Blizzard Entertainment Wikipedia. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California, and is a subsidiary of the American company Activision Blizzard. The company was founded on February 8, 1. Warcraft 3 Hosting Bot' title='Warcraft 3 Hosting Bot' />Silicon Synapse by three graduates of the University of California, Los Angeles 4Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce, and Allen Adham. The company originally concentrated on the creation of game ports for other studios before beginning development of their own software in 1. Rock n Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings. Warcraft 3 Hosting Bot' title='Warcraft 3 Hosting Bot' />In 1. Chaos Studios, Inc., then Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Davidson Associates. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard released Warcraft Orcs Humans. Blizzard created several other video games, including Warcraft sequels, the Diablo series, the Star. Craft series, and in 2. World of Warcraft. Their most recent projects include the first expansion for Diablo III, Reaper of Souls, the online collectible card game. Hearthstone, the sixth expansion for World of Warcraft, Legion, the multiplayer online battle arena. Heroes of the Storm, the third and final expansion for Star. Craft II Wings of Liberty, Legacy of the Void, and the multiplayerfirst personhero shooter. Overwatch. On July 9, 2. Activision merged with Vivendi Games, culminating in the inclusion of the Blizzard brand name in the title of the resulting holding company. On July 2. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California, and is a subsidiary of the American company Activision. Mike Fahey. Kotaku elder, lover of video games, toys, snacks and other unsavory things. Top list of private servers, vote for the best online gaming server and play for free. Add your game and get more site visitors and players. Registered TimeIPS Support Portal is now available Posted by TimeIPS Staff on Sep 30, 2005 0935 AM TimeIPS News Welcome to the TimeIPS Support Portal, the. Discord wants to destroy its biggest, bestfunded competitor in the battle to be the communications layer for gaming. It wants to be the home for gamer. It was pretty much nuked by a hack attack DDOS, crippling most of Canadian hosting service, Mavenhostings servers 4254 affecting 296 other sites. Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 4. Vivendi. As a result, Activision Blizzard became a completely independent company. Blizzard Entertainment hosts conventions for fans to meet and to promote their games the Blizz. Con in California, United States, and the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in other countries, including South Korea and France. Jade Nile And August Ames on this page. History. Blizzard Entertainment was founded by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce as Silicon Synapse on February 8, 1. UCLA. 74 To found the company, each of them contributed about 1. Morhaime, he got as part of a interest free loan from his grandmother. During the first two years, the company focused on creating game ports for other studios. Ports include titles such as J. R. R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I and Battle Chess II Chinese Chess. Free online file hosting. Host your large files with one click. The easiest way to upload, download and host files. Several real climate scientists contacted by Gizmodo felt Smith was not as up to snuff on his research as he claimed to be, however. These comments reflect the. The podcast craze of the past several years shows no signs of slowing down, and while every armchair broadcaster with a voice recorder app is eager to get in the game. InformationWeek. com News, analysis and research for business technology professionals, plus peertopeer knowledge sharing. Engage with our community. In 1. 99. 3, the company developed games such as Rock n Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings published by Interplay Productions. In early 1. 99. 4, they were acquired by distributor Davidson Associates for 6. That same year 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. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit Warcraft Orcs Humans. Blizzard has changed hands several times since then. Davidson was acquired along with Sierra On Line by a company called CUC International in 1. CUC then merged with a hotel, real estate, and car rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1. In 1. 99. 8 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger. Cendants stock lost 8. The company sold its consumer software operations, Sierra On line which included Blizzard to French publisher Havas in 1. Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard was part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi. In July 2. 00. 8 Vivendi Games merged with Activision, using Blizzards name in the resulting company, Activision Blizzard. In 1. 99. 6, 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 the games Diablo, Diablo II, and its expansion pack Lord of Destruction. Blizzard North was located in San Mateo, California. The company originated in Redwood City, California. Blizzard launched their online gaming service Battle. January 1. 99. 7 with the release of their action role playing game. Diablo. In 2. 00. Internet Explorer 8 For Windows Xp Sp3. Blizzard was able to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon Synapse titles, The Lost Vikings, Rock n Roll Racing and Blackthorne, from Interplay Entertainment and re release them for Game Boy Advance, a handheld console. In 2. 00. 4, Blizzard opened European offices in the Paris suburb of Vlizy, Yvelines, France. On May 1. 6, 2. 00. Blizzard announced the acquisition of Swingin Ape Studios, a video game developer which had been developing Star. Craft Ghost. The company was then merged into Blizzards other teams after Star. Craft Ghost was postponed indefinitely. On August 1, 2. 00. Blizzard announced the consolidation of Blizzard North into the headquarters at 1. Theory in UC Irvines University Research Park in Irvine, California. In 2. 00. 7, Blizzard moved their headquarters to 1. Alton Parkway in Irvine, California. On November 2. 3, 2. Blizzard released World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role playing game. World of Warcraft is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft Orcs Humans in 1. Blizzard announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2. The game was released on November 2. Warcraftfranchise. The first expansion set of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 1. The second expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, was released on November 1. The third expansion set, Cataclysm1. December 7, 2. 01. Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor, were released respectively on September 2. November 1. 3, 2. The most recent expansion, Legion, was released on August 3. Having peaked at 1. World of Warcraft subscriptions sunk to 6. The Burning Crusade expansion. However, World of Warcraft is still the worlds most subscribed MMORPG,1. Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In April 2. 00. 8, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 6. MMORPG subscription market. In 2. 00. 8, Blizzard was honored at the 5. Annual Technology Engineering Emmy Awards for the creation of World of Warcraft. Mike Morhaime accepted the award. In 2. Blizzard had 4,7. Austin, Texas, and countries around the globe. As of June 2. 01. Irvine, California had 2,6. Blizzard announced in September 2. The Burbank Studios in Burbank, California, that will convert into the Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, featuring multiple sound stages, control rooms, practice facilities, a merchandise store, and seating for up to 4. Blizzard will use the venue to support its various e. Sports, starting with the Overwatch Contenders Season One in October 2. Blizzard presently plans to use this only for their events but may allow other e. Sports leagues to use it in the future. Key employees. Michael Morhaime Co founder, President 1. Allen Adham Founder, Senior Vice President, Executive Producer and former President 1. Frank Pearce Jr. Co founder, Senior Vice President, Chief Design Officer 1. Samwise Didier Senior Art Director 1. Bobby Fisher Technical Director 1. Matt Samia Vice PresidentCinematics Media 1. Alan Dabiri Technical Director 1. Jeff Chamberlain Cinematics Director 2. Dustin Browder Game Director 2. Jeff Kaplan Game Director Overwatch, 2. Ion Hazzikostas Game Director World of Warcraft, 2. Ben Brode Game Director Hearthstone, 2. Former key employees. Patrick Wyatt First hire and eventual Vice President of Research Development 1. David Brevik Co Founder and President of Blizzard NorthDirector at Blizzard Ent.