Blizzard Entertainment is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. The company was founded in February 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce and Allen Adham. The company initially concentrated on porting other studio's games to computer platforms, as well RPM Racing (1991), a remake of Racing Destruction Set (1985). [1] [2] In 1992, however, the company began producing original games for home consoles with The Lost Vikings (1992) and Rock n' Roll Racing (1993), and beginning with Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994) it shifted to primarily focus on original computer games. The company was renamed to Blizzard Entertainment in 1994, and in 1996 the company Condor, then developing Diablo (1997), was merged with Blizzard and renamed to Blizzard North; it remained a separate studio for the company until it was closed in 2005. [2]
Blizzard was acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates in 1994, and a chain of acquisitions over the next four years led Blizzard to being a part of Vivendi Games, a subsidiary of Vivendi; when Vivendi Games merged with Activision in 2008 the resulting company was named Activision Blizzard. [2] The name was retained when Activision Blizzard became an independent company in 2013, while Blizzard itself has been an independent subsidiary company throughout. [3] [4]
Since the late 1990s, Blizzard has focused almost exclusively on the Warcraft , Diablo , StarCraft , and Overwatch series. All of Blizzard's games released since 2004 still receive expansions and updates, especially the long-running massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (2004). With over 100 million lifetime accounts as of 2014 and US$9 billion in revenue as of 2017, World of Warcraft is one of the best-selling computer games and highest-grossing video games of all time. [5] [6] Blizzard Entertainment has developed 19 games since 1991, in addition to developing 8 ports between 1992 and 1993; 11 of those games are in the Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft series.
Title | Details |
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Original release date: November 1991 [7] | Release years by system: 1991 – Super Nintendo Entertainment System [7] |
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Original release date: May 4, 1992 [9] | Release years by system: 1992 – Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System [9] 1993 – MS-DOS 1994 – AmigaOS, Amiga CD32 [9] [10] 2003 – Game Boy Advance [9] |
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Original release date: June 4, 1993 [12] | Release years by system: 1993 – Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis [12] 2003 – Game Boy Advance [12] |
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Title | Details |
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Original release date: August 1994 [14] | Release years by system: 1994 – Super Nintendo Entertainment System [14] 1995 – Sega Genesis [14] |
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Original release date: September 1994 [15] [16] | Release years by system: 1994 – Super Nintendo Entertainment System, MS-DOS [17] 1995 – 32X [17] 1996 – Mac OS, [17] PC-98 [18] 2003 – Game Boy Advance [17] |
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Original release date: November 23, 1994 [20] | Release years by system: 1994 – MS-DOS [20] 1996 – Mac OS [21] |
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Original release date: April 1995 [22] | Release years by system: 1995 – Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis [22] |
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Original release date: December 9, 1995 [20] | Release years by system: 1995 – MS-DOS, Mac OS [20] 1997 – Sega Saturn, PlayStation [23] 1999 – Windows [24] |
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Original release date: January 3, 1997 [35] | Release years by system: 1997 – Windows [35] 1998 – Mac OS, PlayStation [36] |
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Original release date: February 27, 1997 [43] | Release years by system: 1997 – MS-DOS, Windows, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Super Nintendo Entertainment System [44] |
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Original release date: March 31, 1998 [45] | Release years by system: 1998 – Windows [45] 1999 – Mac OS [45] 2000 – Nintendo 64 [46] |
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Original release date: June 29, 2000 [51] | Release years by system: 2000 – Windows, Mac OS [51] |
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Original release date: July 3, 2002 [20] | Release years by system: 2002 – Windows, Mac OS [20] |
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Original release date: November 23, 2004 [58] | Release years by system: 2004 – Windows, macOS [58] |
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Original release date: July 27, 2010 [69] | Release years by system: 2010 – Windows, macOS [69] |
