Blizzard art director known for World of Warcraft and Overwatch has sadly passed away

Over the weekend, it became clear that the video game industry had lost a legend. Bill Petras, known for his time at Blizzard over two separate periods, unfortunately passed away, something that was confirmed by ex-Blizzard employee Harley D Huggins on LinkedIn.

Petras was regarded for his time at Blizzard between 1997 and 2005, where he helped sculpt the vision of World of Warcraft as its art director. He then left the company for a while to explore other opportunities before returning in 2010 to help oversee the visuals of Overwatch as its art director, a role he held until 2021, including progressing to take on the art director role on Overwatch 2.

Speaking about Petras, Huggins stated: "I'm writing to share some heartbreaking news. Bill Petras, a game development legend has unexpectedly passed away. Billy was an amazingly gifted artist who worked at Blizzard Entertainment for almost two decades. He was immensely proud of the work he did there, most notably as the Art Director for World of Warcraft and Overwatch.

"Billy and I started at Blizzard the same week and were close friends for 28 years. I will miss our regular, long, rambling conversations about life, game dev, games, art, comic books, toys, monster movies and Conan. He will be deeply missed by me and all who knew him."

Rest in peace, Petras, your contribution to video games won't be forgotten.