Talk:Blizzard Entertainment/Archive 1

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Archive 1

"Controversies" section

I don't really feel like anything in that section is at all controversial unless you are a pirate or thief, with the possible exception of the Warden section which is already being discussed below. Since when is a company legitimately defending its copyrights and intellectual property considered controversial? I'm not saying these things didn't happen or that the information should be removed, but the word "controvery" implies a very negative and biased viewpoint that really goes against Wikipedia's NPOV policy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.112.3.77 (talk) 18:40, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

I second this. This entire controversies section is a load of bull. It will fool no one who actually uses Battle.net and knows that FOR A FACT that Battle.net is the best multiplayer client ever created. What other multiplayer client has so many users and has such wide appeal? Can you even name another popular multiplayer client that has existed for over a decade? I can only think of "Steam" which is used for Half-Life/Counterstrike and maybe the XBOX Live system. But for PC multiplayer games, Battle.net is simply the best and there is no controversy about it... 70.160.28.188 (talk) 23:40, 1 December 2009 (UTC)
I've changed it to Legal Disputes and moved Warden into its own section. This reads as much more neutral and matter-of-fact. It is up to the reader to decide if they feel any of it is controversial. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.112.3.77 (talk) 03:28, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Cinematic Departament

There used to be a note on wikipedia. Something like "It should be noted that Blizzard is the only video game developer who currently have a cinematics departament.". Or something like that. It has since been deleted. Why? I'm pretty sure THEY DO HAVE ONE. Check Blizzard Official Site at Jobs. It states there that they are currently looking for CINEMATIC ENGINEERS for their CINEMATIC DEPARTAMENT or something like that. 89.114.56.249 (talk) 20:21, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

If you find citations/referrnces for it, then add it by all means — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.12.183.130 (talk) 13:53, 10 June 2012 (UTC)

Best-Selling Games?

Not every one of Blizzard's games since Warcraft have been best-sellers. This seems like an assumption or generalization, which isn't appropriate for an encyclopedic article. I'm just going to delete that section since it doesn't have any citation anyway.MirageOfMadness 21:45, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

  Which one was not? Diablo followed by Starcraft, Warcraft II and III, all have been MASSIVE successes.

Warden Client

Wow, that is some incredible Warden propaganda. I wouldn't be at all amazed if that section was written entirely by a Blizzard employee.

Actually, I just came across this page today and I have to say there's a bit too much irrational anti-Blizzard material. It says that Warden has "run afoul" of privacy advocates, but no advocate (let alone a credible one) is cited. It then goes into something about instant messenger IDs, email addresses, etc., all without citing evidence, saying Warden is like spyware. I'll not get into a debate about it here, but suffice it to say the concerns of certain players who may or may not simply have been overreacting does not a "controversy" make. I say cite some credible sources or, if that's not possible, properly further downplay such allegations. - Glynth 09:30, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
we dare not touch your beloved addiction, wow. who cares what precedents blizz set in ip situations, just so long as you get your fucking fix right? i dont even play the damn game, and i see the reality of these actions by the unscrupulous company, and their far reaching consequences. but you dont care now do you? as long as you can play wow, youll put up with anything. there is a very real issue here with the warden software, just download a program called the governor and it will show you what this program is doing. but be careful, blizzard has banned people who have used this software to spy on their spying. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.43.215.81 (talk) 10:40, 17 March 2007 (UTC).
was that your version of adhering to wikipedia's standards and citing credible references? 203.87.126.32 (talk) 13:16, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, the Warden program is only even very SLIGHTLY a threat and thats only if you leave your browser window open with secret information on it. If you're stupid enough to do that while playing the game then boohoo. Yeah, remove the Propaganda

we have a troll here. the warden section is accurate and fair. its describes the program, chronicles the blizzard's useage of the information, and even touches on the potential pandoras box such programs open in regards to privacy rights and the future of our computers.
This is a load of crap. All the controversy pages were written with the utmost biase against blizzard. I wouldn't be in the lest bit surprised if it turned out that an executive at EA or some company like that wrote it. Theres crap in there like "Warden is considered a spyware program", or "Blizzard claims that Warden doesn't send information from the computers back, but it is believed that it would be impossible for them to have banned X group if they hadn't been receiving information from Warden". It is sickeningly biased, and was clearly written by people that hate Blizzard. I hate to break it to you all, but WHENEVER PEPOLE SIGN ON TO PLAY WORLD OF WARCRAFT THEY SIGN AN AGREEMENT THAT STATES THEY GIVE BLIZZARD THE RIGHTS TO RUN WARDEN IN THE BACKGROUND! WHY DOESN'T ANYONE MENTION THAT IN THE ARTICLE?!DurotarLord (talk) 19:33, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
It's still sourced, I haven't checked the sources, but if they support claims, then it's valid to mention. And you are free to make a note of stating the agreement as it's a valid statement indeed, sourcable by the EULA. --Fogeltje (talk) 19:50, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Saying that Blizzard "must" be sending more than a violation flag to Blizzard's servers because of the Cedega incident is pure conjecture. Most likely Blizzard simply reactivated any accounts that were caught on the day of that (buggy) Warden update and claimed to be running Cedega. In addition, this would be relatively easy to eavesdrop on to verify what is being sent to Blizzard's server for a violation. Based on all of this, the part suggesting Blizzard lied about warden only sending a violation flag is nothing more than fear mongering. Also, the forum post cited as a reference is no long available. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.75.12.106 (talk) 01:40, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but this Warden client issue is totally blown out of proportion and is written to confuse people that are not familiar with World of Warcraft. Anyone who actually plays WoW will know that there is absolutely no controversy here.70.160.28.188 (talk) 23:40, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Justice League Task Force

Going by the information on Wikipedia, it seems this game was made by Condor BEFORE they were acquired by Blizzard, and thus it is not a Blizzard Entertainment game and does not belong on the page. I question a couple other titles on that list too Deusfaux 23:49, 30 May 2006 (UTC) But the game wasn't released until 1995, by which point they'd been purchased by Blizzard. If you don't believe it go play the game yourself and see the giant BLIZZARD logo. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.41.6.23 (talk) 18:23, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Its own category? Hmm.

Er, does this article really warrant its own separate category? I mean, it's not exactly IBM, is it? (wrt industry significance¹, longevity, no. of products, etc etc). So, if nobody voices serious protests I will list Category:Blizzard Entertainment for deletion. The accompanying articles won't be any problem to find from the main article (this one) anyway. --Wernher 18:39, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)

( ¹ not that I think computer game companies are insignificant as such; far from it! )

I'd tend to agree. But your comment was made last year. What happened to the deletion? Frecklefoot | Talk 14:26, Jun 17, 2005 (UTC)

Blizzard is one of the biggest and most famous game companies. If you delete this, then you have to delete all others as well. I say nope. Btw, anyone can conform or deny the 'Diablo 3 cancelled when Blizzard North was closed' rumor? ~~BrotherLaz, 19:29, August 15, 2005 (GMT)

Agree with BrotherLaz, Blizzard is a well known gaming company within most gaming communities. captbananas 19:33, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The opening statement in this article is just plain bad, "consistently and grotesquely overshooting release dates"? That's not true. Afaik, Starcraft and Diablo 2 and Starcraft Ghost were the only games to be pushed back consistently. "Blizzard has a track record for producing almost nothing but classic games that are played for years to come." sounds very subjective, almost like it was written by a copywriter. Mastgrr 22:28, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

If you think that it is POV, by all means edit it. However, from a personal standpoint, I agree with the statement. I own all of Blizzard's PC games, and they are ALL still installed on my computer and used on a more regular basis than many of my other programs. The games themselves have a depth to them that is simply not often found within other games, IMHO. captbananas 19:33, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
I rewrote that part to make it more of an encyclopedic language. bob rulz 07:12, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Blizzard Bought North?

