Where is the blizzard?

The history of blizzard

company profile

Company name: Blizzard Entertainment Company

Date of establishment: 1994 was formally established.

Chairman: Mike Morhaime

Development of games: Warcraft series, Diablo series, Star series (stand-alone); World of Warcraft (online game)

Domestic partner: Ogilvy Electronics Company

Official website:

Background information:

199 1 year: silicon &; Synapse (silicon and neural bond) company was established.

1993: It was officially named Blizzard Entertainment Company.

1994: Blizzard has only 15 employees, including programmers, designers, draftsmen and sound engineers, but it has launched the world-famous PC game Warcraft. In the same year, Blizzard was acquired by a famous distribution company.

1995: Blizzard released Warcraft II, which sold over one million sets. It was named the best multiplayer online game of the year by PCGame magazine, and sold 2.5 million sets in the following three years.

1996: Blizzard acquired vulture and changed its name to Blizzard North Studio; In the same year, the second boutique series "Diablo" went on the market and sold 18 days/10,000 sets.

1997: Blizzard launches online server "Battle.net"-Battle.net.

1998: 65438+1October 15 StarCraft went on the market, becoming the biggest selling game in the world that year. In the same year, allen adham, one of the founders, decided to resign as the president of the company and return to game design. He was replaced by Moheim. For Blizzard, 1998 was a year of change and great success.

1999: Blizzard held a contest in the battle. Net for the first time, provide 20 thousand dollars in cash and prizes. Players from all over the world rushed to participate and set off an unprecedented online game war. StarCraft was a sensation in South Korea this year, with 6,543,800 sets sold locally, making South Korea the largest user country of StarCraft.

In 2000, Blizzard had130,000 users worldwide, and registered users in Battle.net reached 7.5 million, with an average of120,000 people online every day. Diablo II was released in late June of the same year. On the day of issue, 184000 copies were sold, and it reached one million copies in less than one month.

200 1: Diablo ii expansion piece "the king of destruction" went on sale in June.

2002: warcraft 3 III is released! And topped the list of the best PC game of the year finally selected by the authoritative global media.

2003: Bill Rowe Poe visited China in March; On June 30th, four senior executives of Blizzard resigned collectively. The next day, warcraft 3's information piece "Ice Throne" was launched simultaneously around the world. Blizzard's first online game "World of Warcraft" is expected to be listed at the end of the year. 199 1 year: silicon &; Synapse (silicon and neural bond) company was established.

Game Mythmaker: Blizzard

Blizzard is a myth in the game world, which created an unprecedented classic in 10. There are many reasons for its success, but it is obvious that in the game industry, making authoritative works has always been Blizzard's desire and motivation.

Grind a sword for three years:

199 1 year, Mike Morhaime and allen adham, two graduates from UCLA, co-founded Silicon & Synapse. At first, I developed some simple board games for people. The two RPM games "Rock" and "Lost Pirates" were developed in those years, and they were fortunate to be the first super games transplanted to Nintendo in Japan in the United States. 1994, Blizzard was acquired by a famous publishing company. This year, Blizzard, which has only 15 employees, including programmers, designers, draftsmen and sound engineers, launched the world-famous PC game "Warcraft" in the name of "Blizzard" and put the label "Blizzard" on its product packaging box for the first time.

At that time, the game company didn't need huge expenses to develop a product, but the rate of return was quite rich. So a set of Warcraft earned enough breeding capital for Blizzard. 1995, Blizzard launched "Warcraft 2" while the iron was hot, which achieved greater success and sold more than one million.

1996, Blizzard's second series of boutique Diablo went on the market, 18 days sold 1 10,000 sets; The following year, Diablo II sold 2.5 million sets soon after its launch, making it the best-selling game of the year.

