J. Allen Brack is a video game developer and former president of

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...

. He left his position at Blizzard in 2021 following allegations of sexual harassment taking place in the company.

Career

In 1994, Brack began his career in the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

Origin Systems Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres of video games ...

, initially working as a quality assurance tester. Later he moved to the production team. In 2000, he joined

Sony Online Entertainment Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in ...

, where he eventually became the producer on

Star Wars Galaxies ''Star Wars Galaxies'' (''Galaxies'') is a discontinued '' Star Wars-''themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and published by LucasArts. The open worl ...

until he left in 2005. In 2006, Brack joined

, where he held a variety of positions, mostly working on

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...

. He served as the game's executive producer, before being appointed president of Blizzard Entertainment in October 2018. In 2019, Brack apologized for Blizzard's handling of the Blitzchung incident. In August 2021, he stepped down from his position as president, after

Activision Blizzard Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. Activision Blizzard currently includes three operating units: Activision, Blizzard Entertainment and King (company), King. Founded in July 2 ...

was sued in July of the same year by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

asserted that the management created a " frat boy culture" that allowed gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment. In 2023, Brack founded Magic Soup Games, a new video game development company, with former colleagues Jen Oneal and John Donham.

References

Living people Video game developers {{videogame-bio-stub