The information that Blizzard bought Condor and renamed it Blizzard North isn't quite accurate. Blizzard was purchased, as the article notes, by Davidson, and then Davidson also purchased Condor, at Blizzard's urging.

info on WoW expansion?

it was announced at blizzcon... --Gflores 07:47, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

It was, and we have an article about it also at World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Havok (T/C) 14:35, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

Blizzard Entertainment

does any one know the exact location of where blizzard entertainment is?

Blizzard Entertainment is located in Irvine, California. captbananas 19:33, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
I suspect he was looking for something like a street address. I think it would be best to keep it non-public though. The location obviously isn't top secret, but the Company has gone through effort to remove it from public view. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.169.140.241 (talk) 06:03, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

and wouldn't want to do anything to upset The Company 76.103.47.66 (talk) 21:43, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Unfinished game

Just a quick point, the list is missing at least one game, shattered something, never got finished.

I can't provide any authoratative source for this, but I remember a Blizzard employee saying in a forum post once long ago that the game you're thinking of, "Shattered Nations", became Starcraft. 199.246.40.54 16:50, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
  • I just got Warcraft 2 in a garage sale it had a trailer and info and pictures we should have an article on it.

Warcraft Adventures was canceled, Starcraft: Ghost was indefinitely postponed and an unannounced title was canceled, when most of the Blizzard North employees left and they closed that branch. These are all ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.228.34.75 (talk) 22:06, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Freecraft

"On June 20, 2003, Blizzard obtained a cease and desist order against an open source clone of the Warcraft engine called FreeCraft."

Does this mean that FreeCraft sent a cease and desist TO Blizzard? The wording makes it seem as if Blizzard ripped off the FreeCraft source, yet it seems clear from the rest of the section that FreeCraft stole from Blizzard. ApocalypseCow 02:16, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

No, this is a misreading on your part, ApocalypseCow. Blizzard obtained the order from a judge. The order is clearly AGAINST FREECRAFT. This is the standard wording. -- DestroyAllFrameworks

New Subtitle

Stevie G 16:50, 26 January 2006 (UTC) I'm proposing that we add a subtitle related to hacking and 3rd party topics. The following subtitles should be rolled into this new subtitle since they are all related to one another by this common theme:

  • Bnetd
  • FreeCraft
  • Warden Client

Any ideas on names for this new subtitle? How about "Hacks and Clones"

Super Firewall

I've heard that the Blizzard Server is impossible to hack. Is this a myth? If not how is it possible? Symmetric Chaos 14:27, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

How Much Is Blizzard Worth?

It's a huge corporation and only from WOW they gained many many millions of dollars.. How come it doesnt say on wikipedia article anything about the company worth?

For the most part this has been relatively private information since it is/was wholly owned by Vivendi. I would support now updating the information to account for the public merger with Activision though. It puts their market valuation somewhere close to 8 billion dollars given the $27.50/share price in the deal (the $8 billion figure is actually for Vivendi Games, but Blizzard makes up almost all of the valuation) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.169.140.241 (talk) 06:06, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

They were bought for 10 million $ in 1994??

On Wikipedia article it is stated: "In 1994, 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. That same year, they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for under $10 million." Isn't 10 million exaggerated for 1994?

I don't think that Diablo: Hellfire is "co-created by Sierra Studios." It should have been correct to say that Hellfire was "created by Sierra Studios." Diablo: Hellfire should not have been deserved to be included in the Titles section since this game was not made and even recognized by Blizzard Entertainment. --Darth Narutorious 13:42, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Delays

Should it be mentioned that they almost always delay the release dates of their games? anyone have any statistics on this? Chud50 04:33, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

They have never (well, speaking from '98 on anyway, I was not familiar with them before then) delayed their release dates. More notably I suppose is that they do not give release dates and instead third party vendors attempt to guess and often guess too soon. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.169.140.241 (talk) 06:08, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Explanation of deletion

The section which listed a ton of former employees of Blizzard Entertainment was really unreadable nonsense. I see no editorial point to it at all. Wikipedia is not a data dump. An encyclopedia article should be the essentialized summary of what is known.--Jimbo Wales 19:10, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree that it was unreadable, but nonsense.. not really. Blizzard Entertainment is one of the worlds most well known computer companies, and as such, stating employes that helped make it become what it was is somewhat important, atleast in my eyes. I will revert your edit, but attach a cleanup tag to it. I will also look into making it more readable and less in the form of a "data dump". I hope this is ok with you? Havok (T/C/c) 00:11, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
No, it is absolutely not ok. It is in fact unreadable nonsense. There is no editorial point to this at all. It does not belong in an encyclopedia. It is original research. It is boring. Leave it out completely, please. --Jimbo Wales 16:28, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
I re-wrote the section, made it more compact and concentrated on the companies (not people) which have been started by people leaving Blizzard Entertainment. Is it better now? Havok (T/C/c) 23:17, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
Cleanup tagging is useless. If someone actually cares about the content, they can rewrite and reinsert it. Until then, making the article look like crap doesn't help. Fredrik Johansson 14:26, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Not sure if this is still in debate but the section looks good now regarding the companies that have spawned from Blizzard, its one of the things they are known for industry wide. --NuclearZer0 20:25, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I think an agreement was met. Well, seeing as I have gotten no ill response from Jimbo or anyone else on those edits, I take it as an ok. Havok (T/C/c) 07:56, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
I had overlooked this. I think it is still very badly written and essentially unacceptable. Let's talk about it here more first, before we change anything. The point is, it is just a random list of information. If it is actually true that "its one of the things they are known for industry wide" then show me a source for that. And let's talk about that in the article. Just randomly and inexplicably listing where people have gone seems pointless to me.
Let me be a bit more clear on my concern here. In this industry, and indeed across the entire technology industry, employees... particularly talented ones... come and go a lot, sometimes in entire teams. This is completely unremarkable for almost every company in the entire technology field. I believe that it is equally unremarkable for blizzard. How many companies have been spawned from: Microsoft, Google, Intuit, Yahoo, Intel, etc., etc.? The story is the same everywhere. I think this entire section should be removed from the article unless and until we have a reliable source (Businessweek? Fortune? Wall Street Journal?) which reports on it being particularly notable how this company has been a spawning ground for this segment of the industry.--Jimbo Wales 19:12, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
i disagree 100%... individuals are what make a company what it is. knowing these individuals helps the reader understand the company, its past, its present and its future. questions about the company like "who is responsible for the current actions of the company", "where did the current ceo come from", etc can be answered with this info. to know the status of a company you must know the humans in charge. Blizzard Entertainment is not some faceless machine, it is in fact a company with human beings running the show, knowing who these people are is entirely important regarding the matter of understanding the company. so, my point is that, having some info to fix/cleanup is better than none at all.

It's basically just a list of the employees and their titles--often then with a bunch of web links. It doesn't say anything interesting about them and some were interesting people. Anomo 20:10, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

At the risk of seeming a "Yes" man, I think Jimbo nailed this one. Tech-savvy employees can skip from one company to another more often than a hillbilly changes his underwear. Even after some good-faith cleanup attempts, the section seems out of place; it simply doesn't belong as it is, especially without proper cites. For those who consider this kind of info essential, why not create an article Software companies spawned by Blizzard (or something similar), give it proper cites and refs, then link the two? Until then, the whole section should go. Doc Tropics 21:57, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
again, i disagree. a company is made by its employees. you cannot represent a company without including the employees. people want to know not only where blizzard employees went, but also who runs its now. this could be for many reasons, but whatever they are, as an information source, wikipedia has an obligation to provide. if the format bothers you FIX IT, don't advocate deletion.