By 1998, Blizzard has become a big family with deep pockets and accumulated strong strength for launching StarCraft. StarCraft, regarded as an epoch-making masterpiece by the game industry, went on the market before Blizzard prepared 6,543,800 sets. As soon as it appeared, players from all over the world who had been waiting for a long time were crazy about it. Within three months, 6,543.8+0,000 sets were sold out, making it the largest selling game in the world that year. The following year, StarCraft caused a sensation in South Korea, where it sold 6.5438+million sets, making South Korea the largest user country of StarCraft.

In the global game industry, the fierce competition has reached the level of life and death. In this cruel competition, why can every game of Blizzard sell so well? Simply put, the development principle of Blizzard can be summarized in one word: "Fun". In the player's words, Blizzard's game is very playable, and it is impossible to master the essence in a few months. Starcraft has been playing for three months, and generally speaking, it is only a glimpse of the door, and there is a lot of room for learning.

Blizzard released only six games in 10, of which Warcraft series accounted for half. Strictly speaking, there are only three series of games, with an average of three years to sharpen a sword. The history of blizzard is so simple.

Hard early years:

When it comes to the stories of blizzard in the early years, they are not all colorful, but more about fighting with blizzard.

The purpose of the two entrepreneurs of Blizzard is clear: to make games that they like and are more popular with players. The development of a game blockbuster often takes a year or more, and the cycle of investment and return is longer. In the early days, Mike Mohaimi and Allen Adhan often needed to withdraw cash from personal credit cards to support the company with personal loans. During that time, they were under considerable pressure, not only to mobilize the greatest enthusiasm of employees to give full play to their talents, but also to bear the pain of not going out and entering the "cultivation period". At that time, from the perspective of capital flow, they had almost nothing.

In the end, Mike Mohaimi and Allen Adhan survived the most difficult period, and their motivation for persistence was: the opportunity to make great game works; Persistent pursuit of career; Yearning for the future of the company. There is no way to go because of the winding water flow in the mountains, and a mountain village suddenly appears in the willow-green flower bay. In the face of today's glory and looking back on that difficult time, Mike Mohami said modestly, "We are very lucky" and "Luck is around us". However, as we all know, it is impossible to start a company, especially to push it to the top of the industry, only by "luck". At that time, when Blizzard started its business, the most deadly thing was not the capital, but the name of the company. Nobody knows what a synapse is! 1993, Mike Mohaimi and Allen Adhan put silicon &; Synapse was renamed Chaos Studio. Unexpectedly, a company located in new york has registered this name and asked for a transfer fee of 654.38 million+US dollars. Mike Mowaimi admits that if the asking price is not too high, Blizzard may be a company called "Ogre Studio" today. Finally, Allen Adhan looked up the word "Blizzard" in the dictionary, so he decided to officially name the company Blizzard Entertainment Company.

Luck has changed. 1994, Davidson &; Associates took great interest in Blizzard and made an acquisition intention. After repeated weighing, Blizzard happily married each other. For many creative game companies, acquisition often means death, but Blizzard's move is different from general mergers and acquisitions, and they never give up the right to independently develop games. It is with this right that Blizzard has grown into a world-renowned "game empire" today.

1996, Blizzard acquired Condor in one fell swoop. If Blizzard is Davidson &; If the acquisition of Associates is backed by funds, then the acquisition of Condor will make Blizzard even more powerful and have a group of software research and development elites.

Only sell authoritative products:

1995, Blizzard spent $300,000 and 10 months to complete the sequel Warcraft II.

In the bleak market at that time, the global sales of Warcraft II reached 500,000 sets in just four months, becoming the first product of Blizzard with sales exceeding one million, and was named the best multiplayer online game of the year by PC Game magazine. In the following three years, 2.5 million sets were sold. "Warcraft II" made Blizzard a dazzling gold-lettered signboard, and also made players all over the world remember the name Blizzard.

After the great success of Warcraft II, Blizzard put forward new and greater challenges to itself. Only develop first-class authoritative works. This is also a major strategy for Blizzard to build a brand.

