Blizzard Art Director for World of Warcraft and Overwatch Bill Petras Has Died

by
William D’Angelo
, posted 14 hours ago / 851 Views

Former developer at Blizzard Entertainment Harley D Huggins announced via LinkedIn Bill Petras, the Art Director for World of Warcraft and Overwatch, has died.

“I’m writing to share some heartbreaking news,” said Huggins. “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.

“The family is planning a Celebration of Life at a later date.”

A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.

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