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{{Refimprove|date=October 2007}}
{{Infobox Company |
company_name = Blizzard Entertainment|
company_logo = [[Image:Blizzard_Entertainment_Logo.svg|250px|Blizzard Entertainment logo]] |
company_slogan = N/A |
company_type = [[Private company|Private]]<br />(subsidiary of [[Vivendi Games]]) |
foundation = 1991 (as [[Silicon & Synapse]])|
location = {{flagicon|USA}} [[Irvine, California|Irvine]], [[California|CA]], [[United States|U.S.]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.blizzard.com/inblizz/profile.shtml | title = Company Profile | accessdate = 2007-08-21 |publisher = Blizzard Entertainment}}</ref> |
industry = [[Computer and video game industry]] |
revenue = {{profit}} $1.1 Billion |
num_employees = {{formatnum:2700}}<ref name="gamasutra-E3-2007">{{cite news
|author = Brandon Sheffield
|url = http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14691
|title = E3 Exclusive: Blizzard Establishes Third Team, New Game Expected
|publisher = [[Gamasutra]]
|date = [[2007-07-13]]
|accessdate = 2007-07-14
}}</ref>|
key_people = [[Michael Morhaime]] (president and co-founder)<br />[[Frank Pearce]] (vice president and co-founder)<br />[[Rob Pardo]] (vice president)<br />[[Shahram Dabiri]] (producer on World of Warcraft)<br />[[Jeffrey Kaplan]] (lead designer on World of Warcraft) |
products = [[Warcraft universe|The ''Warcraft'' series]]<br />[[StarCraft|The ''StarCraft'' series]]<br />[[Diablo (video game)|The ''Diablo'' series]] |
homepage = [http://www.blizzard.com www.blizzard.com] |
}}

'''Blizzard Entertainment''', a division of [[Vivendi Games]], is an [[United States|American]] [[computer game]] [[video game developer|developer]] and [[video game publisher|publisher]] headquartered in [[Irvine, California]].<ref>[http://www.blizzard.com/inblizz/profile.shtml Company Profile]</ref>

In December 2007 it was announced that [[Vivendi Games]] would merge with [[Activision|Activision]], using Blizzard's name for the resulting company, [[Activision Blizzard]].<ref name="actblizmerger">{{cite press release
| title = VIVENDI AND ACTIVISION TO CREATE ACTIVISION BLIZZARD – World’s Largest, Most Profitable Pure-Play Video Game Publisher
| publisher = [[Activision]], [[Vivendi]]
| date = [[2007-12-02]]
| url = http://www.activisionblizzard.com/pressReleases/pr120207.php
| accessdate = 2007-12-02}}</ref>

==History==

Blizzard Entertainment was founded by [[Michael Morhaime]], [[Allen Adham]] and [[Frank Pearce]] as '''Silicon & Synapse''' in February of 1991, a year after <ref name="UCLAHonorDinner2006_11_06">{{cite web|url=http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/news/2006/Awards%20Dinner%202006.htm|title=
UCLA Engineering Celebrates Accomplishments at Annual Awards Dinner|date=2006-11-06|author=M. Abraham|dateaccessed=2007-09-22|publisher=[[UCLA]] Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science}}</ref> all three had received their [[bachelor's degree]]s from [[UCLA]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blizzard.com/register/blizzard/|title=Blizzard Entertainment 10th Anniversary Celebration|dateaccessed=2007-09-22|publisher=Blizzard Entertainment}}</ref><ref name="UCLAHonorDinner2006_11_06"/> In the early days the company focused on creating game [[porting|ports]] for other studios. Ports include titles such as ''J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I'' and ''Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess''.<ref name="blizz_tline">{{cite web|url=http://www.blizzard.com/blizz-anniversary/timeline.shtml|title=Blizzard Timeline|publisher=Blizzard Entertainment}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/blizzard-entertainment-inc/ported-by/list-games/|title=Ported by Blizzard Entertainment Inc.|publisher=Mobygames}}</ref> In 1993, the company developed games like ''[[Rock N' Roll Racing]]'' and ''[[The Lost Vikings]]'' (published by [[Interplay Entertainment|Interplay Productions]]). In 1994, the company briefly changed its name to Chaos Studios, before finally settling on Blizzard Entertainment after it was discovered that another company with the Chaos name already existed. That same year, they were acquired by distributor [[Davidson & Associates]] for under $10 million. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit ''[[Warcraft: Orcs and Humans]]''.

