Mike Morhaime Starts New Gaming Company, Dreamhaven

[StillMcfuu]

Good luck to them, ill be watching.
Blizz devs don't have the best track record outside of Blizz.

Hellgate, that mmo they did, Brevic made a game but mostly he just plays other peoples games and complains about Blizzard, the most successful project is probably Torchlight I and II.

[Ickz]

As someone who has grown up on Blizzard games from the very beginning, I'm excited for them. Current Blizzard is a depressing garbage fire.

[Sithalos]

I can't wait for him to make World of Craft War, and have it turn out to be a better game.

[Thetruth1400]

The amount of mmo-c.com crys about "THIS IS THE REASON HE QUIT - DESTROY ACTIVISION" lol - any big game studio is there for money, it's just the way it is lol

There's a massive difference between "We want to make a successful game that makes us a lot of money" and "Our board of stockholders has decided that no matter what this game has to make this amount of money so we have no choice but to put X, Y, and Z monetization in place to ensure it makes a lot of money."

Sorry you can't see the difference.

[Nayami]

Good luck to these guys!

[Queen of Hamsters]

Corporate speak already. Not a good sign.

[Kralljin]

And if they prove successful, they'll be bought by a bigger company, and the cycle will repeat, ironically enough.

Morhaime owns the Company from my understanding, so they cannot be bought by another company by them just putting money on the table, Morhaime can just say no.

Activision was able to buy Blizzard because Blizzard was owned by Vivendi, hence they bought it from Vivendi, Morhaime most likely had no say in the matter.

[Hctaz]

Wasn’t Morhaime one of the guys people shouted for to quit, he’s in it for the money, and he’s ruining the game?

Not that I remember. I think people thought he was still calling the shots, but I don't think he was for a very long time. It was a misconception that he was the one in charge of the company long after he really was.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

You clearly don't know anything about the man, if this is your sincere belief. Mike is about as close to a real life teddy bear as you're ever going to find. His games and his family (including his workplace family) are his entire world, leaving Blizzard was probably one of the most heart-wrenching decisions he's ever had to make.

Ya cool story, he clearly didn’t care to much about his “work place family” when he let 600 go and being a “teddy bear” didn’t stop him from promoting things that hurt the industry like loot boxes.

[rrayy]

I thought it was fairly clear a reason he left was that he no longer wanted his name associated with current day Blizzard. This may or may not have been in the pipeline when he quit but I don't think it was simply to start another company.

That is outright false. He is like most developers. They simply want a change after a good number of years and it has no hate involved.

- - - Updated - - -

There's a massive difference between "We want to make a successful game that makes us a lot of money" and "Our board of stockholders has decided that no matter what this game has to make this amount of money so we have no choice but to put X, Y, and Z monetization in place to ensure it makes a lot of money."

Sorry you can't see the difference.

Blizzard's stockholder did no such thing. The BS myth has to die.

[fruitypebble]

Ya cool story, he clearly didn’t care to much about his “work place family” when he let 600 go and being a “teddy bear” didn’t stop him from promoting things that hurt the industry like loot boxes.

It's already been said more than once, but layoffs don't unilaterally fall on the CEO. That's especially true when dealing with companies owned by other companies.

Furthermore, if letting 600 people maintains the financial stability and employment of 10,000 others, then that is the right call to make. Those that were laid off were given complementary job locating services, extended health benefits, counseling services, and more to help assist in the transition.

They went above and beyond to help the ones affected by those layoffs. I know this because I dodged that bullet. Many friends of mine did not.

Regarding the lootbox payment model, that's really up to interpretation. Neither of us part of those leadership discussions, so there's really no way to say one way or another where that directive came from or why. If you want to believe that Mike is the evil mastermind behind loot boxes, then that's your right I guess.

Don't smear the man's character though, certainly not based off wild, baseless, and ill-informed speculation.

[Nuba]

The amount of mmo-c.com crys about "THIS IS THE REASON HE QUIT - DESTROY ACTIVISION" lol - any big game studio is there for money, it's just the way it is lol

you can "be there for money" and still make quality products

not the case for blizzard tho

[ognomad]

Ok, Now make a replacement for World of Warcraft, God speed...

