Blizzard Entertainment

After the release of Warcraft in 1994, Blizzard became one of the most successful in the world. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California.

History

The history of Blizzard Entertainment dates back to February 1991, when Silicon & Synapse was founded. Its founders were Mike Morhaime, Allen Adham, Frank Pearce.

Team Blizzard, 1991.

The company released the games Rock N'Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings (publisher - Interplay Entertainment).

In 1994, the company changed its name to Chaos Studios, but it is discovered that such a name is already occupied, so it is decided to name the studio Blizzard Entertainment.

In 1994, the company was acquired by the distributor Davidson & Associates, for $10 million. Some time later, Blizzard released the first hit - Warcraft. After that, the owner of Blizzard changed several more times.

In 1996, Davidson was acquired by CUC International.

In 1996, Blizzard acquired Condor Games, which worked for Blizzard on Diablo. Later, the name was changed to Blizzard North and since then, the studio has released a hit series of games: Diablo, Diablo II and addon Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Blizzard North is located in San Mateo (California).

With the release of action-rpg (English Action-RPG) Diablo in January 1997, Blizzard launches an online gaming service Battle.net.

In 1997, the owner of Blizzard, CUC, merged with the hotel, real estate and car rental agency (HFS Corporation) into Cendant Software.

In 1998, it was discovered that before the merger of companies, the CUC was involved in large money fraud. Over the next six months, the cost of Cendant decreased by 80%. The company sold the software development division, including Blizzard, to the French publisher Havas. But in the same 1998, Havas was purchased by Vivendi.

In 2004, Blizzard opened a European division in France, near Paris, responsible for playing support for World of Warcraft in Europe. On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released World of Warcraft, which is quickly becoming the most popular MMORPG in history.

On May 16, 2005, Blizzard acquired Swingin 'Ape Studios, a console game developer, to work on StarCraft: Ghost. Later, the name will change to Blizzard Console, and the studio will focus on new generation consoles, the release of StarCraft: Ghost is postponed indefinitely.

On August 1, 2005, Blizzard announced the relocation of Blizzard North to its head office in Irvine, California.

In December 2007, it was announced that Activision would be merged with Blizzard Entertainment.

2021: Resignation of Blizzard Entertainment head Allen Brak after harassment scandal

In early August 2021, the resignation of Blizzard Entertainment CEO Allen Braque was announced. The dismissal occurred against the backdrop of a scandal centered on a game developer, including the popular World of Warcraft. A lawsuit was filed against the management of Blizzard Entertainment with charges of sexual discrimination and harassment. More details here.

2015: Kanobu: Blizzard began to block the accounts of Crimean players

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The game company Blizzard Entertainment, which produces games such as World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, began to block the accounts of players from the Crimea. It is reported by the publication "Kanobu" with reference to information from readers.

The publication refers to a letter from developers published by one of the users. It says that "the company is obliged to take such measures to comply with legal restrictions on trade with some countries/regions." The same restrictions will not allow Blizzard to return money to players or transfer games to other accounts.

According to the user, in order to avoid blocking, it is enough not to report reliable information about your own place of residence. Official confirmation from Blizzard has not yet been received - as well as complaints from other players.