Blizzard has changed hands several times since then: 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 franchiser called [[HFS Corporation]] to form [[Cendant]] in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent 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 ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, Sierra On-line which included Blizzard, to [[France|French]] publisher [[Havas]] in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by [[Vivendi]]. Blizzard is now part of the [[Vivendi Games]] group of Vivendi.

In 1996, Blizzard acquired Condor Games, which had been working on the game ''[[Diablo (computer game)|Diablo]]'' for Blizzard at the time. Condor was renamed [[Blizzard North]], and has since developed hit games ''[[Diablo (computer game)|Diablo]]'', ''[[Diablo II]]'', and its expansion pack ''[[Diablo II: Lord of Destruction]]''. Blizzard North was located in [[San Mateo, California]].

Blizzard launched their online gaming service ''[[Battle.net]]'' in January of [[1997]] with the release of their action-[[Computer role-playing game|RPG]] ''Diablo''. In 2002, Blizzard was able to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles from [[Interplay Entertainment]] and re-release them under [[Game Boy Advance]].<ref>{{cite interview
| last = Morhaime
| first = Mike
| subject = The Making of The Lost Vikings
| subjectlink = The Lost Vikings
| interviewer = Blizzard Insider
| title = Blizzard Insider
| type =
| url = http://www.blizzard.com/insider/011/lostvikings.shtml
| format = url
| program = Blizzard Insider
| date = 2002-11-22
| accessdate = 2007-06-23
}}</ref> In [[2004]], Blizzard opened [[Europe]]an offices in the [[Paris]] suburb of [[Vélizy-Villacoublay|Vélizy]], [[Yvelines]], [[France]], responsible for the European in-game support of [[World of Warcraft]]. On [[November 23]], [[2004]], Blizzard released [[World of Warcraft]], its [[MMORPG]] offering. On [[May 16]], [[2005]], Blizzard announced the [[acquisition]] of [[Swingin' Ape Studios]], a [[console games|console]] game developer which had been developing ''[[StarCraft: Ghost]]''. The team was renamed Blizzard Console and is now focusing on next generation consoles,{{Fact|date=September 2007}} after StarCraft: Ghost was 'postponed indefinitely'. <!-- reliable source needed for this news: Production on Starcraft: Ghost has since been cancelled.--> On [[August 1]], [[2005]], Blizzard announced the [[consolidation]] of [[Blizzard North]] into the headquarters at [[UC Irvine]]'s University Research Park in [[Irvine, California]].

