Longtime game developer David Brevik publicly confirmed this week that he's resigned from free-to-play game maker Gazillion Entertertainment after over six years with the company to pursue his own ventures.
Note that Brevik is widely credited as the creator of Diablo (he co-founded Condor, which became Blizzard North, in 1993) and during his tenure as CEO Gazillion saw outsized success with its Diablo-esque F2P game Marvel Heroes.
Brevik oversaw the game's development, and cited it in as his chief reason for joining Gazillion during a 2011 interview with Gamasutra.
He went on to oversee the game's evolution and eventual relaunch/rebranding last year as Marvel Heroes 2015, a Madden-like naming trick that helped the game overcome its Metacritic woes.
Update: Brevik offered the following comment to Gamasutra on his decision to leave Gazillion:
Almost 7 years ago, I joined Gazillion to be the Creative Director on Marvel Heroes. Along the way, I was promoted often and eventually became the CEO around 3 years ago. As CEO, I spent most of my time running the company. Yes, I played the game a lot and gave feedback and contributed ideas, but it is a very different job than being Creative Director. After doing this for several years, I really want to get back to developing games and programming. I got into this industry to make games and I miss the day-to-day creation process.
That said, it was a difficult decision because I love Marvel Heroes, the community and our team, but in the end, I have to do what is right for me. The decision was made easier because I believe the future of the game is in good hands with the extremely talented team there. I know a lot of what is coming next and I'm really excited to see those ideas become a reality.
As for what's next, I am going to go indie. I'm going back to doing the things I love most: programming and making games. I will have more details in the future.
Best,
David