Former Overwatch Art Director Bill Petras Has Died

This past weekend, former Blizzard Entertainment staffer Harley Huggins shared a post on LinkedIn announcing the passing of Overwatch and World of Warcraft Art Director Bill Petras. According to the post, Petras “unexpectedly passed away”. The post did not state the reason behind his death.

Instead, Huggins chose to discuss his work as an artist and his time at Blizzard, and their friendship of 28 years. He also stated that Petras’s family is planning a Celebration of Life at a later time.

Petras spent most of his career working for Blizzard, starting in 1997, working on StarCraft, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft before leaving for a time to co-found Firefall studio Red 5. He later returned to Blizzard and worked as the Art Director on the team shooter Overwatch before leaving the company again in 2021.