Blood elves

Oops on the comment for last edit, it was not vandalism simply a mistake -- the Blood Elves are the new Horde race... --Bookgrrl holler/looksee 03:13, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

The previous edit ("One person even claimed that their father...") seemed vandalism to me. Didn't you see that, or did you find it good?--Supparluca 08:29, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Key People

If you're going to include the producers/designers of WoW, shouldn't the producers/designers for Diablo, Diablo II, Starcraft/BW, Warcraft II, Warcraft III, ETC be included? Or, rather, shouldn't the producers/designers of one specific game be deleted from the "key people" section representing the entire company? Mattomynameo 05:17, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree with you.--Supparluca 09:57, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Pax Imperia 2

On my old WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness CD from back in 1995 (I believe), there's a demo video for Diablo, Shattered Nations and Pax Imperia 2, with the tagline "The Galactic Empire Simulator". I assume that this game was never released by Blizzard, so it should probably be added to the list of games that were never completed. I leave that task up to you guys (I figured I should post about it here rather than adding it immediately, and once you read this, I've probably already forgotten about it) --Ojan 01:05, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

It looks like it actually was released, they just dropped the number and added a subtitle. Although acording to IGN it looks like it was developed by Heliotrope and published by THQ. Maybe they just had a deal with Blizzard to distribte the demo? -- Fforde 07:06, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

This page is written like an advertisement

It lacks a neutral point of view in some aspects... "Blizzard has always demanded excellence..." doesnt sound very neutral —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Species2112 (talkcontribs) 05:35, 18 April 2007 (UTC).

I agree. The entire "Standard of Excellence" section ought to be deleted for severely violating NPOV. Ygoloxelfer 08:49, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
Definately agreed; it's ridiculously NPOV. I'm deleting it unless someone can somehow justify this blatent NPOV violation. MagicFlyinLemur 06:12, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
I made some (pretty wholesale) changes to the lead section just now, and I will give the article a more proper going-over in a little while, as I have some phone calls to make at the moment. --Dreaded Walrus t c 13:17, 3 July 2007 (UTC)
Well Blizzard has canceled various games because they didn't meet up to their standards, something like that should be added.--4.244.21.254 (talk) 19:42, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Press Conferance/Release

May 19th, 2007 there's suppose to be an annoucement of some kind by blizzard. Can someone cite this and include it in tnhe article —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.205.70.254 (talk) 06:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

I've added information on the page temporarily, though without sources for the date. The game itself can be confirmed by visiting the Blizzard Homepage. (ShadowOfEclipse 08:34, 13 May 2007 (UTC))
If you can't source it then how do you know when it's supposed to be announced and where?

Starcraft 2

http://www.starcraft2.com/ and http://www.blizzard.com/ both link to the same page. Coincidence? RedKlonoa 21:21, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

No. Blizzard bought it years ago to make sure that no one else would get it.
Funny you should bring this up five days prior to it being announced and activating the website... but yes, Blizzard's had it for years and now it's online. Penman 1701 01:05, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

What happened to the section on company history?

I remember awhile ago when I read this article, there was a history section. Where did it go? I remembered because it mentioned Blizzard dev team was under another name before 1994. --Voidvector 02:14, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

The article seriously needs a section on its history. As it stands the article is no more than a collection of largely irrelevant trivia. XJDenton 22:13, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
I went back to the history log and found that the "Overview" section, what I referred to, was blanked by a vandal, but it was never reinstated. --Voidvector 23:24, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Regarding Supparluca's edits

Stating "what?" isn't sufficient justification for reverting proper contributions. Just so you know:

  1. I combined 3 sections into "Controversies" because those paragraphs as a whole covered controversies of those topics.
  2. My other edit you reverted was on an unsourced sentence regarding "Blizzard has reputation of re-releasing games". I replaced that sentence with a statement that I can justify about Blizzard Classic Arcade. --Voidvector 06:57, 24 June 2007 (UTC)
"Blizzard has a reputation of overshooting release dates to ensure the quality of their games" is a bit different from "Blizzard has reputation of re-releasing games".--Supparluca 07:01, 24 June 2007 (UTC)
Read the whole section on bnet, it has only 1 paragraph on what Bnet is, the rest is on lawsuits and emulators. Similar thing with Warden and FreeCraft. All in all those sections are pretty much "intro + lawsuit coverages".
As for the intro, I misread the original, I will resubmit what I wrote elsewhere. --Voidvector 07:15, 24 June 2007 (UTC)
And I didn't read all the Battle.net section, sorry...--Supparluca 11:27, 24 June 2007 (UTC)
Hey, thanks for letting me know. All in all, sorry about the mix up before. --18:20, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Template noongasite

Someone (anon IP) changed template:gamesite to template:noongasite. I'm not sure what it is, but the template doesn't exist. I meant to revert it, but I accidently undo-ed it. Calamarain 11:58, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Early titles

I can't find any source saying "Silicon & Synapse" developed "J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I" and "Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess". Mobygames pages for those games state that they were developed by Interplay and published by Interplay. In fact the only place associating them with Blizzard is when you browse the list of Blizzard created games, that could be a database error or human error. In addition, if you click on names in the credits, all of the people listed are members of Interplay, not Blizzard (i.e. they go on to develop more games for Interplay). --Voidvector 22:54, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

According to this Blizzard page, those titles are software ports. I don't think they are worth mentioning as first party titles. I have replaced them with two titles from that page that are developed by Blizzard. --Voidvector —Preceding unsigned comment added by Voidvector (talkcontribs) 23:21, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Silicon and Synapse worked on Battlechess (specifically the CDRom edition). Interplay was having some problems with the port so Patrick (another S&S employee) took the project over. Beyond that, I don't remember us working on any other Battlechess variants before I left the company in 1993. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Allenxyz (talkcontribs) 00:54, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Edits by Xgmx

I have reverted two of Xgmx's edits. --Voidvector 03:05, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

I don't understand how I was wrong about Blizzard Entertainment publishing the original Command & Conquer for mac (not the PC version). I got that information from IGN Entertainment as well as this one guy on Brood War USA-2 (because too many damn trivia bots are in Brood War USA-1 to even have a discussion). I believe the person's username was rev_israjor or something like that. --Xgmx 02:53, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
That is an interesting observation. I am looking at a few other game sites and I can't verify it. Do you have a copy of the game? I reverted your edits because I know for a fact that Stratagus is not made by Blizzard. it was made by members of the open source community. In addition, "Bos Wars" appears to be made by open source community as well. "Japanese StarCraft" is not worth mentioning because it would simply be the Japanese version of StarCraft, not a different game. --Voidvector 03:05, 22 September 2007 (UTC)


Well I know Stratagus wasn't by Blizzard but I added it to the list because it is a Battle.net game (or was, from what I hear Blizzard banned the game and halted all development for it, so the people there went to go work on Bos Wars, which at the time was called Battle of Heavens or something like that. As for the C&C statement, I have 2 references right here.

  • www.ssfree.net.tc
  • IGN
  • --Xgmx 03:11, 22 September 2007 (UTC)


Stratagus and BOS wouldn't qualify for the list since the list is about "Blizzard games" not "battle.net games" or "RTS games".
Back to Command & Conquer, I found 2 sources which says something else.
  1. A mac game review which says it was published by Virgin Interactive (Westwood Studios was owned by Virgin Interactive between 1992 and 1998).
  2. The other simply says Westwood.
If you have the game, and can vouch that it says Blizzard in the credits or on the box, then we might have more research to do, otherwise it might just be an error by IGN. The other link you provided doesn't link to a page talking about C&C. --Voidvector 03:30, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
While I know that an eBay auction is hardly a reliable source, a closed auction from earlier this month suggests that it was "published by Westwood Studios". So I suppose that's one more for the "not Blizzard" side. --Dreaded Walrus t c 03:40, 22 September 2007 (UTC)


I Actually agree with you all, I just found that interesting and inquired about it with someone else who agreed. Though I have known IGN to be wrong before. Such as when they said that Corridor 7 was developed and published by id Software, when actually it was developed by Capstone Software and published by ItntraCorp (though the game used the Wolfenstein engine, so their may have been some confusion there that led them to believe so). Also when they said that G-Nome was developed and published by TBA (to be announced) when actually it was made by 7th Level (I should know considering I run the www.planetgnome.net.tc/ #1 G-NOME fansite]) (I also run a StarCraft community that is one of the top 100 StarCraft sites. www.ssfree.net.tc/ They also only list 3 of Reenactor Entertianmnent's games, when they made a lot more. They also don't have several games and companies on their site that also exist.

