The visual style of Blizzard’s games, especially that found in World of Warcraft, is evocative, immediately identifiable, and arguably a hallmark of the way the studio’s games look. One of the names leading that style was Bill Petras, who served as the art director for the MMORPG when it first launched in 2004. Unfortunately, we have the sad duty to report that he has passed away. He was only 54 years old.
The news was shared on LinkedIn by colleague and former Blizzard cinematics director Harley D. Huggins II, who remarked on Petras’ nearly 20 years of creation at the studio. “Billy and I started at Blizzard the same week and were close friends for 28 years,” he remarks. “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.”
After leaving Blizzard in 2005 to co-found Red 5 Studio, Petras returned in 2010, when he worked as the art director for the original Overwatch and later as senior art director for Overwatch 2. His game development career has spanned over 30 years, with some of his earliest credits being on games like Ripper, Star Crusader, and BloodNet.
His family plans a celebration of life for him at a later date, while outpourings of support have come across both LinkedIn, Reddit, and the Overwatch forums. To that we would like to add our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and the developers and fans whose lives he clearly touched.
