Rob Pardo

Rob Pardo (born June 9, 1970) is an American video game designer who is the founder of Bonfire Studios. He previously served as Chief Creative Officer of Blizzard Entertainment until resigning in 2014 after nearly 17 years with the company.

Early life Born on June 9, 1970, in Southern California, Pardo became interested in game design after serving as Dungeon Master for his friends' Dungeons & Dragons games. However, he joined Interplay Entertainment after seeing a co-worker at his electronics store job apply at the video game developer. After working as a developer on StarCraft, Pardo was elevated to lead designer of its Brood War expansion and Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Next promoted to Vice President of Game Design, Pardo used his experiences playing EverQuest to guide development of World of Warcraft. In 2006, he was named on the Time 100 annual list of influential people, though Blizzard staff criticized Time magazine for attributing their collective work to a single individual.

After the 2005 closure of Blizzard North restarted development of Diablo III, Pardo recruited Jay Wilson from Relic Entertainment to direct the game. Pardo was also responsible for proposing the game's controversial auction house, which would ultimately be removed in 2014. Despite criticism of Pardo's leadership, the Titan project would ultimately be reworked into the hero shooter Overwatch under the supervision of Jeff Kaplan, who Pardo had recruited.

Later work In 2016, Pardo founded Bonfire Studios and raised $25 million in funding from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and video game developer Riot Games. In December 2021, Pardo invested in Bright Star Studios, which developed the MMORPG Ember Sword until its cancelation in May 2025.