  • Xgmx 15:10, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Project Hydra?

I've read the source article regarding this, but the validity of the source can be questioned. In fact, a lot of articles you come across TheInquirer is merely rumors and I do not think rumors should be considered as proof enough to list it on encyclopedia. Having that said, can we please remove this out of the title section until we have other valid sources OTHER than rumors? Anonymous —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.144.184.243 (talk) 23:10, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

The article linked as a source for the term project hydra contains no information about a hydra project, a quick search for information about 'project hydra' turns up this article http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/09/11/blizzards-third-project-hydra/ which is speculation based on something overheard and passed along, that is not real information. For all we know the guy could have been working on a hydra graphic for an announced title.Nathan Orth (talk) 07:29, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Project Hydra was the codename for Diablo III, as seen on this screenshot found at the official D3 site. --Anax (talk) 16:30, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Console team & SC:Ghost

The team isn't working on next gen console game, it's helping with their other games after SC: Ghost was "indefinitely postponed" - http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171172.html

Watch: Upcoming E3 Announcement on future Blizzard/Activision MMO

Gabe Graziani: Getting back to Activision/Blizzard, an announcement will be made at E3 that Infinity Ward has been tapped to develop StarCraft Ghost for the 360, PS3 and PC. The twist will be that there will be a persistent online world component that players can enter for a monthly fee, effectively making an MMO StarCraft game similar in some respects to PlanetSide only much, much better.

http://mostwanted.gamespy.com/2008/51.html

Found this surfing on Blizzard's Starcraft 2 forums: http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=sc2-general&t=577755&p=1&#post577755

Figure it'd be important to tell the frequent editors, I know it isn't good enough for a section.

YaguerYaguer (talk) 01:20, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

june 2008: new game?

Go to Blizzard dot com and you'll see an intro screen, before the main Blizzard dot com site loads. As of June 23 2008, that intro is something like a wall or a block of ice. Something like that had appeared a few days before the announcement for SC2. Any info on what it's about? --h_a (talk) 12:11, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

It was Diablo 3 --SkyWalker (talk) 08:07, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Next-Gen MMO

I'm wondering why under the section 'Titles', blizzard's next gen mmo, which blizzard has said is a different project than Diablo 3, is no where to be found on the titles list? For confirmation directly from blizzard, in case you doubt the veracity of my statement, see the following article http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53406 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.185.239.94 (talk) 00:53, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Because its unannounced and therefore speculation. --Voidvector (talk) 02:13, 15 August 2008 (UTC)
Wrong. There is still one unknown project," Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo revealed to OnlineWelten during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. "We have another development team." There ya go, Blizzard executive ANNOUNCES that there is a 4th project in the works. That isn't speculation. Unless your telling Blizzard they don't know what they are talking about. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.185.239.94 (talk) 14:21, 15 August 2008 (UTC)
Please cite Blizzard press release. --Voidvector (talk) 00:22, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
Actually Blizzard sort of announced it on accident, if you read the FAQ for Diablo III it has the question "Is Diablo III the untitled upcoming MMO?" and the answer was "No, that is a seperate game.". Also the MMO is codenamed Project Hydra.--4.244.21.254 (talk) 19:47, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
I just looked at the Diablo III FAQ and can't find the question you mentioned. Could you post a link to where you found it?--Fogeltje (talk) 21:38, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Collections/compilations

Can I go ahead and add collections/compilations of several games to the "Titles" list? There have been several published by Blizzard over the years. SharkD (talk) 04:44, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

silicon & synapse

The early years of this company aren't very well documented here. I would like to add a bit more information, including the original company logo for silicon & synapse that I can scan from my old business card. As it was a long time ago though, I'm not sure how I would add supporting material.

Allen Adham's actual name is Ayman Adham. He used Allen to make it easier on people to pronounce.

One thing I also noticed is that Frank Pierce is listed as one of the founders. He was one of the original employees but he didn't contribute capital. His original duties were working on an amiga port and answering the phone. Is he thus really a 'founder'? I still can't believe this article lists him as a founder.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Allenxyz (talkcontribs) 00:50, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

The Ayman Adham detail should be put up on his own wiki entry.As for the logo, why not? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.12.183.130 (talk) 14:08, 10 June 2012 (UTC)

Glider?

Someone needs to put some information about the WoW Glider controversy. For more info: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/19/172205&from=rss —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.26.86.149 (talk) 04:23, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

A Movie?

Just think if Blizzard Entertainment were to make a movie! Blizzard's trailors and cinimatics are without a doubt the most amazing of any company. They have everyone that they would need to make it happen and anyone and everyone that has ever played Blizzards games would go see that movie multiple times. That is not to mention the hordes of others that would come see it after viewing the epic movie trailor that only Blizzard's team could produce. This is a call out to Blizzard fans everywhere to start posting messages anywhere that other Blizzard fans might see it. If we could fan this flame enough eventually Blizzard's team would have to catch wind of it and hopefully be so inclined as to create the greatest movie this world has ever seen! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.230.248.34 (talk) 20:51, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Spam With In Blizzard Games

On the blizzard page i think a section about spam is in order as follows: Blizzard lets automated spam bots run lose on its servers, this includes but is not limited to the Diablo II: LoD in game chat and the channel system for chating with out of game users. Blizzard also allows the spamming of users that payed for the game by spam bots using the Messaging System (PM). This can also be seen in the game World Of Warcaft (WoW)and StarCraft. By not reacting to the mockery of the game(s) by item selling website's and trading forums we can only assume that Blizzard Entertainment supports this type of behavior.

I would have to disagree. You can easily silence anyone by just using the ignore command in the chat rooms. Blizzard has anti-spam measures where if you exceed a certain number/length of messages within a time interval, it blocks you from sending further messages. Blizzard also warns people against spamming activity when you sign up... so yeah... you are basically completely wrong on the spam issue. Blizzard games are the victim of spammers... and Blizzard in no way profits by having spammers harass their gamers. 70.160.28.188 (talk) 16:10, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

I disagree. Blizzard benefit from people buying gold from gold sellers as these people, who would otherwise leave the game, stay and continue to pay subs. Yes you can ignore a player but when they are constantly making lvl 1 toons to whisper you it gets annoying. I reported one toon REPEATEDLY for this and after several wweks of inaction against him gave up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.103.117.184 (talk) 02:44, 29 June 2012 (UTC)

New blizz game

New blizzard game, un annouced, not new mmo, cat, SC2 or D3. Its on their job page. Looking for a 3D production artist. http://www.blizzard.com/us/jobopp/

Private Server nonsense

In the paragraph detailing Blizzard's battles with private servers (in the Legal Disputes section), the closing sentence states, "Despite this action, thousands of these servers still exist." Thousands? I'd want some sort of citation for that. I can believe dozens, and maybe hundreds, but thousands strains credibility. - 12.9.229.191 (talk) 01:10, 25 February 2010 (UTC) (Nekojin)

Side note: The babble below, aside from having poor spelling and grammar, really has nothing to do with Blizzard Entertainment, it's just fanwank based on Warcraft.

