The development history of Blizzard

"Starcraft" can be said to be a famous name in the gaming circle. But Blizzard, the company that makes StarCraft, is far less famous than its products. In fact, Blizzard has become a myth in the game industry, and the story behind it is intriguing

Blizzard is a myth in the game industry. It has created an unprecedented classic in 10 years. There are many mysteries surrounding its success, but what is evident is that in the crowded gaming industry, producing authoritative works has always been Blizzard's desire and motivation.

Three years of sharpening a sword

In 1991, two UCLA graduates, Mike Morhaime and Allen Adham* **Co-founded Silicon & Synapse (Silicon and Synapse) company. At first, he developed some simple board games for others. The two RPM games "Rock" and "Lost Pirates" developed that year were fortunate to be the first super games in the United States to be transplanted to Japan's Nintendo. In 1994, Blizzard was acquired by a well-known publishing company. In this year, Blizzard, which had only 15 employees, including programmers, designers, draftsmen and sound engineers, grandly launched the stunning PC game "Warcraft" under the name "Blizzard". , and for the first time put the "Blizzard (Blizzard)" label on its product packaging box.

At that time, game companies did not need huge expenses to develop a product, but the return rate was quite generous. Therefore, a set of "Warcraft" can earn enough reproduction capital for Blizzard. In 1995, Blizzard struck while the iron was hot and launched "Warcraft II", which achieved greater success with sales exceeding one million.

In 1996, Blizzard's second series of high-quality products "Diablo" was launched, selling 1 million units in 18 days; the next year, "Diablo II" was launched not long after It quickly sold 2.5 million units and became the best-selling game of the year.

By 1998, Blizzard was already a big business and wealthy, and it had accumulated strong strength for the launch of "Starcraft". Before the launch of "Starcraft", hailed as an "epoch-making masterpiece" by the gaming industry, Blizzard prepared 1 million units. As soon as it appeared, players from all over the world who had been waiting for it for a long time were crazy about it, and all 1 million units were sold out in three months. It became the world's largest-selling game that year. The next year, "Starcraft (StarCraft)" became a sensation in South Korea, selling 1 million units locally, and South Korea became the largest user country of "StarCraft (StarCraft)".

In the global gaming industry, competition has become so fierce that it is life-and-death. In this kind of cruel competition, why does every game released by Blizzard sell so well? Simply put, Blizzard's development principles can be summed up in one word: "fun." In the words of players, Blizzard's games are deeply playable and cannot be grasped in a few months. After playing "StarCraft" for three months, generally speaking, you can only get a first glimpse of the game.

Blizzard has only launched 6 games in 10 years, among which the "Warcraft" series "Half of it. Strictly speaking, only counting the three series of games, it takes an average of three years to sharpen a sword. The development history of Blizzard is that simple.

The Difficult Early Years

Speaking of the stories of Blizzard's early years, not all are as colorful as flowers. Blizzard is often accompanied by difficulties.

The two entrepreneurs of Blizzard have a clear goal: to make games that they like and are more popular with players. The development of a game blockbuster often takes a year or more, and the cycle of investment and return is relatively long.

In the early days, Mike Mowaimi and Alan Adhan often needed to withdraw cash from personal credit cards in order to pay their employees' salaries, relying on personal borrowings to support the company. During that period, they were under considerable pressure. They had to mobilize employees to maximize their enthusiasm and use their talents, but they also had to endure the pain of never entering the "cultivation period." At that time, they had almost nothing from a capital flow perspective.

In the end, Mike Mowaimi and Alan Adham survived the most difficult period. What motivated them to persevere was: the opportunity to make great game works; the persistent pursuit of their careers; Yearning for the company's future. The mountains and rivers are full of doubts and there is no way, and the willows and flowers are dark and the flowers are bright in another village. Facing today's glory and looking back on those difficult years, Mike Mowaimi said humbly, "We are very lucky" and "luck is next to us." However, everyone knows that it is impossible to start a company, especially to push it to the top of the industry, just by "luck". Back then, when Blizzard started its business, the most important thing was not the funds, but the name of the company. No one knew what "Synapse" was! In 1993, Mike Mowaimi and Alan Adham changed the name of Silicon & Synapse to Chaos Studio. Unexpectedly, a company in New York had registered the name and asked for $100,000. transfer fee. Mike Mowaimi admits that if the asking price wasn't so high, Blizzard might be a company called "Ogre Studios" today. Finally, Alan Adham looked up the word "Blizzard" from the dictionary, and decided to officially name the company Blizzard Entertainment. every dog ??has his day. In early 1994, Davidson & Associates, a well-known American publishing company, became very interested in Blizzard and proposed an acquisition. After repeated weighings, Blizzard was happy to marry the other party. For many creative game companies, acquisitions often mean death, but Blizzard's move is different from ordinary mergers and acquisitions. They have never given up the right to independently develop games. It is with this right that Blizzard has grown into the world-renowned "game empire" it is today.

