Studio Profile : Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment^® is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software. After establishing the Blizzard label in 1994, the company quickly became one of the most popular and well-respected makers of computer games. By focusing on creating well-designed, highly enjoyable entertainment experiences, Blizzard has maintained an unparalleled reputation for quality since its inception.

Blizzard’s track record of back-to-back #1-selling games spans more than a decade, and with blockbuster hits such as World of Warcraft^®, Warcraft^® III: Reign of Chaos^™, Diablo^® II, and StarCraft^®, the company has earned several consecutive Game of the Year awards. In addition, Blizzard’s online game service, Battle.net^®, is the largest of its kind in the world, with millions of active users.

The high-quality products based on Blizzard’s games have also proven popular and garnered much critical acclaim. These products include action figures, novels, manga, board games, pen-and-paper role-playing games, apparel, and the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, which is a bestseller in its category. Extending the reach of its game universes even further, Blizzard is currently at work with Legendary Pictures, the studio behind the feature films Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and 300, on a live-action Warcraft movie.

Blizzard’s most recent game release was World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade^™, the expansion set to the company’s bestselling, award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft. Launched in January 2007 in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade sold a record-setting 2.4 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time — a mark previously held by Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade went on to sell a record 3.5 million copies within its first month. The expansion was launched in South Korea in February 2007 and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau in April 2007, and localization into Simplified Chinese is currently underway in preparation for release in mainland China.

World of Warcraft initially launched on November 23, 2004 in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, with subsequent launches in South Korea, Europe, mainland China, Singapore, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau in 2005 and Thailand and Malaysia in 2007. The game has achieved unprecedented popularity on a global scale, with currently more than 8.5 million subscribers worldwide. It is available in seven different languages based on the regions in which it is played, and has earned awards and praise from publications around the world.

Blizzard’s original Warcraft game, Warcraft^®: Orcs & Humans^™, was touted as one of the best strategy games of 1994, and the game’s epic sequel, 1995’s Warcraft^® II: Tides of Darkness^™, won numerous awards, including the company’s first Game of the Year award. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, released in July 2002, has likewise won several accolades and has become a staple of professional tournament gaming, along with its expansion, the award-winning Warcraft^® III: The Frozen Throne^™, which was released in July 2003.

Blizzard’s action-role-playing game (RPG) Diablo, which shipped to stores in the last week of December 1996, debuted at #1 in the United States and was widely credited as having helped to revitalize the RPG genre. In 2000, Blizzard launched the game’s sequel, Diablo II, which set the record for fastest-selling PC game ever at the time of its release. The company followed up in 2001 with the expansion, Diablo^® II: Lord of Destruction^™, which sold more than a million copies in its first month and was one of the biggest sellers of 2001, in addition to receiving widespread critical acclaim.

StarCraft, which Blizzard released in March 1998, was the company’s third #1 seller and was listed as the bestselling game of 1998 by PC Data. The game’s expansion set, StarCraft^®: Brood War^™, was named best expansion of 1998 and is still considered by many critics to be one of the best add-on products to date. Like Warcraft III, StarCraft has been a long-running staple of professional tournament gaming. This is especially the case in South Korea, where the game’s mass popularity played a major role in the birth of the professional-gaming and game-broadcasting phenomena, as well as serving as one of the key drivers behind the growth of the PC-game-room business.

Prior to the release of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Blizzard served as a third-party developer, creating entertainment software for various platforms, including MS-DOS, Macintosh, Sega Genesis, and Super NES. The company’s best-known titles from this era include Rock ‘n Roll Racing^®, The Lost Vikings^®, and Blackthorne^™.

The Blizzard research and development group comprises more than 250 designers, producers, programmers, artists, and sound engineers. Each member of the Blizzard staff is a true game enthusiast, giving the company invaluable insight into creating products for gamers.

Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, was founded in 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by Allen Adham, President Michael Morhaime, and Senior Vice President Frank Pearce.