Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

is an American video game

developer and publisher based in Irvine, California, and is a subsidiary of the
American company Activision Blizzard. The company was founded on February
8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of
the University of California, Los Angeles:[4] Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce,
and Allen Adham. The company originally concentrated primarily on the
creation of game ports for other studios before beginning development of their
own software in 1993 with the development of games like Rock n' Roll
Racing and The Lost Vikings. In 1994 the company became Chaos Studios,
then Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. after being acquired by
distributor Davidson & Associates.

Shortly thereafter, Blizzard released Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. Blizzard went on
to create several other video games, including Warcraft sequels,
the Diablo series, the StarCraft series, and in 2004 the massively multiplayer
online role-playing game World of Warcraft. Their most recent projects include
the first expansion for Diablo III, Reaper of Souls, the online collectible card
gameHearthstone, the sixth expansion for World of Warcraft, Legion,
the multiplayer online battle arena Heroes of the Storm, the third and final
expansion for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Legacy of the Void, and
the multiplayer first-person shooter Overwatch.

On July 9, 2008, Activision merged with Vivendi Games, culminating in the

inclusion of the Blizzard brand name in the title of the resulting holding
company.[5] On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of
429 million shares from majority owner Vivendi. As a result, Activision Blizzard
became a completely independent company. [6]

Blizzard Entertainment hosts conventions for fans to meet and to promote their
games: the BlizzCon in California, United States, and the Blizzard Worldwide
Invitational in other countries, including France and South Korea.

Contents

[hide]

1History

o 1.1Key employees

o 1.2Former key employees

2Games

o 2.1Games developed

2.1.1Expansion packs
 o 2.2Ports

o 2.3Main franchises

o 2.4Unreleased games

3Technology

o 3.1Warden client

o 3.2Battle.net 2.0

4Privacy controversy and Real ID

5Legal disputes

o 5.1StarCraft privacy lawsuit

o 5.2FreeCraft

o 5.3World of Warcraft private server complications

o 5.4Founder Electronics infringement lawsuit

o 5.5MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

o 5.6Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. v. Valve Corporation

6Related companies

7See also

8References

9External links

History[edit]
Employees Rob Pardo and Tom Chilton, 2007

Blizzard Entertainment was founded by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham,

and Frank Pearce as Silicon & Synapse on February 8, 1991, a year after[4] all
three had received their bachelor's degrees from UCLA.[7] In the early
days[clarification needed], the company focused on creating game ports for other
studios. Ports include titles such as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol.
I and Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess.[8][9] In 1993, the company developed
games such as Rock n' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings (published by Interplay
Productions).

In early 1994, they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for
$6.75 million ($10.9 million today).[10] That same year 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).[11] Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their
breakthrough hit Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

Blizzard has changed hands several times since then. Davidson was acquired
along with Sierra On-Line 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 was part of the Vivendi
Games group of Vivendi. In July 2008 Vivendi Games merged with Activision,
using Blizzard's name in the resulting company, Activision Blizzard.
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 the games Diablo, Diablo II, and its expansion pack Lord
of Destruction. Blizzard North was located in San Mateo, California. The
company originated in Redwood City, California.

Blizzard launched their online gaming service Battle.net in January 1997 with
the release of their action role-playing game Diablo. In 2002, Blizzard was able
to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles, The Lost
Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing and Blackthorne, from Interplay Entertainment and
re-release them for Game Boy Advance, a handheld console.[12] In 2004,
Blizzard opened European offices in the Paris suburb of Vlizy, Yvelines, France.
On May 16, 2005, Blizzard announced the acquisition of Swingin' Ape Studios,
a video game developer which had been developing StarCraft: Ghost. The
company was then merged into Blizzard's other teams after StarCraft:
Ghost was "postponed indefinitely". On August 1, 2005, Blizzard announced
the consolidation of Blizzard North into the headquarters at 131 Theory in UC
Irvine's University Research Park in Irvine, California. In 2007, Blizzard moved
their headquarters to 16215 Alton Parkway in Irvine, California.

On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released World of Warcraft, a massively

multiplayer online role-playing game. World of Warcraft is the fourth released
game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced
by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994.[13] Blizzard announced World of
Warcraft on September 2, 2001.[14] The game was released on November 23,
2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.

The first expansion set of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on
January 16, 2007.[15] The second expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, was
released on November 13, 2008.[16] The third expansion set, Cataclysm[17]
[18]
was released on December 7, 2010.[19] Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of
Draenor, were released respectively on September 25, 2012 and November 13,
2014. The most recent expansion, Legion, was released on August 30, 2016.[20]
[21]

Having peaked at 12 million monthly subscriptions in 2010, World of

Warcraft subscriptions sunk to 6.8 million in 2014, the lowest number since the
end of 2006, prior to The Burning Crusade expansion.[22][23][24] However, World
of Warcraft is still the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, [16][25][26]and holds
the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. [27][28]
[29][30]
In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62 percent of the
MMORPG subscription market.[31]In 2008, Blizzard was honored at the 59th
Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the creation of World of
Warcraft. Mike Morhaime accepted the award.[citation needed]
In 2012 Blizzard had 4,700 employees,[3] with offices across 11 cities
including Austin, Texas, and countries around the globe. As of June 2015, the
company's headquarters in Irvine, California had 2,622 employees. [32]

Key employees[edit]

Michael Morhaime Co-founder, President (1991present)

Allen Adham Founder, Senior Vice President, Executive Producer and

former President (19912004, 2016present)

Frank Pearce Jr. Co-founder, Senior Vice President, Chief Design

Officer (1991present)

Samwise Didier Senior Art Director (1992present)

Bob Fitch Technical Director (1992present)

Matt Samia Vice-President/Cinematics & Media (1995present)

Jeff Chamberlain Cinematics Director (2000present)

Dustin Browder Game Director (2007present)

Jeff Kaplan Game Director (2002present)

Ion Hazzikostas Game Director (2008present)

Former key employees[edit]

David Brevik - Co-Founder and President of Blizzard North/Director at

Blizzard Ent. (1993-2003)

Bill Roper Vice-President of Blizzard North/Director at Blizzard Ent.

(19942003)

Sam Lantinga - Lead Software Engineer (2001-2011)

Greg Street - Lead Systems Designer (2008-2013)

Alex Mayberry Lead Game Producer (20042014)

Shane Dabiri Lead Producer (19942014)

Rob Pardo Executive Vice President of Game Design (19982014)

Joeyray Hall DVD/Video production supervisor (19922015)

Paul W. Sams Chief Operating Officer (19962015)

 Nick Carpenter Executive Art Director (19942016)

Josh Mosqueira Game Director (20112016)

Chris Metzen Vice President of Creative Development (19942016)