Blizzard Co-Founder Opens New Game Company, Dreamhaven, Developing Two Games

[Kaykay]

it's great news, and pretty much validates all of us who have spoken out against activisions influence since they joined and the cash shop was introduced to WoW.

That said, even though Mike and the others all are responsible for inviting activision in, harming the product we all love, i dont blame them one bit for taking a payout from activision, i'd say the same to any succesful entrepreneurs whos businesses gets sold for billions (skype, instagram, photobucket and so on).

And now when the dust has settled and hindsight is 20/20, they want to go back to a simpler time, where games weren't about money. I look forward to seeing what the leads of Starcraft and Hearthstone can come up with.

Lord knows the strategy genre needs fresh blood

[ClassicPeon]

it's great news, and pretty much validates all of us who have spoken out against activisions influence since they joined and the cash shop was introduced to WoW.

That said, even though Mike and the others all are responsible for inviting activision in, harming the product we all love, i dont blame them one bit for taking a payout from activision, i'd say the same to any succesful entrepreneurs whos businesses gets sold for billions (skype, instagram, photobucket and so on).

And now when the dust has settled and hindsight is 20/20, they want to go back to a simpler time, where games weren't about money. I look forward to seeing what the leads of Starcraft and Hearthstone can come up with.

Lord knows the strategy genre needs fresh blood

it doesnt no. But you have no chance of knowing that so i'l enlighten you.

Making games for blizzard is a completely different beast then making games in a newly started company with fewer people and, probably, a newly made vision.

Blizzard has IP's that needs a lot of yearly work and you dont just get to come in with bright ideas to to take a few months of development time to test and then scrap because it didnt work out the way you thought it would.

You have SO much more freedom and thats not because its "acti-blizz".

Its a completely different enviroment and if you want to blame anyone for that you can blame millions of people for giving blizzard money so they could grow in size. Thats literally the only thing you can blame.

[Clone]

It’s easy to blame activision and put the founders and employees up on a pedestal. Fact remains, they are the ones who thought they were gods gift to gamers and started running their company with that mindset.

This is the fucking truth. You could see an early sign of this when they talked about going to Korea and finding out how big Starcraft was there.

[Malikath]

-snip-

Your tripe would have a point were it not that these systematic changes began in wrath no less then 2 months after activision's acquisition by vivendi and subsequent appointment as the managerial executives for the entirety of vivendi games branch.
From then on we see changes in not just blizzard's games but in every other studio under their management.

But, now it will all be over soon, the investors have found out that bobby has been running a hustle on them.

[Soon-TM]

I look forward to seeing what the leads of Starcraft and Hearthstone can come up with.

Lord knows the strategy genre needs fresh blood

So do I. They've also hired Dustin Browder from SC 2, who was also game director of Command & Conquer already during the 90s. So we can expect some really good RTS $#&@ from these folks

[Graeham]

Another thing to note is that in the corporate world many businesses hold their employees to strict NDA's to prevent them speaking out directly even years after they've left the organisation. It's also why many employees don't actively speak out even during obvious periods of unrest and strife within a company due to fearing for their position and the impact on future employment prospects.

[Dhrizzle]

Not every inaccuracy is a lie, mind you. Yes, I'm quite oblivious to the details of the merger; I only remember Mike Morhaime giving plenty of interviews at the time that nothing is going to change as long as he does his work properly, Blizzard will stay the same company as always blah blah blah (while many, many players saw it differently). Oh well, maybe it was him being oblivious to what's going to happen - or maybe it was already his corporate pitch. Or maybe, in the end, he didn't do his work properly? Who knows. Still I find the narrative that him making Dreamhaven is a middle finger aimed at Acti-Blizz quite amusing.

The big changes came after Acti-Blizz bought themselves out from Vivendi, that's when they went from being a small part of a huge multinational to an independent company investors would take more interest in. It's also when leaks started happening about cost-cutting and a push to release games.

Still don't see it as a middle finger though, just someone going from making games as a job to funding it more as a hobby.

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it's great news, and pretty much validates all of us who have spoken out against activisions influence since they joined and the cash shop was introduced to WoW.

That said, even though Mike and the others all are responsible for inviting activision in, harming the product we all love, i dont blame them one bit for taking a payout from activision, i'd say the same to any succesful entrepreneurs whos businesses gets sold for billions (skype, instagram, photobucket and so on).

And now when the dust has settled and hindsight is 20/20, they want to go back to a simpler time, where games weren't about money. I look forward to seeing what the leads of Starcraft and Hearthstone can come up with.

Lord knows the strategy genre needs fresh blood

The ignorance is incredible. Do you really think mega-global corporation Vivendi SA (and their previous owners) bought Blizzard because they thought they were a bunch of cool guys and just wanted to indulge their love of games?

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Your tripe would have a point were it not that these systematic changes began in wrath no less then 2 months after activision's acquisition by vivendi and subsequent appointment as the managerial executives for the entirety of vivendi games branch.
From then on we see changes in not just blizzard's games but in every other studio under their management.

But, now it will all be over soon, the investors have found out that bobby has been running a hustle on them.

It's more insidious than that - Activision's malign influences spread before they were even merged with Vivendi Games as Blizzard started adding paid services back in TBC!

