-Blizzard's transfer over to the growing empire of Microsoft has been a bit of a drama, to say the least—but it's all over now, its curtains called with the departure of the company's , exiting stage right.

figure in gaming, quickly building [[link]] up a reputation as a ruthless capitalist—like when over Brutal Legend, prompting the studio's founder Tim Schafer to call him a "total prick". There was also a where he denied the allegations of sexual harassment problems at Blizzard as an "aggressive labour movement"—as well as a harrowing instance where he reportedly threatened an . 

A spokesperson later told the WSJ that the voicemail was "obviously hyperbolic and inappropriate" and that he "deeply regrets the exaggeration and tone in his voice". Still—he's gone now. After 32 years, some former developers are singing 'ding and dong' with a side of 'the witch is (metaphorically) dead'.

Andy Belford (a former senior manager in community development at Blizzard) took to Twitter a few days ago to break his silence on the man himself, particularly regarding . The game's Valve debut came at a time of seething community sentiment, sinking its overall review rating to "Overwhelmingly Negative". A black mark that still hasn't been washed away. 

"When we planned OW2’s steam launch, my team warned (months in advance) that we were going to be review bombed," . "We begged for more information, more details, and more resources to help us with the anticipated influx, all flatly denied."

That review bombing came from a flood of players with some (understandably) bottled frustration—a disappointed community's first opportunity to tear into the of a game they'd once loved. It seems like Belford and his team saw that meteor coming from lightyears away.

"Moderation of Steam was put on the community team," , which was something he argued against—saying that he didn't want to put his fellows in the way of that onslaught without proper backup. "When asked whose decision it was to launch on Steam with no additional help: Bobby."

that this wasn't just some one-time incident, either. It was, according to him, emblematic of the way Kotick ran things. "This is only one example … shit [[link]] flowed downstream, usually landing on the lowest paid and most overworked individuals. Management was too busy reacting to wildly vacillating direction and decisions that made zero sense."

Belford certainly isn't alone. A Christina Pollock also chimed in, stating in no uncertain terms that he "made our games worse".