Next, if Blizzard continues to develop warcraft 3, it may be the most energy-saving and safest way, but the company's top management hopes for a new breakthrough, so the development team put forward the idea of making sci-fi games and launched a more successful StarCraft. Blizzard's business strategy is to be a brand, not to speculate on famous brands. Famous brands are not the same as brands for the simple reason that famous brands are only familiar faces, and brands are the real recognition of players!

Infinitely extending "battle net";

1997, Blizzard built an online server "Battle.net" and named it "Battle.net". The appearance of Battle. Net is Blizzard's keen feeling and accurate grasp of the Internet age, and its importance is self-evident. From 65438 to 0998, with the popularity of starcraft in the world, fighting. The network is getting stronger and stronger, and the two complement each other, making * * * proud. 1999, Blizzard held its first competition in Battle.net, offering 20,000 US dollars in cash and prizes. Players from all over the world rushed to participate and set off an unprecedented online game war.

With Battle.net, the attraction of StarCraft has increased sharply, and players from all over the world can play online and with real people, which is endless fun. Many people are crazy about it and can't sleep well.

Blizzard Battle. Net is a free service, but players must have genuine Blizzard games to enter Battle. Net for hegemony. In 2000, Blizzard had130,000 users worldwide, and the registered users of Battle.net reached 7.5 million, with an average of120,000 people online every day. Based on this, Blizzard's income is very considerable.

In order to cooperate with the launch of new products, Blizzard will further strengthen the anti-piracy function, and the CD-KEY control in Battle.net will be stricter, so it is difficult for pirated games to have a chance to enjoy its endless fun. Tens of millions of players will bring a lot of money to Blizzard.

Low-key style:

In the global game circle, there are very few players who have never played StarCraft, and quite a few people don't know the experience of Blizzard entrepreneurs. An important reason is that Blizzard has been reluctant to use the media to hype itself. 1998, Allen adhan resigned as president and became chairman of the board of directors of the company, and Mike Mohaimi took over as president. Retreat from the first line to the second line. As a consultant, Allen Adhan hopes to have enough time to return to game design. Ironically, the news of Allen Adhan's resignation did not cause any repercussions among players, nor did it reduce their goodwill towards Blizzard. One simple reason is that no one really knows who Allen Adhan is and what he does outside of Blizzard employees. "We love game design, but we need to focus on game products!" The happiness gained from the game development process is enough for Blizzard entrepreneurs to avoid any temptation from the outside world. This passion for their career makes them work silently and even keep in touch with the outside world to a great extent. In blizzard, the boss and employees are very low-key, and the door of the company is rarely open to the public. Blizzard people only focus on their own careers. This is in sharp contrast to the strange phenomenon that some domestic companies only know the boss's name and don't know their own products.

Extraordinary talent strategy:

1. If you don't like playing games, don't. The purpose is to guide every employee to learn more about games.

In the game industry, the job-hopping rate of Blizzard employees is the lowest, although some employees have started their own businesses in recent years. But the difference is that Blizzard does not regard independent entrepreneurs as enemies like other enterprises, but respects their entrepreneurial ambitions and keeps friendly contacts with them. Since the 1990s, many talented people in the United States are proud to work in Blizzard, but the way Blizzard selects talents is very strange. First of all, candidates must really love and master the game. Blizzard employees are all gamers, and game engineers play their competitor Sierra's Counter-Terrorism Elite during lunch break.

This phenomenon is hard to exist in other game companies, and many companies do not encourage or even prohibit employees from playing games. Blizzard's intention is to guide every employee to understand the game deeply, so as to lay the foundation for developing excellent products suitable for players' tastes. According to this principle, people applying for Blizzard can't muddle through by memorizing game knowledge, and the HR supervisor will even try to deal with you step by step during the interview.

In addition to the enthusiasm and loyalty to the game, Blizzard also attaches great importance to the technical quality of employees. The minimum education of Blizzard graphic designer is doctor. In Blizzard, many experienced and skilled game makers will get a medieval sword as a souvenir when they reach the age of five. They grow up with the company, and the benefits of the company are closely related to the personal income of employees.