Death of a King -- exposition by Chaff

Back a few years ago, long before the Lich King's return, I spent many hours searching the icy slopes of Azeroth in search of the legendary Frostmourne relics. I was sure there would be some clue to be found in the mountains outside of Ironforge, knowing that the Dwarfs must have been responsible for it's forging. Somehow the knowledge of the Dark Dwarfs had disappeared just as mysteriously as had the dagger Arthas used to kill his Father Teranas II. This just didn't make sense that there was only one Frostmourne weapon. I had heard rumours that Frostmourne was reforged in the fires of Blackrock and that the dagger was actually part of a set of magical relics the were imbued by the Cult of the Damned. It was my belief that there was a dagger that Arthas found one day when travelling from Menethal to Ironforge when he killed one of the Bollar Trogs. I will research this further and look into the exact locations. You should understand, that at this point in history there was no scourge the were no black artists, except for Narzul and his followers; Northrend had still yet to be discovered. There must of been some magical force that was disrupted for this to happen and my knowledge of the black arts and the forging of ancient relics leads me to believe a dark ritual of secrecy began to cover up for the missing guardians of time. It only goes to prove that something happened because the scourge began to cross the land. The arc of time was broken and the Dark Dwarves became the masters of a powerful legacy. Unfortunately a small group of humans were so convinced that this wasn't true that my saga of the search was removed from the database.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard34761 (talkcontribs) 14:50, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Warden open source

The article states that "Warden is also famous for being the first anti-cheat with open source code." I can't find any sources nor any confirmations of this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.23.156.24 (talk) 15:53, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Real ID Controversy

Hi all,

I recently added a section regarding the new forum changes. I've been working on it for a while and I think its pretty well sourced with RS and I hope that its NPOV. Please feel free to add and change things as new info comes in. Zuchinni one (talk) 00:48, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

You may want to add in the fact that the information people dug up on the CM also includes the fact that he lives with his mother, to show just how deeply his privacy has been compromised.
You didn't quite capture the security issue though. Not only will minorities be targeted, but people who do relatively minor things (kick someone from the guild, steal a rare drop, etc) will be susceptible to harassment and possibly even harm. There are reports of WoW players (and gamers in general) committing violent acts over something relatively minor. [1] [2].
Something worth mentioning is the players' reactions, which range from "I'm leaving the forum" to "I'm canceling my account". I do realize that very rarely will people follow through on those threats, but it does show how strongly people feel about it. At the moment, the post announcing it is almost 2200 pages and 44000 posts long (and growing).
Also, there may be legal issues involved here, since some countries have very strict privacy laws.
Anyways, I would just edit the article myself, but I don't know all the rules, and I don't want one of the wiki trolls ripping my arms off ;) (it does make you wonder whether wikipedia should implement something like that though...) Margeman2k3 (talk) 23:35, 8 July 2010 (UTC)
You make some good points, but we need RS (Reliable sources) to back up anything that is put on wikipedia. One of the articles, about the Mexico attack, was listed under "rumors" and the other is not related to finding a person in real life. There are other incidents that have already been included though. Zuchinni one (talk) 23:42, 8 July 2010 (UTC)
Well, as you noticed, I'm not very good at this whole "research" thing... Margeman2k3 (talk) 02:34, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

So, I guess it's a moot point now. I wonder though, if there's any way to verify whether this is the longest thread on any internet forum, clocking in at almost 2,500 pages and 49,000 posts. I tried, but I couldn't find anything that gives any definitive answer. Margeman2k3 (talk) 23:06, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

Greetings,

Blizzard has a "new" 3D-esque logo. Can someone upload it and replace the main article's logo? It is being used in all games and on the official Blizzard website. Here is the link to ImageShack:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4620/maintenancelogo.gif

It was taken from Battle.net, a Blizzard website.

Thanks all.

Calpurnia1 (talk) 18:44, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

'Lord of the Clans' placement

Wouldn't it be more ideal to list this title as "Cancelled(1998)" instead of just "Cancelled" and place it with the other 1998 releases instead of letting it ride the bottom of the list forever? -- Fyrefly (talk) 15:22, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Titan - the next Blizzard MMO is part of Halo universe.

In the December 2010 the videogame podcast show Legendary revealed that the rumored next Blizzard Entertainment MMORPG codenamed Titan is based on Halo universe developed by Bungee Studios and previously published by Microsoft. Apparently Activision and Bungee have siged somekind of deal in April and there are already lots of other hints supporting this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.65.192.83 (talk) 07:20, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

That was purely speculation and is very unlikely to be true. MatsT (talk) 13:13, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Poorly written introduction

I was confused when reading the introduction as it suddenly mentions Activision being bought by Vivendi to form Activision Blizzard without first mentioning Blizzard being acquired by Vivendi, having last mentioned its ownership as being acquired by a company called Davidson & Associates. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.94.88.174 (talk) 06:03, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

You're quite right. I've added a bit about being acquired by Vivendi that should make things much clearer. -- Fyrefly (talk) 16:16, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

Blizzard DotA

What about the upcoming MOBA game by Blizzard?--24.171.6.27 (talk) 04:55, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Never heard of "MOBA" before, but if you have a reliable source talking about this game, then you can probably add it. -- Fyrefly (talk) 21:45, 27 October 2011 (UTC)
It was announced at BlizzCon this year. Just Google or YouTube it.--24.171.6.27 (talk) 01:42, 9 November 2011 (UTC)
Please click the link to see what I mean by reliable source. -- Fyrefly (talk) 05:31, 9 November 2011 (UTC)
[3]--24.171.6.27 (talk) 19:33, 25 November 2011 (UTC)
Should the Blizzard DotA get its own page? I think it should. Tango16 (talk) 15:36, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

Indeed it should. Has someone gone out of their way to create the page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kkaran99 (talkcontribs) 02:39, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

common, someone attempt to cover up the flaws of blizzards did.... keep removing links to area which the company wish to cover up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 168.70.7.2 (talk) 10:16, 25 August 2012 (UTC)

New links in See Also

Per WP:SEEALSO, the See Also section contains internal links to other Wikipedia articles that are related to the subject. It is not the place for links to other places on the web, regardless of the content. It really doesn't get any more straightforward than this. -- Fyrefly (talk) 18:13, 26 August 2012 (UTC)

Additions by 168.70.7.2

Please read WP:NPOV and WP:RS. We need actual sources to add material. As well, read WP:AGF, it is a rather gross violation of policy to call people censors and accuse them of a conflict of interest without cause (as you have in your edit summaries). Dbrodbeck (talk) 13:59, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

Responses to Diablo section

I have just reverted this per WP:BRD, it seems to be a case of WP:UNDUE. Thoughts? Dbrodbeck (talk) 22:23, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

Completely agree. -- Fyrefly (talk) 05:22, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

Blizzard All Stars

Just to be clear, the source that was given doesn't say "suspect" anywhere on the page. It actually reads, "Internal testing on Blizzard All Stars is going well, according to Mike Morhaime, and more information will be shared at a later date." Make of that what you will. -- Fyrefly (talk) 23:22, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

And that still doesn't confirm that it's a stand-alone title yet. DarthBotto talkcont 19:24, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Blizzard Entertainment

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Blizzard Entertainment's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "atvi-q2-2013":

  • From Heroes of the Storm (video game): Bramblet, Matthew (August 1, 2013). "Diablo III Announcement Coming at Gamescon - Activision Blizzard Q2 2013 earnings report details the Blizzard All-Star progress and 'Project Titan' revamp". Diablo Somepage. Retrieved September 22, 2013.
  • From Titan (Blizzard Entertainment project): Bramblet, Matthew (1 August 2013). "Diablo III Announcement Coming at Gamescon - Activision Blizzard Q2 2013 earnings report details the Blizzard All-Star progress and 'Project Titan' revamp". Diablo Somepage. Retrieved 6 August 2013.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT 22:57, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

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Blizzard Vs Overwatch (paintball) app?

There was some dispute over the Overwatch App for mobile devices to enhance paintball gameplay. I would make it myself, but I'm on a school network, so some news sites are blocked, plus I have little experience in making article edits. If someone could add this, it would make this article that little bit better. =) --Bedsidelamp (talk) 16:52, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

Hearthstone Expansions & Campaigns?

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I was wondering if the Hearthstone expansions and campaigns should be added to the games section. I'm thinking yes, but didn't want to do that if it has already been decided. Blizzard has released a lot of content for Hearthstone on par with expansions of other games.

