Former Blizzard CEO Opens new Studio, gives industry hope

[CriticalGaming]

Former Blizzard Boss Mike Morhaime Launches Dreamhaven, Which Sounds Like Blizzard 2.0

Blizzard co-founder and bass guitarist Mike Morhaime stepped down from his position as company president in 2018. Now’s he’s back with a whole new game company, Dreamhaven, overseeing two new game development studios packed with former Blizzard talent.

kotaku.com

Mike Morhiem the beloved former CEO of Blizzard entertainment has opened a brand new gaming studio that he packed with a ton of his former Blizzard friends. Assumingly to make games in much the same way old Blizzard used to do it before Coorporate fuckery screwed everything all up.

Iam frankly rather happy about this, because if that talent is given the freedom to create they way they used to....well then that has quite a bit of wonderful potential now doesn't it.

 

[SilentPony]

This industry is beyond hope.

 

[CriticalGaming]

This industry is beyond hope.

You're so dark.

 

[meiam]

It's always hard to re capture the magic, there's been a lot of company made up former people but I can't think of any of them that manage to equal their former place, although plenty have done decently. A always, I hope the best comes out of the company, but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe we'll get a new warcraft 3 like RTS, really liked the campaign for it and would gladly play some more in the same kind.

 

[Trunkage]

It's always hard to re capture the magic, there's been a lot of company made up former people but I can't think of any of them that manage to equal their former place, although plenty have done decently. A always, I hope the best comes out of the company, but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe we'll get a new warcraft 3 like RTS, really liked the campaign for it and would gladly play some more in the same kind.

This has got way more to do with the mythology of the old place. It's hard to beat an overhyped unrealistic version.

Blizzard is creative. Warcraft, Starcraft and diablo were all fun. They also became way bigger than their actual value. They weren't 10 or even 9/10 games. But way too many people only have two scores - 0/10 or 10/10 with no inbetween. They made up how good the old games were

 

[BrawlMan]

This industry is beyond hope.

So when did you give up and start drinking Kun Lan's or Junko Enoshima's kool aid? I know the industry has a lot of assholes in it, but giving up is the easy way out. You got to look at the positives. Here's some motivation for you. Listen to it real good.


FTR, never was a Warcraft fan, but I do wish best of luck, and that they treat each other with kindness and respect.

 

[sXeth]

Blizzard is creative. Warcraft, Starcraft and diablo were all fun. They also became way bigger than their actual value. They weren't 10 or even 9/10 games. But way too many people only have two scores - 0/10 or 10/10 with no inbetween. They made up how good the old games were

Thats kind of where I've been on "classic Blizzard". Effectively a two-franchise wonder (lets not pretend there's a huge gulf between Warcraft and Starcraft, particularly when Warcraft 3 homogenously blobbed in Starcraft mechanics). And Diablo was probably the more original of the lot. Warcraft and Starcraft are built heavily overtop the work of others, mechanically and lorewise (fairly infamously leaning on Warhammer to an almost lawsuit level)

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

I'm rather cynical about the idea of like... this going back to the old days things. I don't see a reason it won't just fall into some regular corporate whatever.

I'm sure they might make cool games though.

 

[Meximagician]

Tragically, the only Blizzard IP I care about is The Lost Vikings. I'm not holding my breath for The Meandering Pirates or The Stray Crusaders to come out soon.

 

[Agema]

It's always hard to re capture the magic, there's been a lot of company made up former people but I can't think of any of them that manage to equal their former place, although plenty have done decently. A always, I hope the best comes out of the company, but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe we'll get a new warcraft 3 like RTS, really liked the campaign for it and would gladly play some more in the same kind.

I think a problem is often that game design is a team effort, and sometimes some of the team plus others isn't enough to equal the old team. The other is that many game designers perhaps use their best ideas early on, and whilst they may have developed other skills, their creativity may not be what it was.

On the other hand, I sort of like the idea that people sell their games company for $$$ and then quit, leaving it to the soulless corporate drones who just want to flog the brands for easy money and diminishing returns, and then go off and use that money to do their own thing.

 

[Samtemdo8]

First Don Bluth for animation now you Mike for recapturing that "Blizzard magic"?

 

[Trunkage]

Tragically, the only Blizzard IP I care about is The Lost Vikings. I'm not holding my breath for The Meandering Pirates or The Stray Crusaders to come out soon.

Wasn't there talk of a sequel a few years sgo

 

[Meximagician]

Wasn't there talk of a sequel a few years sgo

Not sure, all I know is that they were added to Heroes of the Storm as a weird technical hero with a steep learning curve. Because nothing screams 'outreach' like the prospect of a hard-to-play character option, a totally different genre, while being targeted by competitive players and shouted at by teammates.

No, I'm not salty about it, not even a little bit. /s
They did have some nice 3d models though, with skins for both the original and sequel.

 

[Shadyside]

When is Overwatch 2 coming out? It seems they announced it way too soon.

 

[Trunkage]

When is Overwatch 2 coming out? It seems they announced it way too soon.

Wasn't the first one in beta for years, I remember long time players being bored of the game before it even released

 

[Shadyside]

Wasn't the first one in beta for years, I remember long time players being bored of the game before it even released

I just like the characters, their looks, the flashy fps gameplay, and the toxic community.

 

[Trunkage]

I just like the characters, their looks, the flashy fps gameplay, and the toxic community.