{{see also|Blizzard North|Swingin' Ape Studios}}

==Titles==
{{see|List of games by Blizzard Entertainment}}

{| class="wikitable" width=100%
!Game Name
!Year Released
!Genre
|-
|''[[RPM Racing]]''<ref name="blizz_tline" />
|1991
|racing game
|-
|''[[The Lost Vikings]]''
|1992
|[[platform game]]
|-
|-
|''[[Shanghai II: Dragon's Eye]]''<ref name="blizz_tline" />
|1993
|puzzle game
|-
|''[[Rock N' Roll Racing]]''
|1993
|racing game
|-
|''[[Blackthorne]]''<ref name="blizz_tline" />
|1994
|cinematic platform game
|-
|''[[The Death and Return of Superman]]''<ref name="blizz_tline" />
|1994
|side-scrolling [[beat 'em up]]
|-
|''[[Warcraft: Orcs & Humans]]''
|1994
|fantasy [[real-time strategy]] game
|-
|''[[The Lost Vikings II]]''
|1995
|platform game
|-
|''[[Justice League Task Force (video game)|Justice League Task Force]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blizzard.com/blizz-anniversary/blizznorth.shtml|title=Blizzard North: Condor and Diablo|publisher=Blizzard Entertainment}}</ref>
|1995
|[[Versus fighting game|fighting game]]
|-
|''[[Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness]]''
|1995
|fantasy real-time strategy game
|-
|''[[Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal]]''
|1996
|[[expansion pack]]
|-
|''[[Diablo (computer game)|Diablo]]''
|1996
|action-oriented computer role-playing game
|-
|''[[StarCraft]]''
|1998
|[[science fiction]] real-time strategy game
|-
|''[[StarCraft: Brood War]]''
|1998
|[[expansion pack]]
|-
|''[[Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition]]''
|1999
|fantasy real-time strategy game
|-
|''[[Diablo II]]''
|2000
|action-oriented RPG
|-
|''[[Diablo II: Lord of Destruction]]''
|2001
|[[expansion pack]]
|-
|''[[Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos]]''
|2002
|fantasy real-time strategy game
|-
|''[[Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne]]''
|2003
|[[expansion pack]]
|-
|''[[World of Warcraft]]''
|2004
|[[Massively multiplayer online role-playing game|MMORPG]] set in the Warcraft universe
|-
|''[[World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade]]''
|2007
|expansion set for World of Warcraft
|-
|''[[StarCraft II]]''
|Under development
|[[science fiction]] real-time strategy game
|-
|''[[World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King]]''
|Under development
|expansion set for World of Warcraft
|-
|''[[StarCraft: Ghost]]''
|Indefinitely postponed
|Third-person shooter
|-
|}

* ''[[StarCraft II]]'' has been officially announced as of [[May 19]], [[2007]], at the World Wide Invitational in [[Seoul]], [[South Korea]].
* ''[[World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King]]'' has been officially announced as of [[August 3]], [[2007]], at Blizzcon 2007 in [[Anaheim]], [[California]], [[United States]].
* ''[[World of Warcraft#Film adaptation|Warcraft film]]'' - Movie based on the popular Warcraft series.

Notable unreleased titles include ''[[Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans]]'', which was cancelled on [[May 22]], [[1998]], ''[[Shattered Nations]]'', and ''[[StarCraft: Ghost]]'', which was "indefinitely postponed" on [[March 24]], [[2006]] after being in [[development hell]] for much of its lifespan, and whose current status is in question. The company also has a history of missing release dates.<ref>{{cite news
|author = GamePro Staff
|url = http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=79448
|title = GamePro Q&A: Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan on The Burning Crusade
|publisher = [[GamePro]]
|date = [[2006-08-29]]
|accessdate = 2006-09-30
}}</ref>

''Pax Imperia II'' was originally announced as a title to be published by Blizzard. Blizzard eventually dropped ''Pax Imperia II'', though, when it decided it might be in conflict with their other space strategy project, the now-legendary StarCraft. THQ eventually contracted with Heliotrope and released the game in 1997 as ''[[Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain]]''.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that they will be producing a [[Warcraft (film)|''Warcraft'' live-action movie]]. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blizzard.com/press/060509.shtml|title=Blizzard Entertainment - Press Release|accessdate=2006-08-31|date=2006-05-09}}</ref>

==Former employees==

Over the years, some former Blizzard employees have moved on and established gaming companies of their own:
*[[Flagship Studios]]<ref>[http://flagshipstudios.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=7&Itemid=29 About Flagship Studios]</ref>, creators of ''[[Hellgate: London]]'', currently working on ''[[Mythos (computer game)|Mythos]]''.
*[[ArenaNet]]<ref>[http://arenanet.com/games/index.html ArenaNet]</ref>, creators of the ''[[Guild Wars]]'' franchise.
*[[Ready at Dawn|Ready at Dawn Studios]]<ref>[http://www.readyatdawn.com/ready.asp About Ready At Dawn Studios]</ref>, creators of ''[[Daxter (video game)|Daxter]]'', currently developing ''[[God of War: Chains of Olympus]]''.
*[[Red 5 Studios]]<ref>[http://red5studios.com/about.html Red 5 Studios]</ref>, currently working on a yet to be announced next-gen [[MMOG]].
*[[Castaway Entertainment]]<ref>[http://www.castawayentertainment.com/about.html About Castaway Entertainment]</ref>, currently working on a yet to be announced next-gen title.
*Click Entertainment<ref>[http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=1453 Click Entertainment]</ref>, creators of ''[[Throne of Darkness]]''.
*[[Carbine Studios]]<ref>http://www.carbinestudios.com/news/</ref>, currently working on a yet to be announced massively multiplayer title.