(Trainwrecka (talk) 16:00, 19 April 2017 (UTC))

They don't need to be here at this article, especially with how many there are and how frequently they are released. They're not the same as typical larger expansions/DLC. -- ferret (talk) 16:04, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Sorting products by name (infobox)

Games should be first grouped as series and single titles and then sorted by name (alphabetical). It will make most recognizable Blizzard series to be on top, and still products will be sorted by name. 109.93.250.174 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 20:59, 20 June 2017 (UTC)

I'd argue that that puts very well known games like Overwatch (Clearly a new franchise even if only one game, with other media) at a weird position. I think it would make more sense to remove the legacy games outright (They will still be in the game's list, just not the infobox), leaving the primary franchises, Heroes (which combines them all) and Hearthstone. With just those 6 titles, I'd keep them alphabetical. -- ferret (talk) 21:03, 20 June 2017 (UTC)
Think on franchises and solo titles like folders and files and how they are sorted by name on PC. It will be not weird to see sorting like that. I never said to sort game by popularity or how big they are (you talk how overwatch can be a problem in new sorting), sorting by name is fine, just make them grouped so people can fast eye catch two things at once - series and single titles (no matter how big are they), while they are sorted by name at the same time. 109.93.250.174 (talk)
Yeah, I just disagree on that sorting entirely. If I'm just scanning a list, I'm looking by alphabetical order. So I don't expect "Starcraft" to be the second item. -- ferret (talk) 01:35, 21 June 2017 (UTC)
If I'm understanding correctly, the IP's suggestion is to show each individual game, branched out from each series name. I think this would be far too much information for an infobox, and I know it would require making some kind of special tool for the infobox since that's not a built-in type of display. If a reader wants to know about all of Blizzard's games, they should navigate down to the section that lists them all. The infobox is meant for at-a-glance information. -- Fyrael (talk) 05:42, 21 June 2017 (UTC)
@Fyrael, I am not sure where I wrote "each individual game branched out". Where did you read "branched out". You probably read something out of context. 109.93.250.174 (talk)

"If I'm just scanning a list, I'm looking by alphabetical order" @Ferret, if you scanning a list, and you dont know who is blizzard, maybie you want to see (most popular) series first, and not just alphabetical order with Blackthrone and some small games before warcraft and starcraft. And I said "popular", but I think "popular in blizzard for developement" aka series. I agree there should be alphabetical order, but group series first make much more sense for everyone who doesnt know who is blizzard and come to wikipedia to read about it, looking at infobox first. 109.93.250.174 (talk)

update: I removed legacy games and kept blizzard's main franchises. If someone wants to read about all blizzard games, he can find them in article. 109.93.250.174 (talk)

I'm happy with the current content of the infobox. There's just 6 entries now, not so overwhelming, and the full list is still available within the article body. -- ferret (talk) 12:33, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

Diablo: Hellfire

Should Diablo: Hellfire be added under expansions? It is part of the Diablo series, but I am not quite sure as to the extent of Blizzard's involvement in the game. --AuroraFX (talk) 04:45, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

From what I can tell, Blizzard had no direct involvement and seems to view it as practically unauthorized. They basically don't even acknowledge it's existence. -- ferret (talk) 13:17, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

Key People section Game Director information incorrect

In the section of the article entitled Key People Ion Hazzikostas has been listed as Game Director (2008 - Present) This is inaccurate. Ion Hazzikostas was not announced as Game Director until Tom Chilton vacated that position earlier in 2017. He was Lead Designer before that going back to 2015 and prior to that from some time in 2013 he was Lead Raid Encounter Designer. Can someone edit this to reflect his appropriate position and timeline? Thanks 47.35.201.197 (talk) 08:14, 19 July 2017 (UTC)

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Added a new sub Category.

Hello fellow Wikipedia users,

I will just be adding a small section about their participation in E-sports, specifically Overwatch League. As I am new to this, if there is anything wrong with this or if i'm missing anything that could hurt this page please help fix, I don't mean to do any harm to this page I just hope to add more helpful knowledge about Blizzard Entertainment, if there is anything I missed about Blizzard Entertainments participation in E-Sports please feel free to add to it, thanks everyone. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hacksaw59 (talkcontribs) 19:29, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Hacksaw59, first of all, hi! Thanks for taking this to the talk page. I will quickly reiterate what I said previously; the section added lacked one of Wikipedia's most essentiial resources: secondary, reliable sources. Those are newspapers, magazines, professional video game journalism websites, and the like. You might want to take off by reading up on our guideline on reliable sources at WP:RS. For help finding such sources, you can use our custom reliable sources search engine. Furthermore, your added text contained some phrases, like "[...] many professional teams that we've come to know and love", that are not fit from Wikipedia, as we write from a neutral perspective. One must assume that there is someone who just hates these teams, or simply doesn't them. I'd be glad if you could take another shot at that, bearing in mind my remarks. If you need any help with that, I'll be here (or you can hit me up on my user talk page). Regards. Lordtobi () 19:57, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 April 2019

Please amend the third paragraph of the History section to point that not Blizzard has changed hands, but in fact its parent company (Davidson Associates/later Vivendi Games). Appropriate sourcing can be found on the Vivendi Games article. 2A02:908:1013:C540:48F5:BF99:C8A9:7FE9 (talk) 19:42, 14 April 2019 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. -- Dane talk 03:36, 18 April 2019 (UTC)

China?

So, this seems to be brewing up: https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1181442535962632193

Blizzard censoring pro gamers from Hong Kong. Anyone know more, and have the ability to add a section? Andy Dingley (talk) 15:56, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

I came to this talk page specifically to see if this would be added. Please do so, someone! 168.24.10.75 (talk) 17:38, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
  • @Masem: This might be a topic for you. Lordtobi () 17:59, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
    • Will find a way to add shortly. --Masem (t) 18:07, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
      • Seeded, should have more references from RS opinion pieces on the second para in the criticism but those will probably come over next 24-48 hrs, particularly if the boycott gets legs. Didn't expand refs. --Masem (t) 19:46, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

Should even consider having this as its own article, this appears to be big, specially with the NBA and South Park incidents being so recent, Senators getting involved, and BlizzCon being around the corner. Loganmac (talk) 06:38, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

I am surprised in general that there is not any article that I could find that covers the various external media affected by the protests (we have gov't reactions to it). But also keep in mind RECENTISM, so of these may be non-events. --Masem (t) 13:34, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

Hong Kong Protests

I think it is of outmost importance that Blizzards standing to the protests is made publik to every audience possible. To save money or becouse of their poltical agenda they silenced a pro-player who was rooting for Hong Kong, and not only punishing him, but fireing the interviewer, which did not support what he said but tried to hide in order to not face concequences. This a step against democratic values. Ron Wyden (US Senator):"Blizzard shows it is willing to humiliate itself to please the Chinese Communist Party. No American company should censor calls for freedom to make a quick buck.". https://www.cnet.com/news/blizzard-pulls-blitzchung-from-hearthstone-esports-tournament-over-support-for-hong-kong-protests/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ninjado (talkcontribs) 13:25, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

It's already in the article. We have to be careful about crossing the line of advocacy (WP can't take sides). --Masem (t) 13:33, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
Wikipedia is not a platform for people to voice their opinion or push an agenda, no matter how important the topic. Objectivity is important here. If you feel strongly about something, there are currently hundreds of platforms on which you can make yourself heard. -- Fyrael (talk) 14:55, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 October 2019

Add a link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_University for the words 'American University' Lgazoo (talk) 17:46, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

 Done. El_C 17:49, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 October 2019

"The subreddit r/Blizzard went private amidst all other subreddits dedicated to Blizzard properties showing anger toward the company's actions." should be removed or at the very least the idea behind it should be changed. Majority of users in r/Blizzard disagree that the subreddit's shutdown was an act of anger towards Blizzard, and instead was a way for the moderators of the subreddit to censor the backlash, this is supported by a few of the moderators having a history of writing pro-China comments in other forums. 128.125.146.25 (talk) 10:09, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

 Not done We have to go by what the sources say, none that I see talk to this idea that the mods were being pro-China or the like. --Masem (t) 13:56, 10 October 2019 (UTC)
That text you copied doesn't say /rBlizzard was shut down as an act of anger. It says that other Blizzard-related subreddits were displaying anger, and so r/Blizzard went private. -- Fyrael (talk) 14:38, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

On splitting the Hong Kong protest aspect

I would be against such split, at this point. We've documented in depth to this point as it was unclear where this was going.