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Original release date: May 15, 2012 [77] | Release years by system: 2012 – Windows, macOS [77] 2013 – PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [77] 2014 – PlayStation 4, Xbox One [77] 2018 – Nintendo Switch [78] |
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Original release date: March 11, 2014 [81] | Release years by system: 2014 – Windows, macOS, iOS, Android [81] |
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Original release date: June 2, 2015 [83] | Release years by system: 2015 – Windows, macOS [83] |
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Original release date: May 24, 2016 [84] | Release years by system: 2016 – Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One [84] 2019 – Nintendo Switch |
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Original release date: June 2, 2022 | Release years by system: 2022 – iOS, Android, Windows [85] |
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Original release date: October 4, 2022 | Release years by system: 2022 – Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S [86] |
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Original release date: June 6, 2023 | Release years by system: 2023 – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S [87] |
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Original release date: November 3, 2023 | Release years by system: 2023 – iOS, Android [88] 2024 – Windows [88] |
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Title | Original release | Port release | Platform | Ref(s). |
---|---|---|---|---|
Battle Chess | 1988 | 1992 | Windows, Commodore 64 | [1] [89] |
Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess | 1991 | 1992 | AmigaOS | [1] [89] |
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I | 1990 | 1992 | AmigaOS | [1] [89] |
Castles | 1991 | 1992 | AmigaOS | [89] |
MicroLeague Baseball | 1984 | 1992 | AmigaOS | [89] |
Lexi-Cross | 1991 | 1992 | Mac OS | [89] |
Dvorak on Typing | 1992 | 1992 | Mac OS | [89] |
Shanghai II: Dragon's Eye | 1993 | 1993 | Windows | [1] [89] |
Title | Cancellation date | Developer(s) | Ref(s). |
---|---|---|---|
Games People Play | "Early 1990s" | Blizzard | [90] [91] |
Crixa | "Mid 1990s" | Qualia Games | [90] [91] |
Denizen | 1990s | Sunsoft | [91] [92] |
Shattered Nations | 1996 | Blizzard | [90] [93] |
Pax Imperia 2 | August 1996 [a] | Blizzard, Changeling Software | [90] [91] |
Raiko | 1998 | Flextech | [91] [95] |
Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans | 1998 | Blizzard | [90] [91] |
Nomad | 1999 | Blizzard | [90] [91] |
StarCraft: Ghost | 2005 | Blizzard, Nihilistic Software, Swingin' Ape Studios | [90] |
Titan | 2014 [b] | Blizzard | [90] |
Odyssey | January 25, 2024 | Blizzard | [97] |
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the highly influential massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (2004), as well as the multi-million selling video game franchises Diablo,StarCraft and Overwatch. The company also operates Battle.net, an online gaming service.
Blizzard North was an American video game development studio based in San Mateo, California. The studio was the Bay Area division of Blizzard Entertainment, known for its Diablo series. The company was originally based in Redwood City, California, before moving a short distance away to San Mateo, with Blizzard proper being based in Irvine, southern California.
BlizzCon is an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to promote its major franchises including Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch.
Sam "Samwise" Didier is an American artist. He served as senior art director at Blizzard Entertainment, having been with the company since 1991. As the art director for the flagship games of the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises, the producer of several games, and an artistic contributor to almost every game released under the name Blizzard Entertainment, Didier has created a distinctive Blizzard house style. Edge described Didier's style as "a striking, pulp sensibility that may be an acquired taste, but one acquirable on either side of the Pacific, side-stepping polarisation of appeal to either eastern or western audiences." His other contributions to Blizzard projects include writing, voice acting, music, sculpture, the Pandaren species, and the name "Warcraft". Leonardo Marcato calls him "one of the game designers that can be legitimately called authors thanks to the imprint they gave to projects they directed."
Christopher Vincent Metzen is an American game designer, artist, voice actor, and author known for his work creating the fictional universes and scripts for Blizzard Entertainment's three major award-winning media franchises: Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft. Metzen was hired by Blizzard Entertainment as an animator and an artist, his first work for the company was with the video game Justice League Task Force.