Only when you are paranoid about your career can you have a selfless work spirit.

When StarCraft 1997 was produced, the design of the level designer Jeff responded to a critical moment when the task processing module had to be redefined, just when his wife was in labor. As soon as he got a call from his wife, he borrowed a laptop from the computer department of the company and drove home. His daughter is restless in his mother's stomach, and his wife has started to twitch. He used these five or six hours to stay in front of his wife's delivery bed and finished all the programming work of StarCraft. The wife woke up from anesthesia after giving birth to a child and asked him loudly, "Why are you still working for your damn game when all our daughters are born?"

The spirit of this selfless work is embodied in every employee of Blizzard. Blizzard people have almost reached a paranoid love for their careers. Many executives have expressed this feeling: "Apart from my family, what I enjoy most is developing games for the company." In the eyes of Blizzard employees, games are not only a job, but also a way of life.

Moderate expansion strategy:

In 2000, Blizzard has developed into an internationally renowned company with 65,438+050 employees, integrating game development and technology. It is no longer a studio with only 15 people, and its strength is enough to ensure the simultaneous development of two games.

But Mike Mohami admits that the biggest challenge facing Blizzard is to find the necessary talents to realize the company's game development concept and ensure that the company's culture is not damaged. He said, "We never wanted to be a company with 65,438+0,000 employees, but I think Blizzard can eventually develop into six or seven development teams without sacrificing quality. Do less, but do better. "

In the past 10 years, Blizzard experienced two mergers and acquisitions, one by others and the other by others, and there was no greater expansion. However, Blizzard has been developing, and the number of employees has increased by 10 times, which is a moderate expansion close to "energy saving" rather than unlimited expansion for greed. Blizzard doesn't want to fall into such a vicious circle. It firmly grasps the "degree" of expansion and grows healthily between steady expansion. In product development, Blizzard is also good at grasping the balance between quantity and quality, and its operating principle is to get twice the result with half the effort. When game companies are too busy to launch a new game every month and compete for market share, Blizzard's unique success factors are its in-depth understanding of players, constant pursuit of quality and continuous innovation of games. Every work of Blizzard strives for perfection, and truly strives for perfection. The sales volume of each game has exceeded the "platinum level" (the sales volume of a single game has reached 6.5438+0.3 million sets), and the total sales volume has already exceeded 6.5438+0.3 million sets. During this period, a secondary game has never been sold. The excellent strategy of grinding a sword for three years is the key to Blizzard's success. (End)

Wonderful quotations from blizzard giants:

For our parents and the older generation, [making games] is hardly a job! "

-Max schaffer

1In the autumn of 997, Annie Strain, who was pregnant for 9 months, woke up during the anesthesia interval before delivery and saw her husband Jeff take his hand off the keyboard. She shouted, "Were you still working for this damn game when our daughter was born?"

Jeff strain's finger stopped on the keyboard. He glanced at the display screen and retorted, "Annie, this is not a damn game." It's starcraft! "

Jeff Strain designed a campaign editor for StarCraft, which was published by Blizzard at 1998.

Three years later, Strain admitted that he was "still uneasy about that comment". But stories like his are very common in Blizzard, and employees of the company often have to go to great lengths to explain the true charm of game making to friends and family. "Look, part of the reason is that we are making games," explained Max Schaefer, one of the founders of Blizzard North. "For our parents and the older generation, this is hardly a job!"

But it's true. Blizzard employees don't regard game development as a job-for them, every plan is a way of life. In the ocean of developers who think that development is nine to five, members of Blizzard's development team are immersed in repetitive work that has become their life, no matter good or bad. But if you are a company that only produces top-notch works of 3A level, there must be a lot of sacrifices and uninterrupted passion in the development process. This way of working has been very effective so far.

"The motivation for us to go back to the studio and stick to it is the opportunity to make great game works."

