Jeffery Kaplan leaving WoW for Blizzard's new MMO

According to a post over on the World of Warcraft forums, lead designer Jeffery Kaplan will no longer be working on Blizzard's behemoth, but will instead shift all his focus to the company's "unannounced MMO".

Jeffery states that he will still be involved in the future progression of WoW, but that day-to-day work on the game will no longer be part of his schedule.

"I still plan to be very involved with the future course of World of Warcraft, but will leave the day to day operations of World of Warcraft to my partners in crime, Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack," he said.

"When all is said and done, WoW is still my favorite game. I play it every day. None of that passion is gone. If anything, it fuels the challenge of making our next MMO even better. We know we have some big shoes to fill."

If Blizzard is pulling Jeffery off of WoW, that can only mean one of two things: the new MMO is not progressing as they had hoped it, or it's going to be huge. More than likely the latter.

You can read his full post over on the forums.