That's sarcasm by the way, things like cash-shops were just Blizzard following market trends to make money, like when they cut games in half so they can sell expansion packs (see WC3, Diablo 2 and Vanilla WoW) or charge for subscriptions and boxes when they're already making tonnes more cash than they dreamed of.

[Armourboy]

Did I ever suggest he was supposed to say something as ludicrous? I'm just here, in 2020, wondering if he was oblivious to what's happening or giving us his corporate pitch. You have to admit that it's an interesting question, what was going through his mind at that time. Corporate business being as it is, we will never know.
That being said, players criticizing the move back then (and going all "doom & gloom") were not basing it on hindsight, were they.

EDIT: Here's an article stating that both Vivendi and Blizzard approved the move (with a telling title "Warcraft Fans Have Nothing to Fear From Activision" )
https://www.wired.com/2008/07/blizzard-presid/

EDIT2: Some interesting quotes:

You see this happen in business alot. Guys go into something either being told or believing it will be a certain way and then get in to it and realize they've run headlong into a nightmare.

Blizzard had been owned by someone else for a very long time and they had generally been left to their own desires because they were making a ton of money. I have zero doubt that Morhaime believed this would continue, and I'm almost willing to bet he received assurances that it would continue. That is where those comments come from.

Fast forward a couple of years and he figures out that assurances don't mean much in the business world. He couldn't keep the autonomy of Blizzard, which wasn't a shocker to anyone that knows anything about business.

He leaves and starts over again so he can have that control back. It happens quite often.

[Graeham]

We're likely to see a fresh surge in the popularity of MMO's in general, too, given that a lot more people have free time lately. So there's definitely room for a fresh project to go live and potentially do very well for itself.

[Rogalicus]

We're likely to see a fresh surge in the popularity of MMO's in general, too, given that a lot more people have free time lately. So there's definitely room for a fresh project to go live and potentially do very well for itself.

Considering average time it takes to develop an MMO, pandemic is unlikely to affect it in any way outside of temporarily giving current MMOs population boost. Pardo's studio hadn't shown a single thing in four years since it was founded.

[dextersmith]

Just how big is this company? 2 studios and 2 games at startup? How long will the games take to make with half the devs and no revenue?

[Ielenia]

So get bought by Activision, turn into a massive bloated mess while most of your ips decline or outright go into 'longterm hibernation' then get out with your dosh and found a company free of that.

Talk about playing the long game.

If they still wanted to develop games... Why did they sell Blizzard to a dirty corporate loser?

Read on it instead of spreading false information. Activision merged with Vivendi and became Activision-Blizzard. Activision-Blizzard then later bought themselves out of Vivendi.

[ali725]

I wonder if he still has great ideas for games he and the team can make.

[SirBeef]

Read on it instead of spreading false information. Activision merged with Vivendi and became Activision-Blizzard. Activision-Blizzard then later bought themselves out of Vivendi.

Not to mention Blizzard was already a bloated mess under Vivendi, with taking way to long to release anything and only 3 IPs and a massive failure in it's way in Project Titan.

But to your point, it's amazin how people still get this wrong. It's as if they refuse to believe it's true because it doesn't fit their agenda.

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We're likely to see a fresh surge in the popularity of MMO's in general, too, given that a lot more people have free time lately. So there's definitely room for a fresh project to go live and potentially do very well for itself.

I doubt it. MMOs are niche. They hold a relatively small amount of players across the gaming spectrum. For the amount of money and time it takes to make one, you wont see a resurgence like you saw new ones popping up post 2004. Especially since most flop hard.

[Amarys]

Somehow I have low expectations for this. It has been tried before and it always seems to fizzle out. They release a crappy crowdfunded 2D game that looks like it's from the 90s. Hardcore old fans may even praise it but it won't get any new fans as times have moved on. Then after 5-10 years of nothing the studio is closed and that's that.

I hope I'm wrong though and this turns out differently.

[Jshadowhunter]

The amount of corporate shills trying to defend the "honor of Blizzard" like a bunch of CCP hand puppets is remarkable.

I hope the "new Blizzard" succeeds.

[Phryx]

"good" work environment --> bad games

[VinceVega]

We're likely to see a fresh surge in the popularity of MMO's in general, too, given that a lot more people have free time lately. So there's definitely room for a fresh project to go live and potentially do very well for itself.

There are only 2 big MMOs... one is FF and the other is wow. I highly doubt there will ever be another even close to these two as long as they exist.
And if there would be a new one it probably will come from the companies fo these two.
The market is saturated with tons of small MMOs who are riddled with MTX because they can't sustain themselve otherwise. New visions pop up all the time with grand ideas that go nowhere. An if the new company is making an MMO (which i doubt) they will have a really hard time. A name only goes so far as i highly doubt even a fraction of MMO players even know who they are.

[Rogalicus]

There are only 2 big MMOs... one is FF and the other is wow.

Pfft, BDO made more money in 5 years than FFXIV throughout all 10 years of its' run.

[VinceVega]

Pfft, BDO made more money in 5 years than FFXIV throughout all 10 years of its' run.

Sure. But BDO is basically a mobile game disguised as a MMO...

I always think of the Jedi Council Meme here. I kinda don't see it in the same "line" as Wow, Eso, FFXIV, Swtor.

It is just so different form the others, that i don't think they have a big overlap in playerbases. Never heard of someone leaving one of the mnetioned games for BDO