOverwatch under the supervision ofJeff Kaplan, who Pardo had recruited.[1] Pardo met Kaplan through theirEverQuest guild, Legacy of Steel, which was well-known for its world-first completions, and he initially hired Kaplan as aWorld of Warcraft quest designer.[7]
In 2016, Pardo foundedBonfire Studios and raised $25 million in funding fromventure capital firmAndreessen Horowitz and video game developerRiot Games.[8][9] In December 2021, Pardo invested in Bright Star Studios, which developed theMMORPGEmber Sword until its cancelation in May 2025.[10][11]
