Blizzard Entertainment

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}}}} |- {{#if: | <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">No. of locations</th><td>{{{locations}}}</td></tr>}}{{#if:Michael Morhaime (president and co-founder)
Frank Pearce (vice president and co-founder)
Rob Pardo (vice president)
Shahram Dabiri (producer on World of Warcraft)
Jeffrey Kaplan (lead designer on World of Warcraft) | <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>Michael Morhaime (president and co-founder)
Frank Pearce (vice president and co-founder)
Rob Pardo (vice president)
Shahram Dabiri (producer on World of Warcraft)
Jeffrey Kaplan (lead designer on World of Warcraft)</td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr class="note"><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Area served</th><td>{{{area_served}}}</td></tr>}}{{#if:Computer and video game industry | <tr class="note"><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Industry</th><td>Computer and video game industry</td></tr>}}{{#if:The Warcraft series
The Starcraft series
The Diablo series | <tr class="note"><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Products</th><td>The Warcraft series
The Starcraft series
The Diablo series</td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr class="note"><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;"> Services</th><td>{{{services}}}</td></tr>}}{{#if:Template:Profit $1.5 Billion | <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;"> Revenue</th><td>Template:Profit $1.5 Billion</td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Operating income</th><td>{{{operating_income}}}</td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">{{#ifeq:|yes|Profit|Net income}}</th><td>{{{net_income}}}</td></tr>}}{{#if:2,700<ref name="gamasutra-E3-2007">Template:Cite news</ref> | <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Employees</th><td>2,700<ref name="gamasutra-E3-2007">Template:Cite news</ref></td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr class="note"><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Parent</th><td>{{{parent}}}</td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Divisions</th><td>{{{divisions}}}</td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Subsidiaries</th><td>{{{subsid}}}</td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr class="note"><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Owner</th><td>{{{owner}}}</td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr class="note"><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Slogan</th><td>{{{slogan}}}N/A</td></tr>}}{{#if:www.blizzard.com | <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Website</th><td>www.blizzard.com</td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr class="note"><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Dissolved</th><td>{{{dissolved}}}</td></tr>}}{{#if: | <tr><td colspan="2" class="note">{{{footnotes}}}</td></tr>}} |- |}

Blizzard Entertainment is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine, California.

History

Blizzard Entertainment was founded in February, 1991 as Silicon & Synapse by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce. The company developed games like Rock N' 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: Orcs and Humans.

Blizzard has changed hands several times since then: Davidson was acquired by Sierra On-line which was then acquired by a company called CUC International in 1996; CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant 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, Sierra On-line which included Blizzard, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard is now part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi.

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 was 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 2002, Blizzard was able to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles from Interplay Entertainment and re-release them under Game Boy Advance.<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> In 2004, Blizzard opened European offices in the Paris suburb of Vélizy, Yvelines, France, responsible for the European in-game support of World of Warcraft. On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released World of Warcraft, its MMORPG offering. 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.

Titles

Further information: List of games by Blizzard Entertainment{{#if: |,}}{{#if: | and}}{{#if: | [[]]}}{{#if: |,}}{{#if: | and}}{{#if: | [[]]}}{{#if: |,}}{{#if: | and}}{{#if: | [[]]}}{{#if: |,}}{{#if: | and}}{{#if: | [[]]}}{{#if: |,}}{{#if: | and}}{{#if: | [[]]}}{{#if: |,}}{{#if: | and}}{{#if: | [[]]}}{{#if: |,}}{{#if: | and}}{{#if: | [[]]}}{{#if: |, and [[]]}}

• Starcraft II has been officially announced as of May 19, 2007, at the World Wide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea.
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has been officially announced as of August 3, 2007, at Blizzcon 2007 in Anaheim, California, United States.
• Warcraft film (2008) - Movie based on the popular Warcraft series.

Notable unreleased titles include Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, which was cancelled on May 22, 1998, Shattered Nations, and Starcraft: Ghost, which was indefinitely postponed on March 24, 2006 after being in development hell for much of its lifespan, and whose current status is in question. The company also has a history of missing release dates.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Pax Imperia II was originally announced as a title to be published by Blizzard. Blizzard eventually dropped Pax Imperia II, though, when it decided it might be in conflict with their other space strategy project, the now-legendary Starcraft. THQ eventually contracted with Heliotrope and released the game in 1997 as Pax Imperia Eminent Domain.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that they will be producing a Warcraft live-action movie. <ref>{{

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Former employees

Over the years, some former Blizzard employees have moved on and established gaming companies of their own:

• Flagship Studios<ref>About Flagship Studios</ref>, currently working on Hellgate: London and Mythos.
• ArenaNet<ref>ArenaNet</ref>, creators of the Guild Wars franchise.
• Ready at Dawn Studios<ref>About Ready At Dawn Studios</ref>, creators of Daxter, currently developing God of War: Chains of Olympus.
• Red 5 Studios<ref>Red 5 Studios</ref>, currently working on a yet to be announced next-gen MMOG.
• Castaway Entertainment<ref>About Castaway Entertainment</ref>, currently working on a yet to be announced next-gen title.
• U.I. Pacific Games<ref>UIPG Company Information</ref>, currently working on a PC and Xbox 360 MMOG.
• Nethera Studios<ref>Nethèra Studios</ref>, currently working on a yet to be announced next-gen title.

Controversies

Battle.net

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