-Bill Rowe Pearl

Almost all the games produced by Blizzard can guarantee to reach the platinum circulation record-654.38+00,000 copies. The number of players supported by other development companies will be different, but for most game lovers, Blizzard has a gold-lettered signboard that has never released a secondary game.

How did Blizzard do it? What is the secret of its success? Every developer wants to be the next blizzard, but somehow no one can reach out and touch the mysterious alchemy of making authoritative games such as Warcraft II, StarCraft and Diablo. Bill Roper Roper, a former employee of Kinko Desktop Publishing Company and a composer, gradually rose from an ordinary employee to one of the leaders of Blizzard. He claimed that the prescription for success was very simple: "In the early days of the company, in order to pay employees' salaries, we often needed to withdraw cash from personal credit cards. In such a difficult situation, the motivation for us to go back to the studio and stick to it is the opportunity to make great games. "

"When I first saw Warcraft, its imitation of our products really surprised me."

-Louis Castle (Westwood * * *) co-founder.

Set in lush forests and post-war ruins, Warcraft is a real-time strategy game. Blizzard admits that this game is based on the concepts and gameplay in Dune II produced by westwood Studio. "Warcraft was born from Dune II," Moheim admitted. "We like that game very much, so we thought we could make a game similar to Dune II and Fantasy Setup, and add multiplayer options."

When it was released before Thanksgiving on 1994, Warcraft immediately attracted the attention of RTS players looking for new works after Dune II. Even the Dune II development team at Westwood Studios noticed the game: "When I first saw Warcraft, its imitation of our products really surprised me," said Louis castle, one of Westwood's co-founders. "At that time, I suspected that they had become the uncrowned king of the industry, but I was really happy because it was only a positive push for a great game developer."

This success undoubtedly inspired Blizzard to move on. In a few months, people will see that an ordinary company founded by a group of close friends of the university has gradually become a dynamic developer with multiple plans and studios.

"It really surprised me to see that many people who play games don't play games at all."

-Bill Rowe Pearl

In an industry where talents are always scarce, Blizzard found that some top game developers from all over the world want to join the rising company in Irvine. But founders Adham and Morhaime have a strict employment policy: you must be a gamer working in Blizzard. Bill Roper( 1994), who became a formal employee of the company in July, introduced the recruitment work to us. He said that he was very surprised by the difficulty in finding suitable employees. "It really surprised me to see that many people who play games don't play games at all," he said. "This situation was quite obvious during the meeting. We will ask candidates about their favorite game and the characters in their favorite game, and we will have an in-depth discussion. " If the interviewees think that they can improve their game knowledge by reading the latest game magazines the night before, they will find that this way will definitely backfire. "If you tell us that your favorite game is street fighter," Roper admits, "we will want to know the fighting strategy of your favorite specific character."

Although some people may say that Blizzard's strict employment practice of only taking players deprives the company of top talents, Roper said that this policy must be adhered to, even if we are disappointed by a talented artist who knows nothing about the game. "We really want to hire those people," said Roper, "but they don't play games. We can't teach everyone to love games. " Why does an artist have to be a player to make excellent game design? "If an artist can really think about the performance of their works in the game environment, then it is absolutely priceless," Roper explained.

"Even today, people are still arguing about which is better, orcs or humans."

-Mike Morhaime

"There is something very special about Warcraft II," Moheim explained. "The number of characters and humor are related to this, but the main reason is that it is deeply playable, especially in multiplayer mode." In addition, the balance between orcs and human units ensures a fair game experience. "Even today, people are still arguing about which is better, orcs or humans," Mohai said, adding, "I think it's cool."

Cool is just a word to describe its success. Another way to describe Warcraft II is a blockbuster. Became Blizzard's first game with sales exceeding one million. Judging from this figure, only a few games on the computer have reached this milestone. Prior to this, only a few works of Myst and The Seventh Guest claimed to have reached this level. Generally speaking, Blizzard has surpassed many predecessors.