In 1996, Blizzard acquired Condor in one fell swoop. If Blizzard's acquisition by Davidson & Associates gave it financial backing, then its acquisition of Condor gave Blizzard even more power and a group of software R&D elites.

Only sell authoritative products. In 1995, Blizzard spent US$300,000 in funding and spent 10 months completing the sequel to "Warcraft", "Warcraft II" .

When the market was bleak at the time, "Warcraft II" sold 500,000 units worldwide in just 4 months, becoming Blizzard's first product to exceed one million sales. It was named the best multiplayer online game of the year by "PC Game" magazine, and sold 2.5 million units in one go in the following three years. "Warcraft II" made Blizzard a dazzling golden brand, making players all over the world remember the name Blizzard.

After the great success of "Warcraft II (Warcraft II)", Blizzard set itself a new and greater challenge. Only develop first-class authoritative works. This is also a major strategy for creating a brand that Blizzard has determined. Next, if Blizzard continues to develop "Warcraft III", it may be the most cost-effective and safest approach, but the company's executives hope to achieve a new breakthrough, so the development team proposed the idea of ??making a science fiction game. Launched the more successful "Starcraft". Blizzard's business strategy is to build a brand, not to speculate on famous brands.

Famous brands are not the same as brands. The reason is very simple. Famous brands are just familiar faces, but brands are the real recognition of players!

The infinitely extending "Battle.net"

In 1997, Blizzard set up a dedicated online server "Battle.net" and named it "Battle.net". The emergence of "Battle.net" is Blizzard's keen sense and accurate grasp of the Internet era, and its importance cannot be overstated. In 1998, as "Starcraft" became popular all over the world, "Battle.net" also became increasingly prosperous. The two complemented each other and prospered. In 1999, Blizzard held its first competition on "Battle.net", providing US$20,000 in cash and prizes. Players around the world competed to participate, setting off an unprecedented online game war.

With the advent of "Battle.net", the appeal of "Starcraft" has increased sharply. Players from all over the world have online battles and real-person battles, and they have endless fun. Many people are fascinated by this and have restless sleep and food. Although Blizzard's "Battle.net" is a free service, players must have genuine Blizzard games to enter "Battle.net" to compete for hegemony. In 2000, Blizzard had 13 million users worldwide, and the number of registered users of "Battle.net" reached 7.5 million, with an average of 120,000 people online every day. Based on this, it is estimated that Blizzard's income is very considerable.

In order to cooperate with the launch of new products, Blizzard has further strengthened its anti-piracy functions and will have stricter control over CD-KEY on "Battle.net". It is difficult for pirated games to have the opportunity to appreciate its endless fun. Tens of millions of players will bring huge financial resources to Blizzard.

Low-key style

In the global gaming community, there are very few players who have never played "Starcraft", and there are quite a few people who don't know the experience of Blizzard entrepreneurs. The important reason is that Blizzard has always been unwilling to use the media to hype itself. In 1998, Alan Adham resigned as president and became chairman of the company's board of directors, with Mike Mowaimi taking over as president. Stepping back from the front line as a consultant, Alan Adhan hopes that he will have enough time to return to game design. What is quite funny is that the news of Alan Adham's resignation did not have any repercussions among players, nor did it reduce players' good impression of Blizzard. A very simple reason is that no one outside of Blizzard employees really knows Who is Alan Adham and what does he do? "We love game design work, but we need to focus on game products!" The happiness gained from the game development process is enough for Blizzard entrepreneurs to avoid any temptations from the outside world. This passion for dedication to their careers makes them silent Farming and even contact with the outside world remains largely closed. At Blizzard, everyone from the boss to the employees keeps a low profile, and the company's doors are rarely open to the outside world. Blizzard people only focus on their own careers. This is in sharp contrast to the strange phenomenon in some domestic companies that they only know the boss's name but not his products.

