Former Blizzard president Mike Morhaime has partnered with a number of other Blizzard Entertainment veterans to form a new games company: Dreamhaven.
Dreamhaven will serve as a parent company providing publishing and other support services to its internal game development studios, beginning with two new ones founded alongside the company called Moonshot and Secret Door.
Moonshot is led by former Blizzard executive producer Jason Chayes, former StarCraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm game director Dustin Browder, and former Hearthstone creative director Ben Thompson.
Meanwhile, Secret Door is being led by former Hearthstone executive producer Chris Sigaty, former Hearthstone game director Eric Dodds, and former Blizzard technical director and game director Alan Dabiri.
That's gotta be the biggest middle finger to Bobby Kotick and Activision, love it! Well played Mike! I've always had a suspicion he left Blizzard, because he couldn't stand how Activision slowly but surely squashed the love for great games, just to squeeze more profit out of the Blizzard gaming mill.
On September 23 2020 22:35 thePunGun wrote: That's gotta be the biggest middle finger to Bobby Kotick and Activision, love it! Well played Mike! I've always had a suspicion he left Blizzard, because he couldn't stand how Activision slowly but surely squashed the love for great games, just to squeeze more profit out of the Blizzard gaming mill.
“We’re almost trying to create a haven for creators who want an environment that is development friendly, values product, and player experience over short-term financial pressures,” Morhaime said. “We believe in the power of gaming to bring people together and as an escape of the unpleasant things that reality can bring. In that sense, it’s a haven as well. We like the imagery of a lighthouse as a beacon, and that inspires us because we hope that Dreamhaven can be a beacon of hope to others in the industry who share our values and philosophies. There is a better way of approaching business and game creation that can work and be sustainable and be a lot of fun and yield positive results.”
That seems to me to be PRETTY specifically targetting what Activision has done to Blizzard, and then saying "we're not going to do that."
so much for all those crazy unsubstantiated theories that Blizzard hated the job Browder did on SC2. Browder got promoted to VP and Morhaime brought him into his new company. It is clear Morhaime thinks highly of Browder.
On September 23 2020 22:35 thePunGun wrote: That's gotta be the biggest middle finger to Bobby Kotick and Activision, love it! Well played Mike! I've always had a suspicion he left Blizzard, because he couldn't stand how Activision slowly but surely squashed the love for great games, just to squeeze more profit out of the Blizzard gaming mill.
“We’re almost trying to create a haven for creators who want an environment that is development friendly, values product, and player experience over short-term financial pressures,” Morhaime said. “We believe in the power of gaming to bring people together and as an escape of the unpleasant things that reality can bring. In that sense, it’s a haven as well. We like the imagery of a lighthouse as a beacon, and that inspires us because we hope that Dreamhaven can be a beacon of hope to others in the industry who share our values and philosophies. There is a better way of approaching business and game creation that can work and be sustainable and be a lot of fun and yield positive results.”
That seems to me to be PRETTY specifically targetting what Activision has done to Blizzard, and then saying "we're not going to do that."
this is just buying into the simplistic "good cop // bad cop" narrative that publishers want consumers to believe.
its not much different from a front line level employee who has an assistant manager who they have direct contact with every day. The front line employee and assistant manager also work together onthe front lines frequently every week while the assistant managers acts like the "good cop" and pretends to be on the employee's side. Meanwhile, the "owner" or "ceo" or "general manager" is the "bad cop". In private meetings away from the front lines ...the CEO and Assistant manager both work together for the good of the company ... not the employee. The whole "good cop // bad cop" routine.. is all BS.
Activision wants you to believe that the dev studio is the "try hard little guy" that is "on your side". It is BS.
Bobby Kotick wants to be seen as "the bad cop". He is quoted as saying he "wants to take the fun out of making video games". Kotick took a part in a major hollywood movie where he is the total prick owner limiting the creative vision of an artistic genius. Again, Kotick wants to be seen as teh "bad cop". Its all a bullshit act designed to push an oversimplified narrative.
Bungie left Activision and the price of Destiny2 expansions went up. So leaving Activision is not all sunshine and rainbows.
We have as close to direct contact with modern Blizzard staff *cough Jay Allen Brack cough* and I think most people agree he says slimy corporate fuckstickery.
I have SO MUCH MORE faith in a company that Mike Morhaime is actually in control of to treat their employees better and to make better games than I do in a company like Activision that doesnt give a flying fuck about either aforementioned things.
Big companies are 100% bad cops, and we shouldn't ever pretend like they'll ever do more than pretend they have anything other than an interest in short term consumer milking at all costs.