==Activision Blizzard Merge==
On December 2, 2007 a news feed on the Blizzard site, as well as all affiliated sites, stating that [[Activision]] and Vivendi Games had merged, becoming "Activision Blizzard". This is what was posted:
{{cquote|We're pleased to [http://www.blizzard.com/press/071202.shtml announce] that along with the other companies that make up Vivendi Games, we are merging with Activision to form a new global entertainment organization called Activision Blizzard (pending shareholder and regulatory approval). Similar to our previous arrangement, Blizzard Entertainment will now operate as a division of this new organization.<br><br>There will be no changes to our games, our websites, our personnel, or our day-to-day operations as a result of the deal. However, this combining of resources will benefit all of the companies involved and will further strengthen Blizzard's ability to continue delivering high-quality content for our players around the world for many years to come. To learn more about this exciting new development, please read our [http://www.blizzard.com/press/activision-faq.shtml Activision Blizzard FAQ].}}<ref>http://www.blizzard.com/press/071202.shtml</ref><ref>http://www.blizzard.com/press/activision-faq.shtml</ref>

==Controversies==
===Battle.net===
{{main|Battle.net}}
'''Battle.net''' is an online gaming service used for its games Diablo, Starcraft, Starcraft: Brood War, Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition, Warcraft III, and Warcraft III Expansion Set: The Frozen Throne. It was released in January 1997 coinciding with the release of Diablo. It functions as a way to play over the Internet, featuring cooperative and player-versus-player game playing, a game matchmaking system, and online chat among other features. Battle.net is free, and only requires an Internet connection and account registration in order to use.

A group of gamers [[reverse engineering|reverse engineered]] the network protocol used by Battle.net and Blizzard games, and released a free (under the [[GNU General Public License|GNU GPL]]) Battle.net emulation package called [[bnetd]]. With bnetd, a gamer is not required to use the official Battle.net servers to play Blizzard games.

In February of 2002, lawyers retained by Blizzard threatened legal action under the [[DMCA|Digital Millennium Copyright Act]] against the developers of bnetd. Blizzard games are designed to operate online exclusively with a set of Blizzard-controlled servers collectively known as "[[Battle.net]]". Battle.net servers include a [[CD key]] check as a means of preventing [[Copyright infringement of software|software piracy]].

Despite offers from the bnetd developers to integrate Blizzard's CD key checking system into bnetd, Blizzard claims that the public availability of any such software package facilitates piracy, and moved to have the bnetd project shut down under provisions of the DMCA.{{Fact|date=June 2007}} As this case is one of the first major test cases for the DMCA, the [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] became involved, for a while negotiations were ongoing to resolve the case without a trial. The negotiations failed however, and Blizzard won the case on all counts: the defendants were ruled to have breached both StarCraft's [[End User License Agreement]] (EULA) and the [[Terms of Use]] of Battle.net.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}

This decision was appealed to the [[Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals]], which also ruled in favor of Blizzard/Vivendi on [[September 1]], [[2005]].

===Warden Client===
{{main|Warden (software)}}
Blizzard has made use of a special form of [[software]] known as the 'Warden Client'. When running, the client scans an individual's computer in order to verify compliance with the EULA/TOS. The Warden client is known to be used with Blizzard's [[World of Warcraft]] [[MMORPG|online game]], and all players consent, via the [[EULA]] and [[terms of use]], to the Warden software performing these scans while World of Warcraft is running. <ref>http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html</ref>