"We hope that an excellent Blizzard game can truly become the pinnacle of its kind. -Bill Rowe Pearl

It is always difficult to make every game a great work, but Blizzard believes that there are several key principles that dominate the design process. According to Bill Rowe Poe, all these principles can be summed up in one word: fun. "It must be interesting-F-U-N."

Friendly game interface, depth and breadth of learning space, epic game world, unparalleled game fun ... all these factors are mixed together to create a top-level game that Blizzard considers AAA-in other words, an authoritative work. "We hope the Blizzard game is good enough to really become the peak of this type," Roper said. "When a player thinks of RTS games, we want Warcraft to be synonymous with this type."

"My brilliant ideas are constantly emerging. When I walk into the studio and say' I have another great idea today', everyone will groan involuntarily. They know that this means that the plan will be postponed for another three months. "

-Dave Breivik

Excellence is Blizzard's favorite style, and it is also the "culprit" of its products' repeated ticket jumps. Battle.net is an example. "Battle.net is the most important function of Diablo, but it is also the later part of the plan," Dave Breivik said. "We realize that you need to be flexible about design and there is no need to be afraid to try new things." To this end, Blizzard can even completely transform a work. What you see today is actually a revised and repeated version.

The StarCraft demo made its first public appearance in E3 on 1996, but it was left out by the audience. After returning from E3, Blizzard appointed Bill Roper Roper to lead a team and began to turn the trial version of the game into a shocking masterpiece. 1998, StarCraft appeared with a brand-new look and was wildly sought after by players all over the world. It became the third masterpiece after the series of "Warcraft" and "Diablo", and it was the biggest selling game in the world that year. This record has been maintained to this day.

"Nothing makes me happier than using our games to bring happiness to people."

-Dave Breivik

In all the chaos in the game industry, there is a natural simplicity at the center of Blizzard: the desire and motivation to make authoritative works. "Apart from my family, nothing makes me happier than using our games to bring happiness to people," Dave Breivik said. "This is why I do this job. That's why I work so hard. "

All employees of Blizzard can find something purely healthy. For them, designing games is just a pleasant entertainment.

"When you leave Blizzard, you leave your friends and all the social circles."

-Robert Pardo

"In many ways, leaving Blizzard is like breaking up with your girlfriend for many years."

-Pat Wyatt

In the game industry, the employee turnover rate of Blizzard is one of the lowest, but Blizzard can't avoid the phenomenon that employees start their own businesses, such as Arena.net, a new game company that only creates online works. In addition, after the completion of Diablo II, its designer Stig Hedlund and artist bob steele created sufficient entertainment.

"Maybe this time we will give everyone a complete set of armor!"

-Max schaffer

Brain drain is usually an inevitable by-product of continuous success, but for employees who have worked in the company for a long time, Blizzard will reward employees who have served the company for five years in the form of "five-year sword". In the office, the sword of glass cabinet is proudly hung to show the loyalty of employees to Blizzard Team. But soon the company will have to reward ten years of service. No one is sure what the next service award will be, but Max Schaefer joked, "Maybe this time we will give everyone a complete set of armor!"

Sadly, however, Max Schaefer personally closed the door of his "ten-year contract" and rejected the set of prizes symbolizing loyalty, will, quality and glory. In this way, the four leaders of Blizzard left their studio, Blizzard, the soil they cultivated and lived with their own hands, and rushed to the next unknown goal with their own ideals. Infinite regrets and unspeakable expectations are scattered in the hearts of blizzard and all those who love games, in the dark sky after the heavy snow in July. ...

Important honors:

-Game development team:

1999 Best Multimedia Company -SC Software Publishers Association

1993 Best Software Development-Video Game Magazine

Best Animation Director: StarCraft-1997 World Animation Carnival

-World of Warcraft

Best Exhibition (E3)- 2003)-War Gamers

The most stable online game title (E3 2003)-IGN PC

Best Image (E3 2003)-IGN vault

-StarCraft: Ghosts

Best Exhibition (E3)- 2003)-War Gamers

Best Exhibition (E3)- 2003)-Daily Games