[Dhrizzle]

Morhaime owns the Company from my understanding, so they cannot be bought by another company by them just putting money on the table, Morhaime can just say no.

Activision was able to buy Blizzard because Blizzard was owned by Vivendi, hence they bought it from Vivendi, Morhaime most likely had no say in the matter.

Activision didn't buy Blizzard from Vivendi, Vivendi bought Activision and rolled it into their own games division which they rebranded Activision-Blizzard.

Later Activision-Blizzard bought themselves out from Vivendi who were planning to sell them as a way of simplifying their holdings, if they hadn't a larger company could have bought them just for brand recognition or Vivendi may have sold off the profitable IPs to different companies.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

"We’re almost trying to create a haven for creators who want an environment that is development friendly, values product, and player experience over short-term financial pressures.”

I do hope they really mean it and it's not just PR talk. Guess they'll prove it when they release a game and see how much care has gone into it!

Given what we've heard about Blizzard the last few years, I'm guessing they mean it. And that that line is throwing Activision under the bus.

[Aqua]

Wasn’t Morhaime one of the guys people shouted for to quit, he’s in it for the money, and he’s ruining the game?

Literally every figurehead of the Blizzard community has had groups of decriers because their favourite class is doing less damage then another class. And frankly I questioned alot of his decisions on a few issues. But he was never a poisonous influence on the game, I feel like alot of what he did had ties to demands from their partners.

You have to read in between the lines of the frothing mouthed eye twitching crazies and those that are rationally disagreeing with class/game/systems design, and wondering why obvious long term damage was done in the name of short term gain. Its difficult I get you, people are passionate about what they enjoy and lines get crossed when people demand and decry because they feel they're being ignored.

Morhaime tried. And he was a lovable face on Blizzard where I feel the current face is uh...a little more detached and willing to bend to evils in the name of monetary direction from those paying the bills. And think they clearly know better than their playerbase if the past two blizzcons are anything to go by. Morhaime at least tried to project the air of 'listening' to consumers and seemed to read the room alot better.

[Mojo03]

Wow. Good news for once.

I'd wager it'll be an RTS game first, since it's a small team and they mostly seem like strategy veterans.

[Dhrizzle]

Not that I remember. I think people thought he was still calling the shots, but I don't think he was for a very long time. It was a misconception that he was the one in charge of the company long after he really was.

The big change probably came when Acti-Blizz bought themselves out from Vivendi. They went from being a small part of a very, very large company to an independent publisher with debts and investors that couldn't be ignored. It was after that the cost-cutting came in earnest and people started talking about investor pressure to actually release some games. Cancelling Titan and the D3 expansions probably also didn't help.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

It's already been said more than once, but layoffs don't unilaterally fall on the CEO. That's especially true when dealing with companies owned by other companies.

Furthermore, if letting 600 people maintains the financial stability and employment of 10,000 others, then that is the right call to make. Those that were laid off were given complementary job locating services, extended health benefits, counseling services, and more to help assist in the transition.

They went above and beyond to help the ones affected by those layoffs. I know this because I dodged that bullet. Many friends of mine did not.

Regarding the lootbox payment model, that's really up to interpretation. Neither of us part of those leadership discussions, so there's really no way to say one way or another where that directive came from or why. If you want to believe that Mike is the evil mastermind behind loot boxes, then that's your right I guess.

Don't smear the man's character though, certainly not based off wild, baseless, and ill-informed speculation.

To pretend the layoffs had any thing to do with financial stability is laughable blizzard has been making money hand over first since wow launched they haven’t ever been even close to worrying about financial stability.

But even if we pretended they were down on there luck he could have taken a pay cut like Satoru Iwata Until they were back to where they had to be if he cared so much about his “work place family”.

As to the loot boxes I don’t think he’s any where close to an evil mastermind I think he’s just like most people in the industry who are willing to push things that hurt it as long as they are getting a pay check at the end of the day. Not good not evil just like almost every one else.

[Martymark]

The amount of mmo-c.com crys about "THIS IS THE REASON HE QUIT - DESTROY ACTIVISION" lol - any big game studio is there for money, it's just the way it is lol

"Video Game shouldn't be fun" - Bobby Kotick Actiblizzion owner.