Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is a company that develops video games founded the 8 of February of 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse three graduated from UCLA, Michael Morhaime , Allen Adham and Frank Pearce . Based in Irvine , California , the company focused originally primarily on creating ready ports for other studios before beginning development of its own software in [1993] with the development of games like Rock N ‘Roll Racing (Roll Rock N) and The Lost Vikings .

In 1994 the company became Blizzard Entertainment Inc before being acquired by Davidson & Associates as a distributor and later by Vivendi. Shortly after its discovery, the Blizzard hit Warcraft: Orcs and Humans . The Blizzard went on to create several successful PC games, including the Warcraft , Starcraft and series of Diablo , and the MMORPG World of Warcraft .

In 9 of July of 2008 , Activision officially joined the Games Vivendi, while culminating in the inclusion of the brand of Blizzard in the title of the company resulting tenure, although Blizzard Entertainment remains a separate entity with independent management . Blizzard Entertainment offers events to meet players and announce the games, BlizzCon in California , United States , and Blizzard Worldwide in other countries, such as Paris , France and Seoul , South Korea .

History

Blizzard Main Office

Headquarters

Blizzard Entertainment was founded by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce as Silicon & Synapse in February 1991 , a year after the three had received UCLA .

In the early days the company focused on creating games ready for other studios. Games include titles such as JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings , Vol. I (The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I) and Battle Chess II ( Chinese Chess Chess ): Chinese Chess . In 1993 , the company developed games like Rock N ‘Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings by (Public Interaction Productions).

In 1994 they were acquired by dealer Davidson & Associates for $ 6.75 million. The same year the company briefly changed its name to Chaos Studios , before finally settling on Blizzard Entertainment after it was discovered by another company by the name of Chaos. Shortly after this, Blizzard sent its discovery and pasted Warcraft: Orcs and Humans through Interplay.

Blizzard has changed hands since then several times: 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 real-estate called the HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1997 . In 1998 it became clear that 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 widely discussed accounting scandal going on.

StarCraft is a video game produced by Blizzard of the genre of real-time strategy, with the theme of science fiction and one of the most played worldwide. It was officially released on April 1, 1998 in the United States and Europe.

The company sold its consumer software runs, Sierra On-Line that Blizzard had included, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year that Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard was part of the Vivendi Games the Vivendi group. In July 2008 Vivendi Games teamed up with Activision, using the Blizzard name in the resulting company, Activision Blizzard.

In 1996 , Blizzard acquired the Condor game that had been working on the Blizzard-ready Devil at the time. The condor was renamed Blizzard North, and has subsequently developed the Diablo game, Diablo II, and its expansion Diablo II: Lord of Destruction . Blizzard North was located in San Mateo , California , the company originated in the City of Redwood, California.

Blizzard launched its online gaming service Battle.net in January 1997 with the release of its action-RPG Diablo. In 2002 , Blizzard was able to repurchase the rights to three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles Interplay Entertainment and re-release them under Game Boy Advance. In 2004 Blizzard opened the European offices in the Paris suburb of Vélizy, Yvelines, France, responsible for the European ready-to-support World of Warcraft. On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released World of Warcraft, its MMORPG offering.

The 16 of maypole of 2005 , Blizzard announced the acquisition of Swingin ‘ Ape Studios, a console designer had been outwitted StarCraft: Ghost developing. The company then joined the other Blizzard teams after StarCraft: Ghost was ‘postponed indefinitely’. Blizzard announced the consolidation of Blizzard North in the main office to 131 Theory on August 1, 2005, at the UC Irvine University Research Station in Irvine, California. In 2008 , Blizzard moved its main office to 16215 Alton Expressway in Irvine, California.

The World of Warcraft was the fourth released game set in the universe of the Warcraft imagery that was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. World of Warcraft Blizzard announced on September 2, 2001. The game was released on 23 November 2004 , at the 10th Annual Warcraft Openness.

The game’s first set expansion, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007 . The second expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, was released on November 13, 2008. The third expansion set, Cataclysm entered a closed benta that was tested in late June 2010 and was released. released to the public December 7, 2010 .

With more than 12 million monthly subscriptions in October 2010 , the World of Warcraft is currently the MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62 percent of the market subscription MMORPG. 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.

Titles

The Blizzard as a designer and creator of games, we put a chronology of these: