Gamers who have followed Blizzard in recent years can observe that the company has undergone a significant transformation since joining Activision. The truths that have emerged six years later reveal why co-founder Mike Morhaime resigned from Blizzard and how the company underwent this transformation.
This process, which sharply altered Blizzard, accelerated as Morhaime could no longer endure the constant conflicts with CEO Bobby Kotick, leading him to decide to leave the company. Here are the details…
How Did Blizzard Spiral into Chaos?
According to an excerpt from the book Play Nice: The Rise and Fall of Blizzard Entertainment, the problems within the company began six years after the merger of Blizzard and Activision. At that time, the long-awaited MMORPG Titan had been canceled after years of investment, and there was still no clear plan for what to do with the produced material.
This situation led Kotick’s leadership to apply more pressure to control Morhaime’s decisions. The hiring of finance executive Armin Zerra to keep costs under control further complicated matters.
Zerra, who had previously worked in the marketing and distribution of products like detergents and shampoos, was not very familiar with the gaming world. Consequently, he began making decisions that went against the teams supported by Blizzard’s staff. At one point, he even suggested canceling BlizzCon due to the event’s small profit margins.
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Mike Morhaime Resigned Due to Pressure
Details in the book indicate that Kotick was also problematic, as he did not understand how long it took to create a game. This situation allegedly led to constant disputes between him and Morhaime, who continued to defend areas like technical support, the cinema department, and the employee bonus system.
After attending a meeting that proposed further integration between the studio, Activision, and King, Morhaime decided to leave the company in 2018. According to Morhaime, it had become entirely impossible to both maintain the culture that made the studio unique and assure employees that there were reasons to trust in the company’s future.
With Morhaime’s departure, the inevitable change was fully realized. Blizzard continued on a path marked by a series of controversial decisions, leaving it as merely “an old friend” to some gamers.
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