Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard was founded in 1991 as Silicon & Synapse by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce, and took the Blizzard name in 1994, the year of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. Diablo, StarCraft, World of Warcraft and Overwatch followed. Microsoft has owned it since buying Activision Blizzard in 2023.
History
- February 1991. Silicon & Synapse founded by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce.
- 1993. Studio renamed Chaos Studios after Adham disliked the original name.
- 1994. Davidson & Associates acquired the studio, which was renamed Blizzard Entertainment; Warcraft: Orcs & Humans released.
- January 1997. Diablo released alongside Battle.net.
- March 1998. StarCraft released; top-selling PC game of the year.
- 23 November 2004. World of Warcraft released in North America.
- 13 October 2023. Microsoft completed its Activision Blizzard acquisition; Blizzard became part of Microsoft Gaming.
Engines
- Unity (licensed): Hearthstone (2014)
In their words
It’s probably the game that put Blizzard on the map
Michael Morhaime, Co-founder and former president, Blizzard Entertainment. Source: Wikipedia.
Blizzard Entertainment games on Gamenator
Each game links to its article; engines and genres link to our pages.
Read the story: Battleborn, Overwatch and the name “hero shooter”.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1991
- Founders
- Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, Frank Pearce
- Headquarters
- Irvine, California, United States
- Owner
- Microsoft, via Activision Blizzard (Microsoft Gaming division) since October 2023
- Status
- Active
- Website
- blizzard.com
Sources
Checked .
- Blizzard Entertainment — Wikipedia
- Michael Morhaime — Wikipedia
- About - Blizzard Entertainment — blizzard.com
- Activision Blizzard — Wikipedia
Image credits
- Blizzard Entertainment's campus in Irvine, California — KennethHan. Public domain (as marked on the file page). Resized and converted to WebP
