Blizzard Story
In the world there are many companies involved in the production of computer games. But only a few of them are considered legendary. One of these is the American Blizzard.
The company is famous for its hit series of games, such as Diablo, WarCraft and StarCraft. In addition, Blizzard is the best example of a company that has never compromised on the quality of a product for the sake of money or the speed of its intake. This story is about the real creators of the digital age.
Alain Edham while still studying at the institute dreamed of creating computer games. The very process of programming brought him a lot of pleasure. At the same time, a young man, of course, would not mind linking his life with this craft. It was necessary to solve only one problem - the games were supposed to bring him money.
')
The solution to this problem, Alain took up while studying at the institute. Fortunately, by that time he was already a good programmer, and he had a good idea about the game industry, as he was in close contact with the founder of Interplay, Brian Fargo. In 1991, Alain Edham and his friend Mike Morheim opened their company. They gave her the name "Silicon & Synapse". The starting capital of the company amounted to 10 thousand dollars. In addition to the founders, there was another person in it - Frank Pierce, who became the first employee of the company.
I must say that the history of Blizzard is to some extent a typical history of a computer company. Companies of the XXI century. Why? At the time of its foundation, Alain Edhem was only 22 years old. Naturally, the founders had to lead a lifestyle of real startups. Thus, in the first two years of the company's operations, neither Alain Edham nor Mike Morheim paid any wages. They tried to invest all the money in the business.
Edham met Brian Fargo in vain. The first orders the S & S company received from Interplay. One of the first serious and most importantly - successful projects of the company was the game “The Lost Vikings”. She saw the light in 1992, and was released in versions for DOS, Amiga, Sega, and several other less popular platforms. After the successful The Lost Vikings, S & R develops Rock'n'Roll Racing. It was a success. Second row. The company noticed. The press gave the guys a standing ovation one by one. Moreover, a number of magazines even assigned S & R to the title of the best game designer of the year. This was just the beginning.
Despite such success in terms of creating good products, business is another. The company was slowly but surely plunging into debt. Her debt at that time was about 20 thousand dollars. Expansion of the business went more and more difficult. It was at this time that Davidson & Asscociates appeared on the horizon. In 1993, they acquired Silicon & Synapse, making it their division. True, it is worth noting that under the terms of the transaction, the latter received complete freedom of action. Oh yeah, the amount of the transaction amounted to 10 million dollars, which became a real push for Silicon & Synapse and realized the long-time dream of Alain Edhem - he began to earn money through the production of computer games. And this kind of money that did not even dream of many other people.
Having received funds from “DA” Edham and Morheim seriously thought about the name of the company. It was necessary to pick up something that would make this world shudder. I did not have to think long. The company was called Blizzard (blizzard). And in 1994, the first product of the company, WarCraft, was released under this brand. This game became the ancestor of the now famous series, which is, among other things, also the most famous computer universe in history. The success of the first WarCraft was obvious - more than 100 thousand copies of the game were sold during the year. This strategy came out immediately on two platforms - PC and Macintosh. Porting such a strategy to the console at the time simply could not take place.
However, the real revolution took place a little later, when WarCraft 2 was introduced. During the first year, more than 1 million copies of the game were sold. In total, it sold about 3 million copies. It was a real revolution. First, WarCraft 2 was one of the first games to support a screen resolution of 640x480. Secondly, the game pleased not only the graphics, which was amazing at that time, the gameplay, but also the sound that had never been seen before. Overnight, Blizzard is becoming one of the industry’s most respected companies. With record sales.
There is an interesting point to note here - initially the company wanted the action of the WarCraft game to take place in the WarHammer universe. But it was not possible to agree on a price with the license holder. If you look at Blizzard today, you can say with confidence that it had a positive impact on its future (details a bit later).
The first employee of the company, Frank Pierce, had a huge impact on the success of WarCraft. After all, it was he who implemented most of the game engine code. Including the possibility of a network game, as well as a map editor that allows ordinary people to create their own landscapes in the game. This is a very important point, since these same cards were then quite actively spread on the Internet on various fan sites.
