|
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of the University of California, Los Angeles,〔 Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce, and Allen Adham and is currently a subsidiary of American company Activision Blizzard. Based in Irvine, California, the company originally concentrated primarily on the creation of game ports for other studios before beginning development of their own software in 1993 with the development of games like ''Rock n' Roll Racing'' and ''The Lost Vikings''. In 1994 the company became Chaos Studios then Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. after being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped out what would become their first breakthrough smash hit ''Warcraft: Orcs & Humans''. Blizzard then went on to create several other successful video games, including other ''Warcraft'' sequels, the ''Diablo'' series, the ''StarCraft'' series, and also in 2004 the popular MMORPG ''World of Warcraft''. Their most recent projects include: the first expansion for ''Diablo III:'' ''Reaper of Souls'', the online collectible card game Hearthstone, the fifth expansion for ''World of Warcraft:'' ''Warlords of Draenor'', the "Hero Brawler" ''Heroes of the Storm'' and the third and final expansion for ''StarCraft II:'' ''Legacy of the Void''. There are two titles that are currently in development: ''Overwatch'', an upcoming multiplayer first-person shooter first announced at BlizzCon on November 7, 2014 that entered beta testing in the third quarter of 2015 and the sixth expansion for ''World of Warcraft:'' ''Legion''. It was announced on August 6, 2015 at Gamescom 2015 and will enter beta testing near the end of the year. On July 9, 2008, Activision officially merged with Vivendi Games, culminating in the inclusion of the Blizzard brand name in the title of the resulting holding company. On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from owner Vivendi. As a result, Activision Blizzard became an independent company.〔(Activision Blizzard Announces Transformative Purchase of Shares from Vivendi and New Capital Structure ). Retrieved July 25, 2013.〕 Blizzard Entertainment offers events to meet players and to announce games: the BlizzCon in California, United States, and the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in other countries, including France, and South Korea. == History == Blizzard Entertainment was founded by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce as Silicon & Synapse on February 8, 1991, a year after all three had received their bachelor's degrees from UCLA. In the early days the company focused on creating game ports for other studios. Ports include titles such as ''J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I'' and ''Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ported by Blizzard Entertainment Inc. )〕 In 1993, the company developed games such as ''Rock n' Roll Racing'' and ''The Lost Vikings'' (published by Interplay Productions). In early 1994 they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for $6.75 million.〔Dean Takahashi: ''(game-development Co-Founder Looks at Chaos in Early Stages and Future Challenges. )'' In: Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1994. – Interview with Allen Adham.〕 The 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.〔Dean Takahashi: ''(Briefcase: Technology. )'' In: Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1994.〕 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 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. Blizzard was part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi. In July 2008 Vivendi Games merged with Activision, using Blizzard's name in the resulting company, Activision Blizzard. In 1996, 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 hit games ''Diablo'', ''Diablo II'', and its expansion pack ''Diablo II: 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.net'' in January 1997 with the release of their action-RPG ''Diablo''. In 2002, Blizzard was able to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles from Interplay Entertainment and re-release them under Game Boy Advance. In 2004, Blizzard opened European offices in the Paris suburb of Vélizy, Yvelines, France, responsible for the European in-game support of ''World of Warcraft''. On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released World of Warcraft, its MMORPG offering. On May 16, 2005, Blizzard announced the acquisition of Swingin' Ape Studios, a video game developer which had been developing ''StarCraft: Ghost''. The company was then merged into Blizzard's other teams after ''StarCraft: Ghost'' was "postponed indefinitely". On August 1, 2005, Blizzard announced the consolidation of Blizzard North into the headquarters at 131 Theory in UC Irvine's University Research Park in Irvine, California. In 2007, Blizzard moved their headquarters to 16215 Alton Parkway in Irvine, California. ''World of Warcraft'' was the fourth released game set in the fantasy ''Warcraft'' universe, which was first introduced by ''Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'' in 1994.〔This excludes expansion packs and the cancelled ''Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans''.〕 Blizzard announced ''World of Warcraft'' on September 2, 2001.〔(【引用サイトリンク】archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20071103122615/http://www.games-fusion.net/press/content/blizzard_entertainment_announc.php )〕 The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the ''Warcraft'' franchise. The first expansion set of the game, ''The Burning Crusade'', was released on January 16, 2007. The second expansion set, ''Wrath of the Lich King'', was released on November 13, 2008. The third expansion set, ''Cataclysm'' was released on December 7, 2010. The ''Mists of Pandaria'' expansion was released on September 25, 2012, and the most recent expansion, ''Warlords of Draenor'', was released on November 13, 2014. Having peaked at 12 million monthly subscriptions in 2010, ''World of Warcraft'' subscriptions sunk to 6.8 million in 2014, the lowest number since the end of 2006, prior to ''The Burning Crusade'' expansion.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=World of Warcraft hits the 12-million-subscribers mark )〕 However, ''World of Warcraft'' is still the world's most-subscribed MMORPG,〔〔"(MMOG Active Subscriptions 21.0 )", MMOGCHART.COM, June 29, 2006.〕 and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In April 2008, ''World of Warcraft'' was estimated to hold 62 percent of the MMORPG subscription market. In 2008, Blizzard was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the creation of ''World of Warcraft''. Mike Morhaime accepted the award. In 2012 Blizzard had 4,700 employees,〔 with offices across 11 cities including Austin, Texas, and countries around the globe. As of June 2014, the company's headquarters in Irvine, California had 2,620 employees.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=City of Irvine, California - Comprehensive Annual Financial Report - For fiscal year ending June 30, 2014 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Blizzard Entertainment」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|