really humanizes the company. never really thought about how they started, but does make me appreciate their games more
Blizzard Looks Back on 20 Years of Games
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
It's kind of a complicated series of mergers and acquisitions. I'll copy/paste from Wikipedia:SteelStallion said:
"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."
In 2008, Vivendi merged its Vivendi Games division into the publisher's name, to create Activision-Blizzard as it exists today.
Fun fact: Bobby Kotick, as president of Activision, thought Davidson & Associates was out of its mind [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97570-Activision-Didnt-Think-Blizzard-Was-Worth-7-Million-in-1995] when it paid 7 million USD for Blizzard in 1995. In 2008, Activision paid 7 billion USD for the merger. Hindsight, eh?
Really guys? Nit picking a retrospective?
This full-fledged willingness to PICK on something is rather repulsive. I'm no eternal optimist or a 'I LOVE EVERYTHING!' kind of person, but christ's sake I think some of you need hugs and kittens.
OT: I thought it was really well thought out, and edited, and loved the long focus on the earliest years (the years that most fandom has no idea existed). Rather heartwarming to hear that the two main founders got cashback off of credit cards to make payroll, rather than miss it. WTB them as bosses!
This full-fledged willingness to PICK on something is rather repulsive. I'm no eternal optimist or a 'I LOVE EVERYTHING!' kind of person, but christ's sake I think some of you need hugs and kittens. OT: I thought it was really well thought out, and edited, and loved the long focus on the earliest years (the years that most fandom has no idea existed). Rather heartwarming to hear that the two main founders got cashback off of credit cards to make payroll, rather than miss it. WTB them as bosses!
wc3 was just plain awesome, I think blizzards soul was sold to the devil when they made WoW honestly (the whole pay per month crap) Im not nitpicking I wanted to hear at least one thing about wc3 besides, we made it :OTehlanna TPX said:Really guys? Nit picking a retrospective?
OT: I thought it was really well thought out, and edited, and loved the long focus on the earliest years (the years that most fandom has no idea existed). Rather heartwarming to hear that the two main founders got cashback off of credit cards to make payroll, rather than miss it. WTB them as bosses!
I would go on my schpiel about the benefits of pay per month mmo, but I'll just imply its all the things you've heard (pros) and more, and recognize your disgruntlement over the cons.Tiscolfo said:wc3 was just plain awesome, I think blizzards soul was sold to the devil when they made WoW honestly (the whole pay per month crap) Im not nitpicking I wanted to hear at least one thing about wc3 besides, we made it :OTehlanna TPX said:Really guys? Nit picking a retrospective?
OT: I thought it was really well thought out, and edited, and loved the long focus on the earliest years (the years that most fandom has no idea existed). Rather heartwarming to hear that the two main founders got cashback off of credit cards to make payroll, rather than miss it. WTB them as bosses!
And yeah wc3 4tw.
Maybe for Blizz B-day they could release diablo 3 already? Or just make a promise to release promised games sooner... I mean seriously if you look at the release dates to announcements there is a constant increase in the time period... Like it used to be 2 years and for Diablo 3 it was 4 years?
Very enjoyable watch, as someone whos been quite a big fan of their games. Diablo 2 and warcraft 3 were one of the first games that i really got into, its great to learn abit more about their history.
I watched it and loved every moment. The throwaway comment about why they needed to hire new artists had me chuckling. Also, gotta love them for putting their company culture on the top priority when accepting new employees.
Yes ive heard emTehlanna TPX said:I would go on my schpiel about the benefits of pay per month mmo, but I'll just imply its all the things you've heard (pros) and more, and recognize your disgruntlement over the cons.Tiscolfo said:wc3 was just plain awesome, I think blizzards soul was sold to the devil when they made WoW honestly (the whole pay per month crap) Im not nitpicking I wanted to hear at least one thing about wc3 besides, we made it :OTehlanna TPX said:Really guys? Nit picking a retrospective?
OT: I thought it was really well thought out, and edited, and loved the long focus on the earliest years (the years that most fandom has no idea existed). Rather heartwarming to hear that the two main founders got cashback off of credit cards to make payroll, rather than miss it. WTB them as bosses!
And yeah wc3 4tw.
, I refuse to listen to any of em since guildwars and since I dont have enough money to waste per month on it otherwise I "may" be up for it. And Im actually gonna get on in a bit maybe for some risk. US.East Lokeen