Matt Uelmen is an American video game music composer and sound designer. He is best known for his work in Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo series, which was recognized with the inaugural Excellence in Audio award by the IGDA in 2001. He also worked as a sound designer for the real-time strategy game StarCraft, and worked on World of Warcraft's expansion The Burning Crusade in 2007. From 2009 until the studio's closure in 2017, Matt Uelmen worked as a member of the Runic Games team, as a composer and sound designer for the Torchlight games.
Mark Edward Kern, also known as Grummz, is a former video game executive. He worked for Blizzard Entertainment from 1997 to 2005 and was a co-founder and CEO of Red 5 Studios during the development and promotion of the video game Firefall.
StarCraft is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance among four species—the adaptable and mobile Terrans, the ever-evolving insectoid Zerg, the powerful and enigmatic Protoss, and the godlike Xel'Naga creator race—in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector. The series debuted with the video game StarCraft in 1998. It has grown to include a number of other games as well as eight novelizations, two Amazing Stories articles, a board game and other licensed merchandise, such as collectible statues and toys.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released worldwide in July 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. A sequel to the 1998 video game StarCraft and the Brood War expansion pack, the game is best known as the original installment of StarCraft II which was later followed by a number of expansion packs. Wings of Liberty has been free-to-play since November 2017.
Battle.net is an Internet-based online game, social networking service, digital distribution, and digital rights management platform developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The service was launched on December 31, 1996, followed a few days later with the release of Blizzard's action-role-playing video game Diablo on January 3, 1997. Battle.net was officially renamed to "Blizzard Battle.net" in August 2017, with the change being reverted in January 2021.
Diablo is an action role-playing video game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment in January 1997, and is the first installment in the video game series of the same name.
Echoes of War is a Blizzard Entertainment-produced orchestral version of the music from their three most popular video game series, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo. It includes previously unreleased theme music from StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Diablo III, and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
StarCraft II is a real-time strategy video game created by Blizzard Entertainment, first released in 2010. A sequel to the successful StarCraft, released in 1998, it is set in a militaristic far future. The narrative centers on a galactic struggle for dominance among various races.
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness is a fantasy real-time strategy computer game developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows in 1995 and Mac OS in 1996 by Blizzard's parent, Davidson & Associates. A sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, the game was met with positive reviews and won most of the major PC gaming awards in 1996. In 1996, Blizzard released an expansion pack, Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, for DOS and Mac OS, and a compilation, Warcraft II: The Dark Saga, for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. The Battle.net edition, released in 1999, included Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal, provided Blizzard's online gaming service, and replaced the MS-DOS version with a Windows one.
Neal Acree is an American composer of film, television, and video game music. He has scored 30 feature films, contributed music to the popular Blizzard Entertainment video game franchises StarCraft II, World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Overwatch, as well as the Chinese MMO Revelation Online. His television work includes the series Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Witchblade and the first season of Sanctuary.
Heroes of the Storm is a crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Announced at BlizzCon 2010, it was released on June 2, 2015 for macOS and Windows. The game features various characters from Blizzard's franchises as playable heroes, as well as different battlegrounds based on Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch universes.
Wang Xuwen, who goes by the pseudonym Infi, is a Chinese professional esports player of the real-time strategy games Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and Starcraft II. He previously served in team World Elite, Tyloo and VICI GAMING. He is considered one of the best Human players in the world. In 2008, World Elite was the best team of the year and Wang Xuwen was the core member. In 2009, Wang Xuwen helped World Elite obtain the champion of Warcraft III Champions League Season XIV. Additionally, Wang Xuwen also has many individual champion titles from various Premier Tournaments such as World Cyber Games and World e-Sports Games. From 2008 to 2011, the Chinese competitive scene for Warcraft III was dominated by 4 players, Lu "Fly100%" Weiliang, Li "Sky" Xiaofeng, Wang "Infi" Xuwen and Huang "TH000"Xiang. Wang "Infi" Xuwen and the other three were considered the four kings in Chinese Warcraft III. He played Starcraft II for a few years before retiring from competitive gaming.