Head Of Blizzard Talks 35th Anniversary, BlizzCon, and More | Official Xbox Podcast

SPEAKER 1: Games in this podcast range from E to M. [ Xbox Sound ]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the official Xbox podcast - the only podcast - coming to you from Inside Xbox. And as you can see, we may be up for a temporary rebrand as we are coming to you from inside Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, California. Now, throughout the week, we have spoken to the Diablo team and the Overwatch team who are lining up a huge 2026 for their particular franchises. You will definitely want to check out those episodes - super informative. You can find them on the Xbox YouTube channel, Apple podcast, or Spotify, or wherever you happen to be watching this one. And this week, we have also learned that the World of Warcraft and Hearthstone teams are also lining up an incredible year as well. So, with everything going on from Blizzard, if feels like the perfect time to catch up with the president of Blizzard. It is so great to see you - Johanna Faries. Welcome to the show.

JOHANNA FARIES: Thank you, and welcome to HQ.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Thanks. Thanks for having us here. Like I'm taking a lot of design notes. I'm like studio, can we get some really cool collectibles - there's things we can bring back, I think -

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah. Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: -- to make the Xbox podcast a little bit better. So, to - we talked about it at the top. A massive year for Blizzard in 2026.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It may be the 25th anniversary for Xbox, but Blizzard is in its 35th year.

JOHANNA FARIES: That's right.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So, it really puts things into like a context. It's also the 30th anniversary of Diablo. A lot of ways of making me feel old this year because I've been -

JOHANNA FARIES: likewise.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: -- yeah. From the start, from Diablo, 10 years of Overwatch. So, I just want to know, how are you and the team feeling now that the spotlights are out there, there was the big broadcast, and now that this year is really off and running?

JOHANNA FARIES: We're so excited. I'm proud to be a part of it. You know this has been planned for for months if not well over a year. And we can talk more about how it all came together. But you're exactly right. I think everyone is all hands on deck I think we're thrilled with how the spotlights have come together to ladder up to something even bigger on behalf of the entire company. But each franchise, each game has something very unique. It's not a one-size fits all situation here. So, I think we have been really thoughtful about let's give our players of these games what they're hoping for and hopefully delight them and surprise them in some big ways. I think those have landed. And we'll just continue to sort of prime what we hope to be a very, very big year as we continue on here in 2026.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You know, I think when there's like an anniversary and it's like, yeah, of course it's every five years, every 10 years people talk about certain things. But there was this video that you all revealed when the Blizzard showcase was announced. The way it hit me like the feels of like, "Wait, I had a monitor like that," or "I had a keyboard like that," or the sounds of even a disc going into a tray.

JOHANNA FARIES: That's right.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's amazing how much this stuff means to people. It's not nostalgia just for nostalgia's sake, but it's like the fact that things are still going and are still just so much a part of our lives.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah, and credit to so many people at Blizzard who came together and said how can we creatively honor the legacy of 35 years but do it in an out of the box way and take even ourselves back on the journey of where we've been, how we've gotten to this point. There's so much to be proud of. The way in which that was harkening back to the past in a powerful way, brought the feels. I think we've all seen it in different ways. I continue to kind of tear up even seeing it hundreds of times now,

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

JOHANNA FARIES: And I think it also was a testament too, as we talked about in the spot, the craft, right? This is human souls working tirelessly to think about every detail, every pixel, every story, every character. I think that is what sets Blizzard apart in many ways, but I think the way that the teams concentrated that feeling and also set us up for an exciting, bold future to come was really brilliantly done.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And that was handcrafted. Like when I found out - actually, a lot of working on this podcase here -

JOHANNA FARIES: That's right.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: -- worked on that, and they physically lined up a huge table -

JOHANNA FARIES: Huge table.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Like 30 feet long or something like that.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah, it was like code name long table because that's what it was in many ways.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, anyone who like found that code name would have no idea that -

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: -- that was going to be the perfect in hiding in plain side code name.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah. Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So, Johanna, you've been with Blizzard for a couple of years now. You were - I'd like to just learn a little bit more about you. You were the general manager for a little franchise for Call of Duty.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I think we're all familiar with it.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You also worked for another thing I think we all might know a little bit about, the NFL. You were there for a decade working on things like fan development. And I'm sure you have a lot of stories, and that could be its own podcast on its own. But for the Blizzard fans and the players out there, what do you want them to know about you?