Naturally, then came a small update to the game WarCraft 2, which, as is customary in the game industry, is produced more to increase the company's profits. True, in the story with Blizzard it is not very passed. All add-ons to the games made a lot of new features. This is another distinctive feature of the company, which is particularly pronounced today in the development of additions to World of Warcraft.
Diablo times are coming ...
Actually, not only Blizzard worked on the Diablo game itself. The very idea of the product belongs to Condor, which was first bought in 1995. At the same time Condor received the name Blizzard North, and complete freedom of action. The symbiosis of the programmers of both companies had a terrific effect. There was a game that surpassed sales even WarCraft2.
Initially, Condor had intended to make Diablo a classic turn-based role-playing game. According to the canons of the genre. At the same time, at the very beginning of the development, an important decision was made - Diablo will be sharpened under Windows 95 (before that, all Blizzard games were made under Dos). After working closely with the developers of Blizzard in the former Condor, they realized that they could make an RPG in real time. And at the end of '96, the game appeared on store shelves. 2 years of development led to new sales records, and Blizzard began to gradually become a cult company akin to ID Software.
After the release of Diablo to the game, a fairly good addition was released, HellFire, which spurred to some extent the sale of the game. Finally, the company began developing the second version of Diablo, which was released only in 2000. Such a long development period paid off. Diablo II once again broke all records, becoming the fastest-selling game in history.
However, even before the release of the second part, Diablo Blizzard released its most famous hit of the late 90s - the game StarCraft. In fact, StarCraft represents the same WarCraft, but only with more advanced graphics, physics, sound and ... the game takes place in space. StarCraft has become the benchmark of strategic games for many years. And this year the whole world expects the appearance of its second part. It is likely that with the release of this game, Blizzard will again beat all imaginable sales records (StarCraft sales at one time amounted to more than 1 million copies in three months).
The development of StarCraft itself was not so simple. It may seem that Blizzard just made a game based on the WarCraft engine, but this is not entirely true. Yes, initially the company planned exactly this way. But after the E3 exhibition, the developers realized that they could not surprise the world with “orcs in space”. Needed something new. This is a new and completely new engine that allows you to create graphical effects that have never been seen before. Most of the work was done by the talented programmer Bob Fitch.
Meanwhile, in the field of the success of their computer games, Blizzard changed its owners. So, in 1996, the company DA was bought by CUC International, which already a year later had some problems that resulted in the sale of Blizzard. Its buyer was Vivendi Universal, which still owns the company.
In 2002, a significant event occurred in the history of Blizzard - the game WarCraft 3 was released. Of course, it broke all sales records. And Blizzard realized that the fans simply adore the universe created by them (by the way, in many respects this was due to the remarkable plot of this strategy). This led to the fact that a lot of fantasy literature began to appear in bookstores, the action of which took place in the world of WarCraft. Naturally, all the books were made out in the style of the game. Blizzard itself has taken up the idea that has long been born in the company - the realization of an online game in the world of WarCraft.
WoW (so decided to shorten the name of this game) is by far the most popular online MMORPG in the world. The audience of the game is more than 10 million active users. That is how much she gained in 4 years of existence. In this case, it is worth noting that the game is distributed by subscription. Those. Users pay about $ 15 each month for the right to play WoW.
In 2007, Blizzard released the first World of Warcraft update called Burning Crusade. During the first day of sales, 2.4 million copies of the game were sold. Now the company is working on a new update, which should see the light in 2008-2009. I must say that the popularity of the world of WoW led to the fact that in the near future will begin shooting an epic film based on the universe of WarCraft. It is expected that this will be the first decent response to the Lord of the Rings in recent years. Produce the picture will be the company Blizzard.
If you look at the financial performance of the company, the income of Blizzard over the past year amounted to just over $ 800 million. At the same time, the company turned out to be one of the few in the game industry, which ended the year with a net profit. Moreover, they say that is large enough.
Well, the dream of Alain Edhema came true. And today Blizzard rightfully bears the title of the game industry icon.