Yes, I've seen your avatar

 

[CriticalGaming]

When is Overwatch 2 coming out? It seems they announced it way too soon.

Blizzard is worse that Square when it comes to announcing games way too long before they'll ever release.

Diablo Immortal is just a fucking mobile game announced two years ago and it still aint out.
Diablo 4 announced last year, with no hope of anything even close to playable beta anytime soon.
Diablo 3 was revealed in 2009 and released in 2012.

While square certainly takes longer to develop a game, one could argue that Square works on more games at any given time than blizzard. You'd think for a company that only is really actively working on three projects continously, they would have a more consistant output. Hell even Activision has been annoyed with how long Blizzard takes to fucking do anything on several earnings calls.

Think about it for a second right... Square this year alone (a pandemic year mind you) Has worked on and released: Kingdom Hearts 3 DLC, Final Fantasy 14 content, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Trials of Mana, Avengers, (and that's the stuff that released.) Additionally projects in development are: Nier remaster, FF7R-2, FF16, FF14 content and expansion, plus much more we dont know about yet. And their production is higher in years when there isn't a Plague.

Meanwhile Blizzard is working on:

WoW
Hearthstone
Overwatch 2
Diablo 4
and a little bit of Heroes of the Storm but I don't think they do much with it anymore.

Think about it Blizzard is releasing two projects this year. A Wow expansion, and they launched a Hearthstone expansion. That's it. For a company that large that's all they have to show for the entire year.

On the bright side I can't recall ever hearing about dangerous crunch periods from them so......

 

[Trunkage]

Blizzard is worse that Square when it comes to announcing games way too long before they'll ever release.

Diablo Immortal is just a fucking mobile game announced two years ago and it still aint out.
Diablo 4 announced last year, with no hope of anything even close to playable beta anytime soon.
Diablo 3 was revealed in 2009 and released in 2012.

While square certainly takes longer to develop a game, one could argue that Square works on more games at any given time than blizzard. You'd think for a company that only is really actively working on three projects continously, they would have a more consistant output. Hell even Activision has been annoyed with how long Blizzard takes to fucking do anything on several earnings calls.

Think about it for a second right... Square this year alone (a pandemic year mind you) Has worked on and released: Kingdom Hearts 3 DLC, Final Fantasy 14 content, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Trials of Mana, Avengers, (and that's the stuff that released.) Additionally projects in development are: Nier remaster, FF7R-2, FF16, FF14 content and expansion, plus much more we dont know about yet. And their production is higher in years when there isn't a Plague.

Meanwhile Blizzard is working on:

WoW
Hearthstone
Overwatch 2
Diablo 4
and a little bit of Heroes of the Storm but I don't think they do much with it anymore.

Think about it Blizzard is releasing two projects this year. A Wow expansion, and they launched a Hearthstone expansion. That's it. For a company that large that's all they have to show for the entire year.

On the bright side I can't recall ever hearing about dangerous crunch periods from them so......

You gotta go where the money is. Same as Valve. Steam is by far the most profitable activity they can do. Why bother making games and people throw money at you for doing nothing.

Also, Bethesda announced ES6 and that isn't even in production at the moment. Make you game first people.

 

[Hawki]

Mike Morhiem the beloved former CEO

Morhaime was "beloved?"

Like, he wasn't hated or anything, but he was certainly no Chris Metzen for instance.

You're so dark.

He's got something from 40K as his avatar, what do you expect?

So when did you give up start drinking Kun Lan's or Junko Enoshima's kool aid? I know the industry has a lot of assholes in it, but giving up is the easy way out. You got to look at the positives. Here's some motivation for you. Listen to it real good.

Because of course Superman is the answer to our problems...yay...

In Suicide Squad, a general asks who would have stopped Supes if he flew into the White House and kidnapped the president. If that happened in 2020, I'd ask Supes what took him so long.

Thats kind of where I've been on "classic Blizzard". Effectively a two-franchise wonder (lets not pretend there's a huge gulf between Warcraft and Starcraft, particularly when Warcraft 3 homogenously blobbed in Starcraft mechanics).

Um, there is a gulf between Warcraft III and StarCraft I/II. WC3 cobbled some mechanics, but it's fundamentally a very different type of RTS. StarCraft is about managing massive armies, WC3 was focused around heroes and smaller armies. If you go into SC expecting it to be like WC3 (or vice versa), you're going to lose very bad, very quickly.

And Diablo was probably the more original of the lot. Warcraft and Starcraft are built heavily overtop the work of others, mechanically and lorewise (fairly infamously leaning on Warhammer to an almost lawsuit level)

I'd like to remind you that Games Workshop once tried to trademark "Space Marine," and gave Age of Sigmar new race names so it could trademark them as well, as well as renaming the Imperial Guard the Astra Militarum, among other things. Copyright and lawsuits are to GW what bolters are to a Space Marine.

Anyway, Diablo is hardly original in that sense. It's cribbling heavily from Abrahamic mythology. Warcraft and StarCraft are fantasy and sci-fi tropes spludged together.

Wasn't there talk of a sequel a few years sgo

No.

When is Overwatch 2 coming out? It seems they announced it way too soon.

I have a feeling that OW2 and D4 were both announced early because people lost their shit over the existence of Immortal.

Wasn't the first one in beta for years, I remember long time players being bored of the game before it even released

1-2 years IIRC.