WoW Director Transitions to Mysterious New Project Inside Blizzard

World of Warcraft's game director, Tom Chilton, is no longer working on Blizzard's long-running PC MMO. In a blog post, Chilton announced that he's moving on to a "new adventure" inside of Blizzard.

Chilton worked on World of Warcraft from the very beginning, serving as senior game designer in 2004, before later being promoted to game director.

Taking Chilton's place as game director will be Ion Hazzikostas, who is a Blizzard veteran himself. "I know that WoW will be in great hands with Ion at the helm," Chilton said. "He's been an integral part of the team for more than eight years and has contributed to so many aspects of the game's development--from class design to encounter design and nearly everything in between."

Chilton also stressed that the future of World of Warcraft "continues to be bright" and said he's excited to play upcoming content as a fan.

"World of Warcraft is the product of the passion of both the team and all of its players, so I'd also like to thank each of you for the wonderful journey that working on the WoW development team has been," he said.

Chilton didn't specify what he's working on now, only saying that he will be "focusing on another project within the company."

World of Warcraft's newest expansion, Legion, came out at the end of August. It sold 3.3 million copies in its first 24 hours, matching the record set by previous expansions, including 2010's Cataclysm.

For more on Legion, check out GameSpot's review and what other critics are saying.