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Play Nice (Schreier, 2024)

·5 mins

I started this book late November last year and I finished it on April 7th, so it took me about 5 months to finish (wow). I’ll have text blurbs for interesting ideas from the book rather than serving as a chronological summary. Also, this will be one of the longer summaries; most of my summaries in the future will likely only be a couple paragraphs or so.

Early Years at Blizzard #

  • 1991: Blizzard was founded as Silicon and Synapse by Allen Adham and Mike Morhaime, graduates from UCLA.

  • Taking contracts from Interplay with assistance from Brian Fargo but created their first game, Warcraft, as a multiplayer fantasy variant of Dune II.

  • Warcraft II emphasized approachability and depth for the sequel and was the first big success, selling 1 million copies, as well as establishing the company structure of QA teams.

  • Diablo was developed by a separate studio (Condor) as a contract.

  • Compensation was continually stifled and there was continual crunch.

  • Starcraft was a massive success, in particular benefitting from internet infrastructure being built in Thailand and South Korea and the start of PC Cafes.

  • Blizzard attempted to make a point and click adventure Warcraft game but canceled it, even after bringing in Steve Meretzky, the legendary designer behind adventure games like Sorceror and Zork Zero.

Before Overwatch #

  • World of Warcraft

    • It was based off the successful EverQuest MMORPG.
    • Relied on homegrown talent from QA/testers.
    • Inspired early internet memes and forming a collaboration with South Park.

  • Failure of Titan

    • 2008: development began as a new MMORPG, combining FPS game with sim game.
    • FPS portion was prelude to Overwatch which was a grand success for Blizzard, though not completely satisfying Kotick.

  • Hearthstone

    • The game idea was incubated by a smaller team (as other developers shifted to work on battle.net).
    • An unexpected hit.

  • Diablo 3: launch missteps and the auction house was improperly done.

    • Financial people at the game recommended that they don’t overcharge so monetization serves players well — this never happened at the company again.
    • Reaper of Souls fixed the game up.
    • Morhaime’s regret: not continuing to support the game.

  • Heroes of the Storm

    • DotA was a custom map in Warcraft III, developed by Icefrog, focused on singular units rather than commanding many.
      • Valve contacted the developer and helped create DotA 2.
    • Riot Games created League of Legends as another game based on that mode.
    • The first time Blizzard missed the boat.

  • Battle.net

    • Pat Wyatt came up with a novel idea: to provide free online infrastructure for Diablo and Starcraft.
      • Mike Morhaime approved, wanting to serve the players right.
    • He thought of a lucrative, industry-changing initiative: to turn Battle.net into a digital store for a variety of PC games instead of just Blizzard’s (this was shot down by executives who wanted to focus on Blizzard).
    • Big mistake in retrospect.

Parental Struggle for Blizzard #

  • Initially owned by Davidsons and Associates (an educational game company) which was bought by CUC (a consumer services conglomerate).
    • That company committed substantial financial fraud (overstating merger reserves that were reported as earnings).
  • 1997: Blizzard was sold to publisher Havas which was itself purchased by Vivendi.
  • 2008: Activision merged itself with Vivendi Games, with Kotick leveraging his connections at JP Morgan and making the debt into shares to gain ownership.
  • 2023: Microsoft buys Activision-Blizzard after turmoil from sexual assault scandals.

Esports #

  • After Starcraft took off in Korea, KESPA was founded to handle licensing for the sport.
    • Contentious meetings between Blizzard and KESPA — “you’re the ball.”
  • For Starcraft II, Blizzard reached an agreement with the organization.
  • Overwatch emphasized esports with a professional league owned and operated by Blizzard.
    • Blizzard was interested in investing in Twitch but hesitated, leading Amazon to take the company.
    • Overwatch also introduced lootboxes ($1 billion in revenue).
    • They charged $20 million per franchise (Kotick pushed the number so high to get the interest of billionaire sports team owners to invest).
      • Got owners of NFL teams (e.g. Robert Kraft) to invest.
      • Overwatch League was different in that the organization was set up to give Blizzard money.
  • However, game updates were slow and Team 4 resisted commercialization (including sponsorships).
  • Overwatch 2, with most of its development focused on a PvE mode rather than the main PvP mode, came out half-baked.
  • The pandemic and the switch to YouTube were the final nails in the coffin, with the league ending in 2023.

Clashes between Activision and Blizzard #

  • Bobby Kotick grew up always interested in generating profits (with smaller businesses when he was younger).

  • He and his roommate took a look at Mediagenic, started to fail despite creating hits long ago.

    • Kotick acquired the company, renamed it to its old name Activision, and was ruthless, heavily rewarding and punishing the people there.

  • Brought in Armin Zerzha who was hated at Blizzard, fixated on profits.

    • He eventually became CFO.

  • Blizzard’s culture contrasted as letting games simmer and given the proper time. This contrasted heavily with Activision’s culture.

  • Activision’s corporatization of Blizzard:

    • Stack ranking introduced.
    • Profit-sharing weighted toward hit games.
    • There was still a Blizzard “tax”: high prestige, low pay.
    • QA and testers underpaid, overworked.

Cultural Issues #

  • Frat-like — company retreats to Las Vegas for partying, alcohol and blurred personal-professional boundaries.
  • Emphasized a blurring of lines in terms of personal life and corporate life.
  • Women pushed out and not in leadership.
  • 2023 — California Lawsuit:
    • While mildly inaccurate, it highlighted sexist behavior at the company (e.g., a manager hitting on his subordinate).
    • WSJ article — Kotick sent email dismissing the lawsuit and saved a COD producer after an investigation suggested that he should be fired.

Microsoft Acquisition #

  • $69 billion — October 13, 2023.
    • FTC’s lawsuit failed after Xbox promised COD on PS.
  • Leadership — Mike Ybarra as President and Xbox’s Matt Booty — emphasized hands-off approach.
    • Layoffs after and Adham’s two projects cancelled, so he left the company (all founders gone).

Timeline #

  • 1991 — Founded
  • 1994 — Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
  • 1995 — Warcraft II
  • 1997 — Diablo
  • 1998 — Starcraft
  • 2000 — Diablo II
  • 2004 — World of Warcraft
  • 2010 — Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
  • 2012 — Diablo III
  • 2014 — Hearthstone
  • 2016 — Overwatch
  • 2022 — Diablo Immortal
  • 2022 — Overwatch 2
  • 2023 — Diablo 4