The company is famous for its hit series of games, such as Diablo, WarCraft and StarCraft. In addition, Blizzard is the best example of a company that has never compromised on the quality of a product for the sake of money or the speed of its intake. This story is about the real creators of the digital age.
First success
Alain Edham while still studying at the institute dreamed of creating computer games. The very process of programming brought him a lot of pleasure. At the same time, a young man, of course, would not mind linking his life with this craft. It was necessary to solve only one problem - the games were supposed to bring him money.
')
The solution to this problem, Alain took up while studying at the institute. Fortunately, by that time he was already a good programmer, and he had a good idea about the game industry, as he was in close contact with the founder of Interplay, Brian Fargo. In 1991, Alain Edham and his friend Mike Morheim opened their company. They gave her the name "Silicon & Synapse". The starting capital of the company amounted to 10 thousand dollars. In addition to the founders, there was another person in it - Frank Pierce, who became the first employee of the company.
I must say that the history of Blizzard is to some extent a typical history of a computer company. Companies of the XXI century. Why? At the time of its foundation, Alain Edhem was only 22 years old. Naturally, the founders had to lead a lifestyle of real startups. Thus, in the first two years of the company's operations, neither Alain Edham nor Mike Morheim paid any wages. They tried to invest all the money in the business.
Edham met Brian Fargo in vain. The first orders the S & S company received from Interplay. One of the first serious and most importantly - successful projects of the company was the game “The Lost Vikings”. She saw the light in 1992, and was released in versions for DOS, Amiga, Sega, and several other less popular platforms. After the successful The Lost Vikings, S & R develops Rock'n'Roll Racing. It was a success. Second row. The company noticed. The press gave the guys a standing ovation one by one. Moreover, a number of magazines even assigned S & R to the title of the best game designer of the year. This was just the beginning.
Despite such success in terms of creating good products, business is another. The company was slowly but surely plunging into debt. Her debt at that time was about 20 thousand dollars. Expansion of the business went more and more difficult. It was at this time that Davidson & Asscociates appeared on the horizon. In 1993, they acquired Silicon & Synapse, making it their division. True, it is worth noting that under the terms of the transaction, the latter received complete freedom of action. Oh yeah, the amount of the transaction amounted to 10 million dollars, which became a real push for Silicon & Synapse and realized the long-time dream of Alain Edhem - he began to earn money through the production of computer games. And this kind of money that did not even dream of many other people.
The first project under the brand Blizzard
Having received funds from “DA” Edham and Morheim seriously thought about the name of the company. It was necessary to pick up something that would make this world shudder. I did not have to think long. The company was called Blizzard (blizzard). And in 1994, the first product of the company, WarCraft, was released under this brand. This game became the ancestor of the now famous series, which is, among other things, also the most famous computer universe in history. The success of the first WarCraft was obvious - more than 100 thousand copies of the game were sold during the year. This strategy came out immediately on two platforms - PC and Macintosh. Porting such a strategy to the console at the time simply could not take place.
However, the real revolution took place a little later, when WarCraft 2 was introduced. During the first year, more than 1 million copies of the game were sold. In total, it sold about 3 million copies. It was a real revolution. First, WarCraft 2 was one of the first games to support a screen resolution of 640x480. Secondly, the game pleased not only the graphics, which was amazing at that time, the gameplay, but also the sound that had never been seen before. Overnight, Blizzard is becoming one of the industry’s most respected companies. With record sales.
There is an interesting point to note here - initially the company wanted the action of the WarCraft game to take place in the WarHammer universe. But it was not possible to agree on a price with the license holder. If you look at Blizzard today, you can say with confidence that it had a positive impact on its future (details a bit later).
The first employee of the company, Frank Pierce, had a huge impact on the success of WarCraft. After all, it was he who implemented most of the game engine code. Including the possibility of a network game, as well as a map editor that allows ordinary people to create their own landscapes in the game. This is a very important point, since these same cards were then quite actively spread on the Internet on various fan sites.
