Blizzard Entertainment
From ORG Wiki
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| Company Type | Subsidiary (see parent) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1991 |
| Location | Irvine, CA, USA |
| Key People | Mike Morhaime (president and co-founder) |
| Products | Click here to view |
| Parent Company | Vivendi Universal |
| Website | Blizzard.com |
Blizzard Entertainment is an American PC game developer and publisher owned by French corporation Vivendi Universal. Since its release of Warcraft in 1994 and then StarCraft in 1998, it has been one of the most successful game development studios in the world. Its headquarters are based in Irvine, California. The company has a history of largely overshooting release dates. However, many Blizzard fans see this as somewhat of a blessing in disguise, as Blizzard has a reputation for producing classic games that are played for years to come (such as StarCraft).
Later many of it's employees left to form Flagship Studios, feeling that Vivendi Universal was mis-managing the company. This included the former VP of Blizzard North, Bill Roper, who directed production of the very successul games Diablo II, StarCraft: Brood War and WarCraft III among others.
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[edit] Overview
Blizzard Entertainment was founded in February, 1991 as Silicon & Synapse by Mike Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce. The company developed games like Rock & Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings (published by Interplay Productions). In 1994, the company briefly changed its name to Chaos Studios, before finally settling on Blizzard Entertainment after it was discovered that another company with the Chaos name already existed. That same year, they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for under $10 million. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit, Warcraft.
Blizzard has changed hands several times since then: Davidson was acquired by a timeshare company called CUC International in 1996; CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant Software, in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger; Cendant's stock lost 80% of its value over the next six months in the ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, including Blizzard, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard is now part of the VU Games group of Vivendi Universal.
In 1996, Blizzard acquired Condor Games, which had been working on the game Diablo for Blizzard at the time. Condor was renamed Blizzard North, and has since developed hit games Diablo, Diablo II, and its expansion pack Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Blizzard North is located in San Mateo, California.
Blizzard launched their online gaming service Battle.net in January of 1997 with the release of their action-RPG Diablo.
In 1998 they released StarCraft, which became immensely popular to this day, especially in Korea where expert players are nationally-known celebrities.
On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released World of Warcraft, which has quickly grown to become one of the most popular MMORPGs in history.
On May 16, 2005, Blizzard announced the acquisition of Swingin' Ape Studios, a console game developer which had been developing StarCraft: Ghost. The team was renamed Blizzard Console and is now focusing on next generation consoles, after StarCraft: Ghost was 'postponed indefinitely'.
On August 1, 2005, Blizzard announced the consolidation of Blizzard North into the headquarters in Irvine, California.
[edit] Titles
- The Lord of the Rings (1990) - RPG
- The Lost Vikings (1992) - platform game
- Rock & Roll Racing (1993) - racing game
- Blackthorne (1994) - fantasy platform game
- The Death and Return of Superman (1994) - side-scrolling beat 'em up
- Warcraft (1994) - fantasy real-time strategy game
- Justice League Task Force (1995) - one-on-one fighting game
- The Lost Vikings II (1995) - platform game
- Warcraft II (1995) - fantasy real-time strategy game
- Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal (1996) - expansion pack
- Diablo (1996) - action-oriented computer role-playing game
- Diablo: Hellfire (1997) - expansion pack (co-created by Sierra Studios)
- StarCraft (1998) - science fiction real-time strategy game
- StarCraft: Brood War (1998) - expansion pack
- Diablo II (2000) - action-oriented RPG
- Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (2001) - expansion pack
- Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) - fantasy real-time strategy game
- Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (2003) - expansion pack
- World of Warcraft (2004) - MMORPG set in the Warcraft universe
Blizzard is currently working on an expansion to World of Warcraft called World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Notable unreleased titles include StarCraft: Ghost which was 'indefintely postponed' on March 24, 2006, and Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans which was cancelled on May 22, 1998.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Blizzard's website
- Battle.Net website
- Press release announcing their acquisition of Swingin' Ape (developers of StarCraft: Ghost)
- Operation CWAL
This article on "Blizzard Entertainment" incorporates text from Wikipedia