If this still is a big deal next week, then we might need to figure out something. If with Blizzard's statement, this dies out, then we need to drastically trim back the coverage to be more appropriate of the situation. But in generally, we should avoid splitting controversies out to separate articles in the first place. --Masem (t) 17:51, 12 October 2019 (UTC)

Agreed with Masem, we should see if this is still big news next week and if Blizzard is still digging themselves into a hole. If not, trim what's there and move on. Depends on what happens. QueerFilmNerdtalk 18:31, 12 October 2019 (UTC)
My reasoning of splitting out this article is to properly categorize this incident as part of HK protest. As for Blizzard, maybe not next week but Blizzcon is in three weeks.... and some players are planning to protest.. something big will possibly come up SYSS Mouse (talk) 23:04, 12 October 2019 (UTC)
I know what you are getting at, but such an article should incorporate elements of the other various US companies tripping themselves up in China relations (NBA, South Park, etc.) and even if that article existed, the details of the controvery would be better suited at the individual articles due to the details (eg much about the Heartstone stuff means little to the political world). --Masem (t) 23:21, 12 October 2019 (UTC)
It looked like NBA issue would just quiet down - Tencent quietly started showing NBA again. SYSS Mouse (talk) 20:16, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
@QueerFilmNerd: Just my two cents: if this doesn't get split into its own article (say the fervor dies down, which between still-steady coverage and BlizzCon coming up, I'm not sure it will), I don't think this section of the article should be trimmed down at all. The coverage and worldwide awareness of this controversy was relatively massive, and I think the article has every right to reflect that in its level of detail. Personally, I would be all for placing this in an article of its own (Maybe "Blizzard–blitzchung controversy" / "Blizzard–Hong Kong controversy" or something of the sort), while leaving a small section in this article under 'Controversies' briefly summarizing the events and linking to the main article. TheTechnician27 (Talk page) 23:58, 12 October 2019 (UTC)
We have to keep in mind WP:RECENTISM and WP:UNDUE. Should this basically be it (outside of pockets of protest at Blizzcon), then we need to consider that what we have is far too much. We don't need all the quotes, names, etc, nor the impacts on Riot/Epic. What is 4-some paragraphs can be trickled down to two keeping the most relevant facets and most of the major sources so that a reader wanting to learn more can go research that. But I don't know if that's the right course of action now and won't expect to be able to decide until after Blizzcon. But a major thing is that controversies should not be split off to separate articles, per WP:NPOV. --Masem (t) 14:08, 14 October 2019 (UTC)
Given that the Overwatch Switch launch event in New York was cancelled today (schedule to be on Thursday, on 16th), things will only get worse until Blizzcon. SYSS Mouse (talk) 16:16, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
Well, Mouse, it's officially getting worse. TheTechnician27 (Talk page) 05:26, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
This matter has been covered by many independent sources, and the subsection in our article is already quite large. It should be spun out into a daughter article. Axl ¤ [Talk] 08:33, 14 October 2019 (UTC)
Certainly deserves its own article as it passes WP:SIGCOV.  🕵️Spy-cicle💥  Talk? 19:20, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Suggestion Shunt to the article Tactics and methods surrounding the 2019 Hong Kong protests. 293.xx.xxx.xx (talk) 00:14, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Oppose. That's not even what the article is about. SYSS Mouse (talk) 00:34, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
Oppose ... but I don't know if there's enough in better RSes than gaming media to talk about Mei as a symbol there in specific response to this ban. --Masem (t) 00:44, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
Oppose. With the recent condemnation from the United States congress and continuous backlash against Blizzard, I think this controversy deserves its own article entirely rather than being merged. 109.78.163.98 (talk) 21:06, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

This has become such a massive controversy that has had a profound impact on Blizzard and the video game industry – it is well beyond the scope of any actual events in Hong Kong, and this article can no longer reasonably hold all notable and cited information on this controversy. The thing is now eight paragraphs long as of writing, after all. I'd like to suggest some options for titles for this proposed new article.

  • Blizzard Entertainment–Hong Kong controversy
  • Hearthstone–Hong Kong controversy
  • Hearthstone suspensions controversy

PhilipTerryGraham (talk · articles · reviews) 14:24, 24 October 2019 (UTC)

Not really. It's still being discussions, but I have not seen much direct fallout yet from it outside of the letter from Congress to them. Splitting off controversy articles is strongly discouraged from a NPOV stance. We need to wait until after BlizzCon - where it has been said there will be protests. If those have an impact, then we may consider something, but if BlizzCon goes by w/o a drop of news, this section can be severely trimmed back. --Masem (t) 14:28, 24 October 2019 (UTC)
I believed that despite it is a controversy, spliting it is still needed. It has become too long to include in the page but such length is nesserary to tell the reader what happened. Also, I believed it is the one of the start. Mariogoods (talk) 23:14, 31 October 2019 (UTC)
So: The protests actually did happen [4] [5] and the statement made at the start didn't sit too well. So lets give this one more week and if more develops from BlizzCon lets start talking a split. --Masem (t) 21:41, 3 November 2019 (UTC)
"the statement made at the start didn't sit too well"... [citation needed]. Other than that I do not believe much will be coming out at this point. SYSS Mouse (talk) 22:46, 3 November 2019 (UTC)
See second link I added. Some protestors felt it wasn't enough. --Masem (t) 23:04, 3 November 2019 (UTC)
At the very least, I think some kind of test draft should be created to see if the situation could be better explained in its own article. There are far less relevant things with their own pages than this. 109.78.163.98 (talk) 22:17, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

I have found the page Blitzchung. Should we move to it?Mariogoods (talk) 22:17, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

That's not an appropriate article. There's very little info on Blitzchung outside this controversy, so it is inappropriate to use a BLP article to cover that. I have redirected that article back to here. --Masem (t) 23:05, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

  • The amount of coverage for this ongoing event continues to pile up and now constitutes undue weight to leave at this length in the article. Per recent comments above, I've split it out to Blitzchung affair and pared it down, but there is room for expansion. The section in the parent article can afford to be chopped down summary style. (not watching, please {{ping}}) czar 18:55, 9 November 2019 (UTC)
Also, in general, this article shouldn't have a dedicated "controversy" section. It can be worked into the general history of the company with proportional weight. czar 18:57, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 05:56, 10 May 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 27 June 2020

Please change:

| num_employees = {{Increase}} 4,700<ref name="gamasutra-dice-2012">{{cite web |author=Gamasutra Staff |url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/40230/DICE_2012_Blizzards_Pearce_on_World_Of_Warcrafts_launch_hangover.php |title=DICE 2012: Blizzard's Pearce on World Of Warcraft's launch hangover |website=[[Gamasutra]] |date=February 9, 2012 |accessdate=January 23, 2013 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130208121006/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/40230/DICE_2012_Blizzards_Pearce_on_World_Of_Warcrafts_launch_hangover.php |archivedate=February 8, 2013}}</ref>
| num_employees_year = 2012

To:

  | num_employees = {{Decrease|7.07%}} 9,200<ref name="macrotrends-2020">{{Cite web|author=Macrotrends|url=https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ATVI/activision-blizzard/number-of-employees|title=Activision Blizzard: Number of Employees 2006-2020 {{!}} ATVI {{!}} MacroTrends|date=June 27, 2020|accessdate=June 27, 2020|url-status=live|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20200627133512/https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ATVI/activision-blizzard/number-of-employees|archivedate=June 27, 2020}}</ref>
  | num_employees_year = 2019

Which should look like this: 7.07% 9,200[1]

Thanks! 172.101.5.82 (talk) 13:41, 27 June 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: The source provided is for the totality of the parent company, Activision Blizzard. This is the article for Blizzard Entertainment specifically, and would need a source that covers only Blizzard. -- ferret (talk) 13:42, 27 June 2020 (UTC)