The Warden client scans the [[Process (computing)|process names]], window titles, and a small portion of the [[code segment]] of running processes in order to determine whether any of these third-party programs are running. This determination is made by [[Hash function|hashing]] the scanned [[String (computer science)|strings]] and comparing the hashed value to a list of hashes known to correspond to cheat programs. <ref>http://www.rootkit.com/blog.php?newsid=358</ref> The Warden scans all processes running on a computer, not just the World of Warcraft game, and could possibly run across what would be considered private information and other [[personally identifiable information]]. It is because of these peripheral scans that Warden has been accused of being [[spyware]] and has run afoul of controversy among [[privacy]] advocates. <ref>http://play.tm/story/6837</ref> <ref>http://www.antispywarecoalition.org/documents/definitions.htm</ref> <ref>http://news.mmosite.com/content/2006-11-26/20061126193343858.shtml</ref>

The Warden's reliability in correctly discerning legitimate vs illegitimate actions has been called into question due to actions Blizzard has taken regarding the information gathered by Warden. Most notably, that it appears that many players are reported as violating the EULA/TOS by the program, and subsequently banned, when in fact they are not cheating. A large scale incident happened when many Linux users were banned after an update to Warden caused it to incorrectly detect [[Cedega]] as a cheat program. <ref>http://www.linuxlookup.com/2006/nov/15/linux_users_banned_from_world_of_warcraft</ref> Blizzard issued a statement claiming they had correctly identified and restored all accounts and credited them with 20 days play. <ref>http://www.linuxlookup.com/2006/nov/22/blizzard_unbans_linux_world_of_warcraft_players</ref> Blizzard has regularly stated that the Warden sends no information, only a violation flag, to the home server. However, without specific information, having been sent by the Warden software initially, it would have been impossible for Blizzard to discern Cedega users from actual violators. <ref>http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=blizzard-archive&t=33&p=1&tmp=1#post33</ref>

The Warden is not the first time Blizzard Entertainment has attempted to look at their customer's computers. In 1998 Blizzard Entertainment had a class action lawsuit filed against them for "unlawful business practices" for the action of collecting data from a user's computer without their permission. <ref>http://attrition.org/errata/company/blizzard01.html</ref>

===FreeCraft===
{{main|Stratagus}}
On [[June 20]], [[2003]], Blizzard issued a [[cease and desist]] letter to the developers of an [[open source]] clone of the Warcraft engine called ''FreeCraft''. This hobby project had the same gameplay and characters as ''Warcraft II'', but came with different graphics and music. It was written from scratch and no Blizzard code was used.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}
As well as a similar name, ''FreeCraft'' enabled gamers to use ''Warcraft II'' graphics, provided they had the ''Warcraft II'' CD. The programmers of the clone shut down their site without challenge. Soon after that the developers regrouped to continue the work by the name of ''[[Stratagus]]''.<ref>http://www.happypenguin.org/show?FreeCraft&start=20</ref><ref>http://stratagus.sourceforge.net/</ref>

==See also==
* [[BlizzCon]]
* [[Blizzard North]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
===Company & Corporate===
*[http://www.blizzard.com Blizzard's website]
*[http://www.blizzard.co.uk Blizzard UK's website]
*[http://www.battle.net Battle.Net website]

===The Bnetd case===
*[http://www.battle.net/support/emulationfaq.shtml Blizzard's official statement on battle.net emulators]
*[http://www.visi.com/~tneu/blizzard.html A rebuttal to Blizzard's official emulation statement]
*[http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=149 Yale LawMeme's analysis of the case]
*[http://www.eff.org/IP/Emulation/Blizzard_v_bnetd/ EFF page on case]

===Activision Blizzard===
*[http://www.blizzard.com/press/071202.shtml Official Press Release]
*[http://www.blizzard.com/press/071202.shtml Activision Blizzard FAQ]

{{Vivendi}}
{{Blizzard}}

[[Category:Video game publishers]]
[[Category:Video game developers]]
[[Category:Blizzard Entertainment]]
[[Category:Irvine, California]]
[[Category:Entertainment companies]]
[[Category:United States video game companies]]
[[Category:Companies based in Orange County, California]]
[[Category:Companies established in 1991]]

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Revision as of 15:33, 5 December 2007

