Review of Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment is a division of Activision Blizzard and develops and publishes their own software. They are headquartered in Irvine, CA and were originally founded in 1991 as Silicon & Synapse and were a third party developer prior to becoming its own label in 1994. They created software for MS-DOS, Mac, Sega Genesis, and the Super Nintendo. Some of Blizzard’s most well-known games from that time were “Rock ‘n Roll Racing,” “The Lost Vikings” and “Blackthorne.” Nowadays, they are most recognized for their PC games. In 1994 they released their first game under their own label, “Warcraft: Orc’s and Humans.” This was hailed as one of the best strategy games of the year. In 1995 the sequel, “Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness,” won numerous awards including the companies first of many game of the year awards.
Blizzard has produced hit games including the Warcraft series, StarCraft series and the Diablo series. The Warcraft series was started with the aforementioned “Warcraft: Orc’s and Humans” in 1994 which was followed by “Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness” in 1995 and finally “Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne” in 2002. After these games they created a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) with “World of Warcraft” released in November 2004 in North America and its expansions, “The Burning Crusade,” released Jan. 2007, “Wrath of the Lich King,” released Nov. 2008, and most recently “Cataclysm,” released Dec. 2010. This new universe has millions of players worldwide and is constantly being updated with new content and expansions. A new expansion, “Mists of Pandaria,” is due to be released sometime in 2012.
Another of Blizzard’s popular software games is the “Diablo” series. The series started out with the original “Diablo” a action-role-playing game which released in 1996 and debuted at #1 in the US. In 2000 they launched the sequel, “Diablo II,” and in 2001 released the expansion, “Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.” On June 28th 2008 Blizzard
Blizzard has produced hit games including the Warcraft series, StarCraft series and the Diablo series. The Warcraft series was started with the aforementioned “Warcraft: Orc’s and Humans” in 1994 which was followed by “Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness” in 1995 and finally “Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne” in 2002. After these games they created a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) with “World of Warcraft” released in November 2004 in North America and its expansions, “The Burning Crusade,” released Jan. 2007, “Wrath of the Lich King,” released Nov. 2008, and most recently “Cataclysm,” released Dec. 2010. This new universe has millions of players worldwide and is constantly being updated with new content and expansions. A new expansion, “Mists of Pandaria,” is due to be released sometime in 2012.
Another of Blizzard’s popular software games is the “Diablo” series. The series started out with the original “Diablo” a action-role-playing game which released in 1996 and debuted at #1 in the US. In 2000 they launched the sequel, “Diablo II,” and in 2001 released the expansion, “Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.” On June 28th 2008 Blizzard
References: Activision blizzard income statement. (2011). Retrieved from http://ycharts.com/financials/ATVI/income_statement/annual Company profile. (2011). Retrieved from http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/profile.html