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah. I think first and foremost, I have had a really fun career thinking about communities and communities at scale and passion and legacy and what does it mean to sort of build mega entertainment experiences around that passion, right? I could go on and on about why I think where I sit now is like the coolest way to spend my time. No disrespect. But it was more a way to kind of bring these other experiences that I've had at the NFL, bring what I've learned seeing stitched together at COD and come over here and really say, look, in many ways Blizzard represents, I would say, arguably the best IP in the world. And on top of the that IP are some of the most thriving and dynamic global communities in the world. And so, let's have fun with that. Let's think about how we harken back to legacy, how we unearth wonderful things from the past while also sort of priming our future in a more modern way. And so, I think there's sort of a both and that we've been running here. We have so much to be proud of, but this a look forward moment, right? And how do we shape the next 35 years in a big way.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So, let's do that.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Last year, of course, had a number of really big moments for Blizzard. For me the high point was enjoying and getting a feel for the paladin in Diablo.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Of course, housing began to roll out in WOW, new heroes that dropped in Overwatch among many other updates and features. But the announcements for this year, they feel like an order of magnitude bigger. You know, it's obviously very early in the year. I'm just really curious like the way things lined up with all these announcements aligning at the same time. Was it serendipity? Was it something where it was like, no, everyone wants to go in big for year 35? Just really is this like the culmination of years of work? Or is it just like, wow, it really timed out awesomely that everyone has got a big update this year?

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah, it's a little bit of both to be honest. Some of it was organic. You know, every one of our franchise teams and our game teams within those franchises think a lot about what do we want to do next year, what do we want to do five years from now, maybe what do we want to do 10 years from now. And we've organized, I think, our thinking and our strategic planning to make sure that that comes together in a really thoughtful way. It's very intentional how we've slate planned into the future. And we've talked a little bit about that. Like how do we maintain a cadence. We're excited, but we're hungry.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

JOHANNA FARIES: You know, we have things we want to launch. We have things we want to get out there into the world and start learning and being in conversation and being in game play with our players. At the same time, the inorganic part, I think, was we sat back, I certainly did well over a year ago, and I said, look, there's something bigger going on here, and I think we can marry this. I think we can make this, to your point, a party on behalf of all of Blizzard entertainment. And, again, kudos to so many people who were willing to say, hey, there's actually a way we can make almost a symphony orchestra come together in this moment instead of just doing it franchise by franchise.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

JOHANNA FARIES: And hopefully if you're a fan of Blizzard, you're going to feel something bigger than just, oh, I got what I needed from Overwatch, or I got what I needed from Diablo, right?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Right. Right. So, it's not just teams playing in the same sandbox at the same time but really playing together in a lot of ways.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yes, exactly. Yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So, when we had the chance to speak with the Overwatch team, and that episode was a really fun episode, we asked them about dropping the two from the name. And they told us it was something that they wanted to do and that you had supported them in that. And I'm just really curious like what the conversation is like when you're working with these teams, they come to you with a unique or a non-traditional sort of ask, and like what is the process like -

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah. Well, first of all, I love bold thinking. And I love that the teams came together and said, look, this is a big page turn for Overwatch, the universe that it represents. This is going to be a yearlong arc in terms of narrative and character development. We're bringing in 10 new heroes, but it's so much more than just -

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes.

JOHANNA FARIES: -- playable heroes right now. It's about sort of bringing back the power of Overwatch's lore, which I've always been a big fan of, and I know so many other players are hungry for, right? So, I heard the pitch, if you will, but I, too, as a player and as a member of Blizzard said this is a beautiful recommendation. You know, how do we just set it up for success, right, so that we can have it represent exactly what we want it to symbolize, which is this is a reset for a timeless game. We don't want to be locked into chronology necessarily, and we're forever a franchise. Let's get after it. And when I asked, and you have to a person 20-plus, 30-plus people, again, in unison being strategic and intentional about the decision, it's an easy yes from my vantage point.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Very cool.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So, as we mentioned, Blizzard is in its 35th year, which is such a long time in gaming. I feel like - I think back to what gaming was in 1991, which was me on a Sega Genesis or on a computer that took like five minutes to boot up.

JOHANNA FARIES: Totally. Yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Not many game companies get to make it this far. And so, I'm just wondering when you're thinking about the vision for this company, this collection of like enduring franchises and great teams, how far down the road do you look? Do you look five years? Do you look 10 years down the line? Do you like 35 years down the line? What's Christmas 2061 look like?