Unusual talent strategy

1. Those who don’t like to play games are not required. The purpose is to guide every employee to have a deep understanding of games

In the game industry, Blizzard The rate of employees changing jobs is the lowest, although in recent years some employees have started their own businesses. But what is different is that Blizzard does not regard independent entrepreneurs as enemies like other companies. Instead, it respects their entrepreneurial ambitions and maintains friendly relations with them. Since the 1990s, many talents with special skills in the United States have been proud to work for Blizzard, but Blizzard's selection of talents is very weird. First of all, candidates must really love and be proficient in games. All Blizzard employees are gamers, and game engineers spend their lunch breaks playing "Counter-Strike" by their competitor Sierra.

This phenomenon is difficult to exist in other game companies. Many companies do not encourage or even prohibit employees from playing games. Blizzard's intention is to guide every employee to have a deep understanding of the game, so as to establish the foundation for developing excellent products that suit players' tastes. According to this principle, people applying for Blizzard jobs cannot get through by memorizing game knowledge alone. The HR manager will even walk you through the process step by step during the interview.

In addition to passion and loyalty for games, Blizzard also attaches great importance to the technical quality of its employees. The minimum academic qualifications for Blizzard art designers are Ph.D. At Blizzard, when many experienced and skilled game producers have completed five years of service, the company will reward them with a medieval long sword as a souvenir. They grow with the company, and the company's performance is closely linked to employees' personal income.

2. Only when you are paranoid about your career can you have a selfless work spirit.

When "Starcraft" was produced in 1997, level designer Jeff Strain's design also reached a critical moment when the task processing module had to be redefined, which coincided with the birth of his wife. As soon as he received a call from his wife, he immediately went to the company's computer department to borrow a laptop and then drove home. The daughter was restless in the mother's belly and the wife had begun to have convulsions. He used these five or six hours to stay in front of his wife's delivery bed and complete all the programming work for "Starcraft". When his wife woke up from anesthesia after giving birth, she loudly asked him: "Why were you still working on your damn game when our daughter was born?" This spirit of selfless work is reflected in every employee of Blizzard. People have almost a paranoid love for their careers. Many senior managers expressed this emotion: "Aside from my family, the thing that brings me the most happiness is developing games for the company." In the eyes of Blizzard employees, Gaming isn't just a job, it's a way of life.

On Thursday, March 18, 2004 (Warcraft world) Michel Koiter, the original artist of World of Warcraft and Warcraft III, died of heart failure in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He was only 19 years old. Blizzard deeply regrets that Koiter's death is a loss for Blizzard and a loss for "World of Warcraft". Blizzard Entertainment felt very sorry for the death of this elite employee. When "World of Warcraft" was still being tested, the production team designed him as an orc in the "World of Warcraft" game. This venerable orc rests peacefully in the Temple of the Warrior's Soul forever, leaving us to mourn him forever.

Moderate expansion strategy

In 2000, Blizzard has developed into an internationally renowned company with 150 employees, both in game development and technology. It is no longer the 15-person company it once was. The studio is strong enough to ensure the simultaneous development of two games. But Mike Mowaimi admitted that the biggest challenge facing Blizzard is to find the talent necessary to realize the company's game development philosophy and ensure that the company culture is not compromised. He said, "We never want to be a company with 1,000 employees, but I think Blizzard can eventually grow to six or seven development teams without sacrificing quality. Do less, but we must do better."

In the past 10 years, Blizzard has experienced two mergers and acquisitions, once by others, and again by others. In addition, there has been no larger expansion move. However, Blizzard has been developing, and its employees have increased tenfold. This is a moderate expansion that is close to "conservation of energy", rather than unlimited expansion for the sake of greed. Blizzard does not want to fall into such a vicious cycle. It has a stable grasp of the "speed" of expansion and grows healthily during steady expansion. In terms of product development, Blizzard is also good at grasping the balance between quantity and quality. The quality consciousness of winning with less is Blizzard's business principle. While countless game companies are eager to launch a new game every month and compete for market share, Blizzard relies on its in-depth understanding of players, continuous pursuit of quality, and continuous innovation of games to form a Blizzard’s unique success factors. Each of Blizzard's works strives for excellence and truly achieves unparalleled artistic excellence. The sales volume of each game has exceeded the "platinum level" (the sales volume of a single game has reached 1 million units), and the total sales volume has already exceeded 13 million units. Not a single second-rate game was ever released during this period.

The high-quality strategy that has been honed for three years is the key to Blizzard's success.

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There is nothing to say about Blizzard, only one sentence: Blizzard = classic

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Of course it is

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