Company Profile
Blizzard Entertainment® is a premier publisher of entertainment software. Since establishing the Blizzard label in 1994, the company has quickly become one of the most popular and well-respected makers of computer games.
With blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft® and the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® series, Blizzard has enjoyed back-to-back number-one selling games, as well as consecutive Game of the Year awards. The company\'s free online game service, Battle.net®, is the largest in the world with millions of active users.
Blizzard\'s most recent release was World of Warcraft, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the award-winning Warcraft series. It launched on November 23, 2004 in North America, Australia, and New Zealand and promptly shattered sales records with the biggest day-one sell-through in PC-game history,* as well as setting records for account creation and peak concurrency for an online game. World of Warcraft\'s North American subscriber base currently comprises more than 1.5 million active players.*
On January 18, 2005, World of Warcraft released in Korea and quickly became one of the top MMORPGs in the country. The game then launched in Europe on February 11, 2005 and in its first day alone sold through over 280,000 copies. Today, Europe has over 1 million active players.* On June 6, 2005, World of Warcraft launched in China and has since become one of the most popular online games there. That launch was followed by World of Warcraft\'s November 8, 2005 release in the region of Taiwan, where the game gained rapid popularity as well. With a current total subscriber base of more than 6.5 million players, World of Warcraft is the largest online game in the world.* It is available in six different languages based on the regions in which it is played, with a seventh, Spanish, currently in development.
In 2003, a little over one year prior to the release of World of Warcraft, Blizzard released Warcraft® III: The Frozen Throne™. This highly anticipated expansion pack to Warcraft® III: Reign of Chaos™ was hailed as \"a terrific, full-featured expansion...that makes an already outstanding game significantly more so.\"**
Upon release in July 2002, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos achieved the distinction of becoming the \"the fastest selling PC game ever,\"* and it has gone on to win several accolades since then. The original Warcraft game, Warcraft®: Orcs and Humans™, was touted as one of the best strategy games of 1994, and the game\'s epic sequel, Warcraft® II: Tides of Darkness™, has won numerous awards, including Game of the Year and Best Multiplayer Game.
In 2001, Blizzard released Diablo® II: Lord of Destruction™, the expansion pack for 2000\'s record-setting bestseller Diablo II. Selling over a million copies in its first month of release, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction has been called \"the definitive add-on,\"*** and was one of the biggest sellers of 2001. The original Diablo®, which released January 1997, debuted at number one in the United States and was named Game of the Year.
StarCraft®, which released in March 1998, was Blizzard抯 third #1-selling game and was listed as the bestselling game of 1998 by PC Data. The game\'s expansion set, StarCraft®: Brood War™, was named best expansion of 1998 and is still considered by many critics to be one of the best add-on products to date.
Prior to the release of Warcraft, Blizzard served as a third-party developer creating entertainment software for various platforms, including DOS, Macintosh, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo. The company\'s best-known titles from this era include Rock \'n Roll Racing, The Lost Vikings, Blackthorne, and The Death and Return of Superman.
The Blizzard research and development group comprises more than 250 designers, producers, programmers, artists, and sound engineers. Each member of the Blizzard staff is a true game enthusiast, giving the company invaluable insight into creating products for gamers.
Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, was founded in 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by Allen Adham, President Michael Morhaime, and Senior Vice President Frank Pearce.
* Based on EDI sell-through, internal company records, and reports from key distribution partners around the world.
** GameSpot, July 2003
*** Computer Games Magazine, September 2001 |