JOHANNA FARIES: Yes. Yes. We are working both in the here and now and have to be agile around that and really deliver while also having a very long-term lens. This goes back to the planning piece. I know it's not always as exciting, but it is, to me, fundamental to being, again, intentional and collaborative around who do we want to be in many ways? What do we want the next 35 years to look like? What's the vision? What's the direction? And we've set a lot in motion with respect to that making sure we're clear on it. Making sure we're coordinated on it. Making sure that every year from this moment forward there's sort of a reliability that players can depend on us to launch in the big ways, launch in the surprising ways, maybe take some zags. Not everything is going to hit. That's gaming, you know? But in many ways, let's understand where are we going not only as a company but by franchise, by a game, right? Where do we want this all to ladder up to? So, I feel really proud about that. I think, at minimum, if you were to ask any of our major teams right now, hey, what's your plan for the next three, four-plus years, they have a very clear answer. And then we understand holistically how that all adds up, so I'm excited.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I wish when someone asked me what my five-year plan is I could say something -

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I guess the one thing I could confidently say probably still playing Diablo, and that will be -

JOHANNA FARIES: Love that. We want you to do that.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes, exactly. Let's talk about something very uniquely Blizzard. And that's BlizzCon -

JOHANNA FARIES: Yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Returning here in 2026. I've never been. I'm going to be here this year along with the podcast. We're very excited.

JOHANNA FARIES: Awesome.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Also, your first BlizzCon since taking the helm here at Blizzard. So, what's the - what do you think is the most important thing for Blizzard to deliver at BlizzCon? Is there something you're particularly excited for?

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Or really wanted to see in its return?

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah. There's a ton to be excited about. I mean, first and foremost though, community is everything that BlizzCon stands for, right? And so, we want to make sure that everything we bring forward, as exciting as it is, it's got to be rooted in this is our gathering well. This is where you're reuniting, we're re-gathering in many ways, and so how do we create the best gathering space? How do we forge new bonds? As far as what we have to announce, I would say it's also very exciting and intentional. Even right now, we have a huge swatch of announcements that our games have just brought forward, right? And why I say that is I think we're pretty excited to say and there's still BlizzCon coming -

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

JOHANNA FARIES: -- in this calendar year, right? Imagine what else we're stacking up. We've got to execute on that. We've got to make sure we're delivering in a big way, but I think the teams, again, are cooking. They're very excited to bring forward some major announcements or maybe surprises. At the end of the day, when I sit in my chair though I want to be able to high-five our employees at the end of the day, right? Like, for me, I'm very passionate about not only the player experience, of course, that's what we're here to delivery on, but we also owe it to ourselves to say are we proud as employees about what we put forward and what that represents in terms of the company that we work for and the work that we do together. And what do we want that all to ladder up to, again, where if you are a part of it from back of house, if you will -

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

JOHANNA FARIES: -- you're feeling just as inspired about what we brought forward as you are as a player.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, and that's so important.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's like the reason why so many of us are here.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah, that's right.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Because we love what we do, and we love the things that - if it excites us, it probably will excite our players.

JOHANNA FARIES: Yes. Yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah. Very cool. So, we're getting very close to the end here, so I've got a final question. Blizzard - a lot of folks have announced some really big things here already. Obviously, as you said, you have to have more up your sleeve with BlizzCon coming down the line here in six, seven months - I can't believe I just said that, but my daughter right now is -

JOHANNA FARIES: I hear you.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: -- is getting on me. Out of everything, and it could be something small. It could be just more broadly. What are you most excited about that is coming down the line here this year?

JOHANNA FARIES: Well, we've touched on a lot of it. You know, I think there's this sense of momentum, and there's this sense of camaraderie around what we're doing. Again, it's not scattershot. This is a very thoughtful slate of experiences that we're putting forward into the world. And, as I mentioned, I think in many ways I just want the teams to feel empowered that we took big swings, we believe in those swings, we're excited to get in and play alongside our community, hear the feedback, pivot if things aren't necessarily going the way we want. Again, that's part of being agile. But at a broader level, I think there's just an energy around this moment and how is this sort of a launching pad for a big future. It's very fulfilling to be able to come into work and feel busy in that way, pressure in that way, stakes in that way. I think we're all really proud of being able to try and pull it off. But, again, it's many years in the making here. I think this is just very much the beginning. I know you often kind of hear that, but I think '26, in many ways, really represents a long road ahead of us in terms of things to be excited about.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And 35 years in -

JOHANNA FARIES: Yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: (inaudible) it's just very cool. Johanna, thank you so much for -

JOHANNA FARIES: Thank you.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: -- taking time to talk to us in the Xbox podcast here and also taking over your space. This is coming home with me. I know that -

JOHANNA FARIES: You're welcome any time.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So, but thank you so much for that, and I just want to thank you all for joining us here on the official Xbox podcast. Again, if you haven't checked out that Diablo episode, if you haven't checked out that Overwatch episode, it is sitting there waiting for you. And we will be back here in September -

JOHANNA FARIES: Yeah. Sounds great.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: -- for BlizzCon, which is going to be really cool. So, thanks again for watching. Thanks again for listening. And we'll have another episode coming up for you really soon. So, see you then. [ Xbox Sound ]