Blizzard, nowadays known as Activision Blizzard, has a long, long history in the gaming industry. They contributed to the PC gaming space before it became a platform necessity. They helped spearhead game launchers with Battle.net. They promote community and connection worldwide with their multiplayer titles.
It’s been almost 30 years since Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce got together in California and started their own gaming company. There may be some interesting details most gaming consumers don’t know about the PC gaming giant. Here are some facts people didn’t know about Blizzard Entertainment.
10 They Had Different Names Before Settling On “Blizzard”
Within its first four years of life, Blizzard went through two name changes before settling on its iconic one. Blizzard was founded as Silicon & Synapse by Morhaime, Adham and Pearce in 1991. The three founders dropped the name of S&S for the name Chaos Studios in December 1993. The logo for Chaos looks closer to the current logo of Blizzard with the distorted letters and chiseled edges.
When Chaos was acquired by Davidson & Associates in 1994, it changed its name again to Blizzard Entertainment. That means Blizzard only had the name Chaos Studios for five months, haha.
9 Their First Game Was a Racing Game
Most people think that Blizzard’s first game was Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. They are both right and wrong. Warcraft was the first game published under the Blizzard Entertainment brand. As stated before, the video game developer had two names before they became Blizzard: Silicon & Synapse and then Chaos Studios.
RPM Racing was the first video game the company ever made; this was when they were still called Silicon & Synapse. The racing game was released on the SNES, and the actual title was Radical Psycho Machine Racing. According to an archived version of Blizzard’s website, they claim RPM was the first American video game developed for the SNES.
8 They Made DC Comics Games
Partially. Blizzard Entertainment co-developed Justice League Task Force with developer Sunsoft for the SNES. Fun fact, Sunsoft co-developed the Sega Genesis version with Condor Inc., which is now known as Blizzard North.
Task Force was a 1995 fighting game that featured Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Arrow and the Flash as playable characters. The game was received poorly. Blizzard and Sunsoft joined forces again to develop The Death and Return of Superman for the SNES and Sega Genesis. Released in 1994, the game adapted the Death of Superman storyline from DC Comics.
7 Blizzard Ported Games In Its Early Days
Blizzard did more than develop groundbreaking games in its early days. While it was developing Warcraft, Blackthorn and The Lost Vikings, it ported eight games to various PC gaming platforms, including AmigaOS, Mac, Windows and Commodore 64.
Some of the games they ported were Battle Chess, a Lord of the Rings video game and Castles. The last game Blizzard ported as Chaos Studios was Shanghai II: Dragon’s Eye in 1993. Blizzard probably started focusing solely on video game development after it was acquired in 1994.
6 A History Of Acquisition
While Blizzard is known for their contributions to PC gaming, the internet and the multiplayer space, one cannot talk about Blizzard without talking about their corporate history. Activision was the most high-profile company to acquire Blizzard when the deal with Vivendi was finalized in July 2008.
However, that is only the tip of the iceberg. Blizzard’s history of being acquired by companies date back to its beginnings. Blizzard was acquired by Davidson & Associates in 1994, education-oriented entertainment software company. Davidson was subsumed into a company called CUC International, which merged with HPS International to become Cendant. At some point, Universal Studios owned Blizzard. Vivendi acquired Blizzard in their acquisition of Universal Studios, and the rest is history.
5 Blizzard Recognized South Park
In their official timeline and history webpage, Blizzard recognized the release date of the South Park Season 10 episode Make Love, Not Warcraft, which aired on Comedy Central on October 4, 2006.
This episode is particularly memorable in the South Park fanbase, where the four boys were insulted by a “renegade” and high-levelled World of Warcraft player. Vowing revenge, the boys grind away at the game to get strong enough to defeat the player. As a result, they become fat, sedentary and very, very unhealthy. The episode meant to be a comedic critique on the WoW community and the larger video game culture.
4 Overwatch League Is A First For Esports
With a game as complex and competitive as Overwatch, it would eventually become an esports darling. Blizzard’s other properties have esports scenes, so why not OW? The unprecedented impact on esports was something else altogether.
CNBC reported that Activision Blizzard “effectively created the first global esports league with a city-based franchise modeled on how traditional sports leagues operate.” There are teams like the New York Excelsior, Shanghai Dragons and the San Francisco Shock. OWL is also regularly broadcasted on Disney XD and ESPN alongside Twitch.
3 World of Warcraft Has Over 5,000 Achievements
The Warcraft series itself has a long, long history and many iterations. World of Warcraft itself has six expansions, meaning there are many achievements to reap for completionists. Most games have 50 to 100 achievements, trophies, etc.
WoW have 5,000+ achievements available for players to unlock. Exophase reported this number, which is a website that tracks gaming activity in progress across multiple platforms. Achievements in WoW apply to expansion completion, mission completions, chest openings, gear collected, enemies defeated, complex actions, NPC interactions and others.
2 StarCraft Started Really Strong
It seems like eons ago when the first StarCraft was released on Windows PC. Triple A games selling over a million copies is not much of a surprise anymore; in fact, it’s expected. Rewind time back to June 1998. Blizzard was launched their second biggest original IP, a science-fiction RTS game; something much different from their landmark Warcraft series.
Needless to say, StarCraft made quite an impact for Blizzard and the video game industry. So much so that StarCraft sold over 3 million copies in its first three months after launch. That is 1 million copies sold per month. In 1998, that’s a pretty big deal. While the American audience took to it well, South Korea fell in love with it.
1 Blizzard Won Over 200 Awards
Blizzard has quite the pedigree. It created one of the most popular MMORPGs of all time, owns one of the most popular gaming franchises in South Korea and has several successful esports franchises. Naturally, it would accrue plenty of accolades, acclaim and awards in its 28-year history.
What most people aren’t aware are how many awards Blizzard wracked up. As of this writing, the studio has over 200 awards and accolades from various award shows, publications and presentations. The company itself, as a developer, received 17 awards for “excellent” workplace conditions. The three founders, Morhaime, Pearce and Adham, received the Award of Merit: Lifetime Achievement from IGN.