Naturally, then came a small update to the game WarCraft 2, which, as is customary in the game industry, is produced more to increase the company's profits. True, in the story with Blizzard it is not very passed. All add-ons to the games made a lot of new features. This is another distinctive feature of the company, which is particularly pronounced today in the development of additions to World of Warcraft.
Diablo times are coming ...
The opening of the genre of role-playing games, as we know it today, and the "orcs in space"
Actually, not only Blizzard worked on the Diablo game itself. The very idea of the product belongs to Condor, which was first bought in 1995. At the same time Condor received the name Blizzard North, and complete freedom of action. The symbiosis of the programmers of both companies had a terrific effect. There was a game that surpassed sales even WarCraft2.
Initially, Condor had intended to make Diablo a classic turn-based role-playing game. According to the canons of the genre. At the same time, at the very beginning of the development, an important decision was made - Diablo will be sharpened under Windows 95 (before that, all Blizzard games were made under Dos). After working closely with the developers of Blizzard in the former Condor, they realized that they could make an RPG in real time. And at the end of '96, the game appeared on store shelves. 2 years of development led to new sales records, and Blizzard began to gradually become a cult company akin to ID Software.
After the release of Diablo to the game, a fairly good addition was released, HellFire, which spurred to some extent the sale of the game. Finally, the company began developing the second version of Diablo, which was released only in 2000. Such a long development period paid off. Diablo II once again broke all records, becoming the fastest-selling game in history.
However, even before the release of the second part, Diablo Blizzard released its most famous hit of the late 90s - the game StarCraft. In fact, StarCraft represents the same WarCraft, but only with more advanced graphics, physics, sound and ... the game takes place in space. StarCraft has become the benchmark of strategic games for many years. And this year the whole world expects the appearance of its second part. It is likely that with the release of this game, Blizzard will again beat all imaginable sales records (StarCraft sales at one time amounted to more than 1 million copies in three months).
The development of StarCraft itself was not so simple. It may seem that Blizzard just made a game based on the WarCraft engine, but this is not entirely true. Yes, initially the company planned exactly this way. But after the E3 exhibition, the developers realized that they could not surprise the world with “orcs in space”. Needed something new. This is a new and completely new engine that allows you to create graphical effects that have never been seen before. Most of the work was done by the talented programmer Bob Fitch.
Meanwhile, in the field of the success of their computer games, Blizzard changed its owners. So, in 1996, the company DA was bought by CUC International, which already a year later had some problems that resulted in the sale of Blizzard. Its buyer was Vivendi Universal, which still owns the company.
In 2002, a significant event occurred in the history of Blizzard - the game WarCraft 3 was released. Of course, it broke all sales records. And Blizzard realized that the fans simply adore the universe created by them (by the way, in many respects this was due to the remarkable plot of this strategy). This led to the fact that a lot of fantasy literature began to appear in bookstores, the action of which took place in the world of WarCraft. Naturally, all the books were made out in the style of the game. Blizzard itself has taken up the idea that has long been born in the company - the realization of an online game in the world of WarCraft.
World of warcraft
WoW (so decided to shorten the name of this game) is by far the most popular online MMORPG in the world. The audience of the game is more than 10 million active users. That is how much she gained in 4 years of existence. In this case, it is worth noting that the game is distributed by subscription. Those. Users pay about $ 15 each month for the right to play WoW.
In 2007, Blizzard released the first World of Warcraft update called Burning Crusade. During the first day of sales, 2.4 million copies of the game were sold. Now the company is working on a new update, which should see the light in 2008-2009. I must say that the popularity of the world of WoW led to the fact that in the near future will begin shooting an epic film based on the universe of WarCraft. It is expected that this will be the first decent response to the Lord of the Rings in recent years. Produce the picture will be the company Blizzard.
If you look at the financial performance of the company, the income of Blizzard over the past year amounted to just over $ 800 million. At the same time, the company turned out to be one of the few in the game industry, which ended the year with a net profit. Moreover, they say that is large enough.
Well, the dream of Alain Edhema came true. And today Blizzard rightfully bears the title of the game industry icon.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/37179/
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