DICE 08: Morhaime, Pardo, Pearce on Blizzard's success

[Spitfire]

Here's one of the things that has happened in DICE Summit 08: Blizzard big wig Mike Morhaime, and VPs Rob Pardo and Frank Pearce were able to share some detailed information regarding the company's early history and their secret to success.

From games such as Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo, Blizzard has achieved much success due to the way they handle their operations - without corporate interference.

When Blizzard was purchased by Davidson & Associates in 1994, the owners had a hands-off policy. Morhaime said that "They told us 'We'll give you full creative control. We don't want to change anything you are doing.'"

Even when Davidson sold the company, Blizzard already had a good track record and was already operating the way it previously did. Morhaime noted that this was one of the major factors which led to their success over the years.

With many corporations having owned Blizzard through the years, Pearce said that "...these companies, most of these entities don't know anything about game development. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending upon how they view the studio beneath them."

As luck would have it, things turned out for the better for Blizzard when they used this approach. Regarding this, Morhaime also said, "We've been fortunate because we have a strong enough track record to be able to make these tough decisions and feel confident that ultimately it will work out in the long run."

Finally, before ending their talk, they said that, "The worst thing we could do is put out a game which doesn't live up to our quality expectations."

We hope that the company continues on flourishing with their success on World of Warcraft and the upcoming StarCraft 2. Do keep coming back to our site as we'll bring you more news and developments.