Morhaime being rid of ATVI does not guarantee the success of his new studio. It will add a whole bunch of headaches to his day that he was able to avoid under ATVI. Morhaime is an electrical engineer//computer science guy.. he is not an accounting//law//economics guy. ATVI took away all kinds of headaches and issues from Blizzard and Morhaime.
Kotick took Activision from nothing in 1991 to the acquisition of Blizzard in 2008. His business acumen should not be underestimated.
On September 24 2020 01:29 Zambrah wrote: Big companies are 100% bad cops, and we shouldn't ever pretend like they'll ever do more than pretend they have anything other than an interest in short term consumer milking at all costs.
meh, Kotick wants to be seen as the "bad cop" so that the Dev Studios can be easily forgiven for their fuck ups.
This is a guy who wants you to hate him.
You're getting played man. Bobby Kotick is a master of image manipulation. You are only seeing what he wants you to see. Put in terms of playing poker: Kotick is brilliant at managing his "table image".
Business acumen means fuck all when it comes to games. The more "business acumen" you see in games the more shady awful monetization you see, the less quality games you see, "business acumen" doesn't mean anything when it comes to treating employees well and making quality products.
On September 24 2020 01:44 Zambrah wrote: Dev teams wouldnt fuck up so much if they weren't made to work way too long hours to hit asinine deadlines.
before ATVI , Blizzard had all kinds of crazy messed up deadlines and processes. Its part of what inspired the name "Blizzard" because the place was total chaos.
i seem to recall Bob Fitch getting locked in a room for 6 weeks to build the engine for SC1. Software projects go awry all the time. My best customer has a service called "Project Rescue". She sends me on these crazy assignments working on projects that have failed 3+ times and have been going on for 5+ years. That is the way the entire industry is. Its not like video games are some special case.
"we were no where near the home stretch". crunch lasted 8 months.
I love doing the hermit coder 24/7 thing. its a blast. its also clear Bob Fitch loved it as well. When the project is a success... you gain legend status.
In conclusion, Blizzard had all kinds of issues before ATVI took over. Bungie also jettisoned ATVI and kept their Destiny franchise. Has Destiny2 gotten much better without ATVI? I'd say its a little bit better. But its not some dramatic night-and-day improvement.
He is so passionate, and helped StarCraft 2 so much. Whatever he does I will follow closely. Would love to meet the man.
Blizzard was always a great company, with some clear flaws. But it seems to me that Titan killed Blizzard. After it's failure, even though they salvaged Overwatch, the company never recovered and it seems Kotick ended up pushing everyone out.
Lots of RTS talent in these studios and Mike Morhaime is a big fan of the genre. This could be the beginning of a new chapter for RTS! They're willing to take more risks, which could involve making RTS when it's not "in season" and being more experimental with the formula.
I hope they can set an industry example for putting quality games first. I'm super excited to see where this goes.
On September 24 2020 01:33 JimmyJRaynor wrote: Morhaime being rid of ATVI does not guarantee the success of his new studio. It will add a whole bunch of headaches to his day that he was able to avoid under ATVI. Morhaime is an electrical engineer//computer science guy.. he is not an accounting//law//economics guy. ATVI took away all kinds of headaches and issues from Blizzard and Morhaime.
Kotick took Activision from nothing in 1991 to the acquisition of Blizzard in 2008. His business acumen should not be underestimated.
You're getting played man. Bobby Kotick is a master of image manipulation. You are only seeing what he wants you to see. Put in terms of playing poker: Kotick is brilliant at managing his "table image".
Kotick is a cancer in this industry, this guy has done nothing for gaming as a whole for the last 15 years than leech the money out of the playerbase of ATVI's big gaming franchises. How can you justify his 10 million slarary increase each year for the last 2 freakin years? This guy does NOT deserve a f****in salary of 40 million dollars. All the while you hear reports of Blizzard employees being underpaid and some can't even afford the coffee in the company cafeteria, let alone their own apartment. I know I'm repeating myself here, but this guy is a fuckin leech he made 40 million and also fired 800+ people (who actually contributed to creating the games we once loved) the same year. That's a guy, who has no shame and no moral compass!
This is so weird for me i thought he was retiring from Blizzard? So i assume he was either forced out or he genuinely quit himself? Doesn't scream good news for Blizzard this, not from a competition point of view but more so due to if Mike bailed on Blzzard to set up a gaming company so quickly, he must hate the direction and underlying issues in Blizzard right now, ouch!
EPT
