The Beginning of Blizzard Entertainment

Activision Blizzard has a long history, which isn’t where the company wants it to be at the moment. You’ve probably met upset players even if you aren’t a fan of World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, or StarCraft. Despite the current state of the company, it was once a great place to work at. So what happened?

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier recalled Blizzard’s story in his book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment and summarized it in his article for The Atlantic. 

“Why does success seem so awful?” he starts. Blizzard was founded by two UCLA students – Allen Adham and Mike Morhaime – in 1991, “with a little seed money from their families, some college-level programming knowledge, and a handful of artists and engineers.”

StarCraft and Diablo were commercial hits, but World of Warcraft became a sensation that put the company on a pedestal of game-making.