To:

  | num_employees = 5,001-10,000<ref name="crunchbase-2020">{{Cite web|author=Crunchbase|url=https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/blizzard-entertainment|title=Blizzard Entertainment {{!}} Crunchbase|date=June 28, 2020|accessdate=June 28, 2020|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628133117/https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/blizzard-entertainment|archivedate=June 28, 2020}}</ref>
  | num_employees_year = 2020

Which should look like this: 5,001-10,000[2]

Thanks! 172.101.5.82 (talk) 13:33, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

To change from a relatively specific number that may be a few years off but sourced directly to a company, to a vague range sourced to a site that tries to estimate that is not a good change. --Masem (t) 13:36, 28 June 2020 (UTC)
Crunchbase is also unreliable. IceWelder [] 13:55, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ Macrotrends (June 27, 2020). "Activision Blizzard: Number of Employees 2006-2020 | ATVI | MacroTrends". Archived from the original on June 27, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  2. ^ Crunchbase (June 28, 2020). "Blizzard Entertainment | Crunchbase". Archived from the original on June 28, 2020. Retrieved June 28, 2020.

Semi-protected edit request on 24 September 2020

MINOR edit: On the para that starts "Blizzard released World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)..." around footnote 18 a sentence mentions "...Chinese publisher The9 to publisher..."

The second 'publisher' should just be 'publish'

Have a great day! Birdseye3 (talk) 23:06, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

 Done Dylsss (talk) 00:46, 25 September 2020 (UTC)

History section: 2020-current

I suggest that the "post-Mike Morhaime era" (not necessary with that name) should be a new section at some point in the future. EchoBlu (talk) 20:03, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

Recent reorganization of the company's structure

"Team 1, Blizzard's "classic team," was quietly dismantled last fall"

"Blizzard Absorbs Activision Studio After Dismantling Classic Games Team"

"One quick bit of clarification: Team 1 and the Classic Team used to be separate entities, but when the Classic Team took over support of SC2/HOTS (2018 or so) they became known as Team 1. Now gone".

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1352767792756510721 EchoBlu (talk) 03:17, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

I know that is coming from Bloomberg /Schreier, but this inside word and not yet official and thus should not be added yet. --Masem (t) 03:22, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 February 2021

To maintain consistency, was going to add the words "now defunct" following "Carbine Studios" under "Related Companies". Carbine Studios became defunct September 7th, 2018. Source: https://kotaku.com/wildstar-developer-carbine-studios-shuts-down-1828862729 Keldren (talk) 20:44, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

 Done. --Masem (t) 20:55, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Add disambiguation link?

Is there a reason for not adding a disamb. link to this page? It's on the wikipedia page for actual blizzards so I reckon it makes sense here too — Preceding unsigned comment added by 49.36.67.212 (talk) 06:43, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

This is not necessary per WP:NAMB. If someone purposely enters "Blizzard Entertainment", they are likely not looking for another kind of blizzard. IceWelder [] 08:12, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Microsoft deal

@Masem: Concerning this edit [6] where you stated in the edit summary (‎Microsoft deal: so far, this does not affect Blizzard in any way since they will still be under Activision Blizzard). Microsoft will have control over them regardless and make decisions just as they have done with past game companies they bought up. Also all the news coverage mentions Blizzard not Activision Blizzard so people come here for information. Dream Focus 12:27, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Microsoft to acquire Blizzard as a shrewd business move

"Change of leadership (2018–present)

Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard and its subsidiaries, including Blizzard, for $68.7 billion in January 2022, in part due to ongoing issues with the California lawsuit, and to delays and release issues with their more recent games. The deal is expected to close by mid-2023, during which Activision Blizzard will remain its own company, and once finalized, will be moved into the Microsoft Gaming division.[82]"

@Masem: makes a good point that CBS News is a reliable (and credible) source. I've tried to delete the section, "in part due to ongoing issues with the California lawsuit, and to delays and release issues with their more recent games" twice now, and it has been reverted twice--for good reasons. My claims were incorrect. However, I keep coming back to it because it reads so strongly like fact but seems too speculative for a Wikipedia article with or without the source. Microsoft acquired a business because it was dealing (even in part) with legal action and overhang? That's not right. Businesses don't spend billions of dollars to acquire problems. The idea being presented seems to be that Microsoft acquired a gaming company because it was ripe for picking, not because it has major problems. But it doesn't read that way. I think we can say it better and more factually.

As a result of the California lawsuit and to delays and release issues with their more recent games, Activision Blizzard's stock faced severe pressure. Subsequently, Microsoft seized the opportunity to become one of the largest video game companies in the world and announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard and its subsidiaries, including Blizzard, for $68.7 billion in January 2022. This exchange marks the largest acquisition in tech history, surpassing the $67 billion Dell-EMC merger from 2016. The deal is expected to close by mid-2023, during which Activision Blizzard will remain its own company, and once finalized, will be moved into the Microsoft Gaming division.[82] Pickalittletalkalittle (talk) 21:46, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

There is a more recent article and should be on the Activision blizzard page that affirmed that before Nov 2021, there had been some discussions to buy in the wake of the July lawsuit. But then when WSJ published in Nov 21 that Kotick had been aware of problems, ms approached Activision blizzard in three days from that article (its stock falling) to offer again. --Masem (t) 21:52, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
Oh perfect. I believe that supports this revised rhetoric as well. Feel free to add it if you think it's necessary. And thank you for the collaboration. Pickalittletalkalittle (talk) 22:12, 1 March 2022 (UTC)

DFEH Lawsuit Section

I'm rewriting this section for multiple reasons. First, I believe a section title change to "Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Controversy and Lawsuits" is a more accurate and informative section heading, given that there have now been multiple lawsuits filed. Secondly, the section about the DFEH suit does not match the main article, seems slightly misleading, and can be more informative. Finally, I have worked to keep this summary short (as there is a complete article about it) and in line with the other summaries on this page, for example the "Hearthstone ban and Hong Kong protest" summary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Quetosfh2489 (talkcontribs) 18:53, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

Please read WP:SS. We have a full article dedicated to the details of the lawsuit and its facets. The other ones that you point out include how those cases resolved while we still do not have resolution of the current case at hand. Now I agree the SEC aspect should be mentioned too, but we still can't have as many details as you're trying to include. --Masem (t) 19:08, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
Alos, remember that this is a lawsuit at Blizzard's parent, not Blizzard, so its not appropriate to go into that many details about it. --Masem (t) 19:09, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
True, it is a lawsuit at Blizzard's parent company, but the lawsuit alleges activity within Blizzard Entertainment specifically, which is why the President of Blizzard Entertainment specifically stepped down. I still think it's weird to have multiple lawsuits filed under the heading of one lawsuit but I like the new section better than the old one so I'm good for now. Thanks for the collaboration. Quetosfh2489 (talk) 23:42, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

"Controversies and legal disputes", "Technology", and "Related companies" reorganization

I'm reorganizing the "Controversies and legal disputes" and "Related companies" sections because the controversies and disputes and studios listed seem to be listed in no particular order. Would reorganizing these sections alphabetically or chronologically be better? I'm also going to be reorganizing the "Technology" section by swapping the "Warden client" and "Battle.net 2.0" placement in the section to order them alphabetically. VN4066 (talk) 20:28, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

King's Diversity Tool Backlash

In early 2022, Blizzard announced "King's Diversity Space Tool", a software meant to increase diversity in video games, which received a lot of backlash from general public. Some employees, specifically Overwatch designers, explained that they never used or even seen the tool, prior to its announcement. My main question is, should this topic be added to Blizzard Entertainment's section on controversies? I'm not certain because while a lot of the focus of that backlash surrounds Overwatch specifically, the original tool was more generalized, and so I believe it should be added, but I wanted to hear someone else's perspective on it. J.Pan79 (talk) 06:11, 20 March 2023 (UTC)