Blizzard Entertainment
Company typePrivate
(subsidiary of Vivendi Games)
IndustryComputer and video game industry
Founded1991 (as Silicon & Synapse)
FounderMichael Morhaime Edit this on Wikidata
HeadquartersUnited States Irvine, CA, U.S.[1]
Key people
Michael Morhaime (president and co-founder)
Frank Pearce (vice president and co-founder)
Rob Pardo (vice president)
Shahram Dabiri (producer on World of Warcraft)
Jeffrey Kaplan (lead designer on World of Warcraft)
ProductsThe Warcraft series
The StarCraft series
The Diablo series
RevenueIncrease $1.1 Billion
Number of employees
2,700[2]
Websitewww.blizzard.com

Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, is an American computer game developer and publisher headquartered in Irvine, California.[3]

In December 2007 it was announced that Vivendi Games would merge with Activision, using Blizzard's name for the resulting company, Activision Blizzard.[4]

History

Blizzard Entertainment was founded by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce as Silicon & Synapse in February of 1991, a year after [5] all three had received their bachelor's degrees from UCLA.[6][5] In the early days the company focused on creating game ports for other studios. Ports include titles such as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I and Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess.[7][8] In 1993, the company developed games like Rock N' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings (published by Interplay Productions). In 1994, the company briefly changed its name to Chaos Studios, before finally settling on Blizzard Entertainment after it was discovered that another company with the Chaos name already existed. That same year, they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for under $10 million. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.

Blizzard has changed hands several times since then: 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 franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent 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 ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, Sierra On-line which included Blizzard, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard is now part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi.

In 1996, Blizzard acquired Condor Games, which had been working on the game Diablo for Blizzard at the time. Condor was renamed Blizzard North, and has since developed hit games Diablo, Diablo II, and its expansion pack Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Blizzard North was located in San Mateo, California.

Blizzard launched their online gaming service Battle.net in January of 1997 with the release of their action-RPG Diablo. In 2002, Blizzard was able to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles from Interplay Entertainment and re-release them under Game Boy Advance.[9] In 2004, Blizzard opened European offices in the Paris suburb of Vélizy, Yvelines, France, responsible for the European in-game support of World of Warcraft. On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released World of Warcraft, its MMORPG offering. On May 16, 2005, Blizzard announced the acquisition of Swingin' Ape Studios, a console game developer which had been developing StarCraft: Ghost. The team was renamed Blizzard Console and is now focusing on next generation consoles,[citation needed] after StarCraft: Ghost was 'postponed indefinitely'. On August 1, 2005, Blizzard announced the consolidation of Blizzard North into the headquarters at UC Irvine's University Research Park in Irvine, California.

See also: Blizzard North and Swingin' Ape Studios

Titles

Further information: List of games by Blizzard Entertainment
Game Name Year Released Genre
RPM Racing[7] 1991 racing game
The Lost Vikings 1992 platform game
Shanghai II: Dragon's Eye[7] 1993 puzzle game
Rock N' Roll Racing 1993 racing game
Blackthorne[7] 1994 cinematic platform game
The Death and Return of Superman[7] 1994 side-scrolling beat 'em up
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans 1994 fantasy real-time strategy game
The Lost Vikings II 1995 platform game
Justice League Task Force[10] 1995 fighting game
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness 1995 fantasy real-time strategy game
Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal 1996 expansion pack
Diablo 1996 action-oriented computer role-playing game
StarCraft 1998 science fiction real-time strategy game
StarCraft: Brood War 1998 expansion pack
Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition 1999 fantasy real-time strategy game
Diablo II 2000 action-oriented RPG
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction 2001 expansion pack
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos 2002 fantasy real-time strategy game
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne 2003 expansion pack
World of Warcraft 2004 MMORPG set in the Warcraft universe
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade 2007 expansion set for World of Warcraft
StarCraft II Under development science fiction real-time strategy game
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Under development expansion set for World of Warcraft
StarCraft: Ghost Indefinitely postponed Third-person shooter

Notable unreleased titles include Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, which was cancelled on May 22, 1998, Shattered Nations, and StarCraft: Ghost, which was "indefinitely postponed" on March 24, 2006 after being in development hell for much of its lifespan, and whose current status is in question. The company also has a history of missing release dates.[11]

