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Frank Pearce is an American game developer and one of the three founders of Blizzard Entertainment, alongside Allen Adham and Mike Morhaime. He started as a programmer, led the Warcraft III team, and was executive producer of four World of Warcraft expansions before retiring as Blizzard's Chief Development Officer in 2019, after 28 years with the company.
Founding Blizzard
Pearce studied at UCLA with Adham and Morhaime. When the two founded Silicon & Synapse in Irvine, California, in February 1991, they hired Pearce, their friend and fellow UCLA graduate, as the first employee. Unlike his partners, who each put $10,000 into the company, Pearce chose to draw a salary rather than invest for a share of the company. Blizzard has always counted him as one of its three co-founders, and in 2006 the three received UCLA's Samueli School of Engineering Professional Achievement Award together.
In the early days the studio was tiny, and Pearce worked as both a programmer and the receptionist. Much of his time went to ports of other companies' games, and to Blizzard's own early console titles, including Blackthorne and Justice League Task Force. He did some work on Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994) and then on Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (1995), which he named as his favorite game in a 2001 Blizzard anniversary profile. He also worked as a programmer on Diablo and StarCraft.
Warcraft III and World of Warcraft
Pearce later led the Warcraft III development team. As Blizzard grew, he moved from programming into production and management, eventually becoming a senior vice president.
He was executive producer of World of Warcraft's first four expansions:
| Expansion | Year |
|---|---|
| The Burning Crusade | 2007 |
| Wrath of the Lich King | 2008 |
| Cataclysm | 2010 |
| Mists of Pandaria | 2012 |
Those expansions were designed under lead designers including Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton. Pearce is also listed in the crew of the 2006 South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft," which was set in World of Warcraft.
His final title at Blizzard was Chief Development Officer. When Morhaime stepped down as president and CEO in October 2018, Pearce took on an advisory role to support the new president, J. Allen Brack.
Leaving Blizzard
On July 19, 2019, Pearce announced that he was stepping away from Blizzard after about 28 years. In his farewell message he said it was time to pass the torch to the next generation of leaders and mentioned plans to spend more time outdoors and learn an instrument. Ray Gresko succeeded him as Chief Development Officer.
In-game tribute
Guard Pearce is a Stormwind guard posted at the bridge into Lakeshire in Redridge Mountains, on the right-hand side as you face the town from the flight master. Lakeshire is the main Alliance town of Redridge, a zone for characters of roughly level 15 to 25 where the town's guards hold the line against Blackrock orcs and gnolls. Warcraft Wiki notes that Guard Pearce is named after Frank Pearce. Two other Pearces in later content, Natalia and Victor, may be relatives of the guard in the game's fiction.
Sources
Categories: Developers