There's no such thing as 'next time we'll do it better.' Do it better this time.
Michael Morhaime
To break the mold, sometimes you have to start over.
The development of gaming in Asia usually serves as the marker for how their company predicts the development of gaming will go globally.
When we started Blizzard, we just wanted to make great games. What we realized is that the games we create are really just a framework for communities and human interaction.
It was controversial when we were settling on what the races should be in 'Warcraft 3!'
Live streaming has been huge in eSports.
The popularity of eSports was inevitable.
If you're going to create a competitive game and it's going to be popular, you have to have an esports ecosystem around the game.
Activision is structured with independent studios and they give their independent studios quite a bit of autonomy.
People are getting older. Nine years ago, some people weren't old enough to play 'WoW.' Now they are. We want to be there to be the MMO of choice for them as they grow up.
Our original mission and values consisted of four simple words that formed our foundation: 'We make great games.' We crafted that statement before we had even released our first game, but we were committed to living up to it.
The cool thing about 'Hearthstone' is, in terms of accessibility to competitive play, it's very accessible. Anybody can participate in these types of things.
As you start to see more respected advertisers coming in and looking at esports, you're going to find that there's a lot of interest.
One of the design goals for 'Starcraft 2' was to factor in better features that would make a better viewing experience for e-sports.
I don't think consoles are necessarily our best opportunity for 'World of Warcraft.'
When we look back, what we often find that's most lasting and meaningful from our experiences in games are the relationships we create and foster.
One thing we wanted to take from traditional sports with 'Overwatch League' - we have city-based teams. There aren't really any other models where you have a global city-based league. But you do have teams that are based in a location.
'StarCraft II' is a really great game. It appeals to players on multiple different levels.
BlizzCon is a great example of how positive and uplifting gaming can be.
With a very small team you can create compelling content and reach a large audience.
'Starcraft' is a fairly strategic game with depth.
'Lost Vikings' and 'Rock 'n' Roll Racing' were pretty critical games to us. We got some acclaim as a result, some video gaming awards. Those are the games that impressed Davidson and Associates and led to the merger talks.
When we were making games in the early '90s for the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis, popular games didn't have any real story.
Asia is the founding land of competitive gaming.
There is definitely a trend of broadening the idea of who a gamer is.
I'd been with Blizzard for almost 28 years when I stepped down.
Focus is so important when you're making games.
There's the saying that perfect is the enemy of great, because if you strive for perfection you'll maybe never ship. There's a point that's good enough. But I do think that there's so much competition out there that if you don't hit the quality bar, the product will just fail.
One of the things I think has been important for Blizzard is maintaining the direct relationship with our players. Having a platform that we owned and controlled was important for that strategy, and also to not be dependent on other publishers.
Our first console game was 'RPM Racing.' We started and released that project in that same year we founded the company, 1991.
I have a great time playing 'Overwatch.'
As a spectator eSport, I think 'StarCraft' is really exciting, engaging, and interesting to watch. As a player, it just really has something for everybody.
ESports is a big part of 'StarCraft II,' and I think it adds a lot of longevity to the game.
BlizzCon will always feel like home to me.
I mean, Blizzcon is a great event for us. It's a way that we can basically say 'thank you' to our most passionate players, and it's a great place for us to announce new things.
Blizzcon is a Blizzard show. It's not an Activsion/Blizzard show.
When you think about 'World of Warcraft' as a social network, and you think about the future version of Battle.net as Blizzard's social network, then you wanna stay connected to your social network.
I was always fascinated by technology and wanted to understand it so when I went to UCLA I studied electrical engineering figuring they knew how things worked.
Well, the team that created 'Starcraft 2' is probably the most experienced real-time strategy team in the industry - there are members of that team who have worked on all our RTS games going back to 'Warcraft.'
We'd always felt that it would be cool to put the player into the world of 'Warcraft' as a single character, exploring the land and meeting other players, but it really wasn't until 1999 that we thought it was feasible to do it.
I would say a lot of us here think being called a geek is cool. A lot of us at Blizzard identify with it.
I think every year we get better at running BlizzCon. The scale of the event is so large and I think people appreciate the logistics involved in putting on such an event.
We'd really like for BlizzCon to be something that the people who really really want to go, if this is something you're really passionate about, you want to be here at BlizzCon, we'd like it to be possible for you to get here. When we are selling out in a couple seconds, it's really not possible for a lot of people that really want to come.
I think that gaming is more fun when you're playing with people that you know.
I used to be the guy that sat in the back.
We felt it was very likely the fee would be a deterrent for people, and that 'WoW' would not sell as quickly as some of our previous games.
You should take your reputation very seriously and try to build a track record you can be proud of.
A 'Starcraft' showdown between humans and AI itself will be interesting.
If we can help to make the interactions between folks online safer and more friendly, that would make it all more fun and more gratifying for everyone.
I want to thank all of the talented and hardworking people at Blizzard for their dedication, creativity and passion. It has been a privilege to lead this team.