Pax Imperia II was originally announced as a title to be published by Blizzard. Blizzard eventually dropped Pax Imperia II, though, when it decided it might be in conflict with their other space strategy project, the now-legendary StarCraft. THQ eventually contracted with Heliotrope and released the game in 1997 as Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that they will be producing a Warcraft live-action movie. [12]

Former employees

Over the years, some former Blizzard employees have moved on and established gaming companies of their own:

Activision Blizzard Merge

On December 2, 2007 a news feed on the Blizzard site, as well as all affiliated sites, stating that Activision and Vivendi Games had merged, becoming "Activision Blizzard". This is what was posted:

We're pleased to announce that along with the other companies that make up Vivendi Games, we are merging with Activision to form a new global entertainment organization called Activision Blizzard (pending shareholder and regulatory approval). Similar to our previous arrangement, Blizzard Entertainment will now operate as a division of this new organization.

There will be no changes to our games, our websites, our personnel, or our day-to-day operations as a result of the deal. However, this combining of resources will benefit all of the companies involved and will further strengthen Blizzard's ability to continue delivering high-quality content for our players around the world for many years to come. To learn more about this exciting new development, please read our Activision Blizzard FAQ.

[20][21]

Controversies

Battle.net

Main article: Battle.net

Battle.net is an online gaming service used for its games Diablo, Starcraft, Starcraft: Brood War, Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition, Warcraft III, and Warcraft III Expansion Set: The Frozen Throne. It was released in January 1997 coinciding with the release of Diablo. It functions as a way to play over the Internet, featuring cooperative and player-versus-player game playing, a game matchmaking system, and online chat among other features. Battle.net is free, and only requires an Internet connection and account registration in order to use.

A group of gamers reverse engineered the network protocol used by Battle.net and Blizzard games, and released a free (under the GNU GPL) Battle.net emulation package called bnetd. With bnetd, a gamer is not required to use the official Battle.net servers to play Blizzard games.

In February of 2002, lawyers retained by Blizzard threatened legal action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act against the developers of bnetd. Blizzard games are designed to operate online exclusively with a set of Blizzard-controlled servers collectively known as "Battle.net". Battle.net servers include a CD key check as a means of preventing software piracy.

Despite offers from the bnetd developers to integrate Blizzard's CD key checking system into bnetd, Blizzard claims that the public availability of any such software package facilitates piracy, and moved to have the bnetd project shut down under provisions of the DMCA.[citation needed] As this case is one of the first major test cases for the DMCA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation became involved, for a while negotiations were ongoing to resolve the case without a trial. The negotiations failed however, and Blizzard won the case on all counts: the defendants were ruled to have breached both StarCraft's End User License Agreement (EULA) and the Terms of Use of Battle.net.[citation needed]

This decision was appealed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which also ruled in favor of Blizzard/Vivendi on September 1, 2005.

Warden Client

Main article: Warden (software)

Blizzard has made use of a special form of software known as the 'Warden Client'. When running, the client scans an individual's computer in order to verify compliance with the EULA/TOS. The Warden client is known to be used with Blizzard's World of Warcraft online game, and all players consent, via the EULA and terms of use, to the Warden software performing these scans while World of Warcraft is running. [22]

The Warden client scans the process names, window titles, and a small portion of the code segment of running processes in order to determine whether any of these third-party programs are running. This determination is made by hashing the scanned strings and comparing the hashed value to a list of hashes known to correspond to cheat programs. [23] The Warden scans all processes running on a computer, not just the World of Warcraft game, and could possibly run across what would be considered private information and other personally identifiable information. It is because of these peripheral scans that Warden has been accused of being spyware and has run afoul of controversy among privacy advocates. [24] [25] [26]

