Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment
by Jason Schreier
View on GoodreadsSomewhere between the 2008 Activision merger and the 2021 California lawsuit, Blizzard lost its independence and much of the culture behind Diablo, StarCraft and World of Warcraft. Schreier builds the story from interviews with more than 300 current and former employees, and you watch artistic ambition lose ground to Bobby Kotick's preference for profit.
Core ideas
- Scrappy beginnings: Three UCLA graduates founded Blizzard in 1991, and the early office ran on chaos, shouting matches and even fistfights.
- The 2013 opening: A cancelled project, the MMO codenamed Titan, gave Kotick leverage to chip away at Blizzard's independence, and mass layoffs and less creative risk-taking followed.
- The workplace: Unequal pay, sexual harassment and an HR department that wouldn't discipline offenders persisted for years before the state lawsuit hit.
Published2024
Pages384
ISBN9781538725429
ReadApr 2025