The Warden's reliability in correctly discerning legitimate vs illegitimate actions has been called into question due to actions Blizzard has taken regarding the information gathered by Warden. Most notably, that it appears that many players are reported as violating the EULA/TOS by the program, and subsequently banned, when in fact they are not cheating. A large scale incident happened when many Linux users were banned after an update to Warden caused it to incorrectly detect Cedega as a cheat program. [27] Blizzard issued a statement claiming they had correctly identified and restored all accounts and credited them with 20 days play. [28] Blizzard has regularly stated that the Warden sends no information, only a violation flag, to the home server. However, without specific information, having been sent by the Warden software initially, it would have been impossible for Blizzard to discern Cedega users from actual violators. [29]

The Warden is not the first time Blizzard Entertainment has attempted to look at their customer's computers. In 1998 Blizzard Entertainment had a class action lawsuit filed against them for "unlawful business practices" for the action of collecting data from a user's computer without their permission. [30]

FreeCraft

Main article: Stratagus

On June 20, 2003, Blizzard issued a cease and desist letter to the developers of an open source clone of the Warcraft engine called FreeCraft. This hobby project had the same gameplay and characters as Warcraft II, but came with different graphics and music. It was written from scratch and no Blizzard code was used.[citation needed]

As well as a similar name, FreeCraft enabled gamers to use Warcraft II graphics, provided they had the Warcraft II CD. The programmers of the clone shut down their site without challenge. Soon after that the developers regrouped to continue the work by the name of Stratagus.[31][32]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Company Profile". Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
  2. ^ Brandon Sheffield (2007-07-13). "E3 Exclusive: Blizzard Establishes Third Team, New Game Expected". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Company Profile
  4. ^ "VIVENDI AND ACTIVISION TO CREATE ACTIVISION BLIZZARD – World's Largest, Most Profitable Pure-Play Video Game Publisher" (Press release). Activision, Vivendi. 2007-12-02. Retrieved 2007-12-02. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b M. Abraham (2006-11-06). "UCLA Engineering Celebrates Accomplishments at Annual Awards Dinner". UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateaccessed= ignored (help)
  6. ^ "Blizzard Entertainment 10th Anniversary Celebration". Blizzard Entertainment. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dateaccessed= ignored (help)
  7. ^ a b c d e "Blizzard Timeline". Blizzard Entertainment.
  8. ^ "Ported by Blizzard Entertainment Inc". Mobygames.
  9. ^ Morhaime, Mike (2002-11-22). "Blizzard Insider" (url) (Interview). Interviewed by Blizzard Insider. Retrieved 2007-06-23. {{cite interview}}: More than one of |subject= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink= ignored (|subject-link= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "Blizzard North: Condor and Diablo". Blizzard Entertainment.
  11. ^ GamePro Staff (2006-08-29). "GamePro Q&A: Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan on The Burning Crusade". GamePro. Retrieved 2006-09-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "Blizzard Entertainment - Press Release". 2006-05-09. Retrieved 2006-08-31.
  13. ^ About Flagship Studios
  14. ^ ArenaNet
  15. ^ About Ready At Dawn Studios
  16. ^ Red 5 Studios
  17. ^ About Castaway Entertainment
  18. ^ Click Entertainment
  19. ^ http://www.carbinestudios.com/news/
  20. ^ http://www.blizzard.com/press/071202.shtml
  21. ^ http://www.blizzard.com/press/activision-faq.shtml
  22. ^ http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html
  23. ^ http://www.rootkit.com/blog.php?newsid=358
  24. ^ http://play.tm/story/6837
  25. ^ http://www.antispywarecoalition.org/documents/definitions.htm
  26. ^ http://news.mmosite.com/content/2006-11-26/20061126193343858.shtml
  27. ^ http://www.linuxlookup.com/2006/nov/15/linux_users_banned_from_world_of_warcraft
  28. ^ http://www.linuxlookup.com/2006/nov/22/blizzard_unbans_linux_world_of_warcraft_players
  29. ^ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=blizzard-archive&t=33&p=1&tmp=1#post33
  30. ^ http://attrition.org/errata/company/blizzard01.html
  31. ^ http://www.happypenguin.org/show?FreeCraft&start=20
  32. ^ http://stratagus.sourceforge.net/

External links

Company & Corporate

The Bnetd case

Activision Blizzard

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blizzard_Entertainment&diff=175936301&oldid=175936074

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