Blizzard Entertainment Company profile

Company Profile Blizzard Entertainment® is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software. After establishing the Blizzard Entertainment label in 1994, the company quickly became one of the most popular and well-respected makers of computer games. By focusing on creating well-designed, highly enjoyable entertainment experiences, Blizzard Entertainment has maintained an unparalleled reputation for quality since its inception. Blizzard Entertainment's track record of back-to-back #1-selling games spans more than a decade, and with blockbuster hits such as World of Warcraft®, Warcraft® III: Reign of Chaos™, Diablo® II, and StarCraft®, the company has earned several consecutive Game of the Year awards. In addition, Blizzard Entertainment's online-game service, Battle.net®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active users.

The high-quality products based on Blizzard Entertainment's games have also proven popular and garnered much critical acclaim. These products include action figures, novels, manga, board games, pen-and-paper role-playing games, apparel, and the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, which is a bestseller in its category. Extending the reach of its game universes even further, Blizzard Entertainment is currently at work with Legendary Pictures, the studio behind the feature films Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and 300, on a live-action Warcraft movie.

The Diablo^® Universe
On June 28, 2008, Blizzard Entertainment unveiled Diablo III, the latest entry in its landmark action-role-playing game (RPG) franchise, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Paris, France. The original Diablo, which shipped to stores in the last week of December 1996, debuted at #1 in the United States and was widely credited as having helped to revitalize the RPG genre. In 2000, Blizzard Entertainment launched the game's sequel, Diablo II, which set the record for fastest-selling PC game ever at the time of its release. The company followed up in 2001 with the expansion, Diablo^® II: Lord of Destruction^™, which sold more than a million copies in its first month and was one of the biggest sellers of 2001, in addition to receiving widespread critical acclaim.

The StarCraft^® Universe
On May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Seoul, South Korea, the company announced that StarCraft II, the hotly anticipated sequel to one of the highest rated real-time strategy games of all time, was in development. The original StarCraft, which Blizzard Entertainment released in March 1998, was the company's third #1 seller and was listed as the bestselling game of 1998 by PC Data. The game's expansion set, StarCraft^®: Brood War^™, was named best expansion of 1998 and is still considered by many critics to be one of the best add-on products to date.

StarCraft is a long-running staple of professional tournament gaming. This is especially the case in South Korea, where the game's mass popularity played a major role in the birth of the professional-gaming and game-broadcasting phenomena, as well as serving as one of the key drivers behind the growth of the PC-game-room business.

The Warcraft^® Universe
Blizzard Entertainment's most recent game release was World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade^®, the expansion set to the company's bestselling and award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft. Launched in January 2007 in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade sold a record-setting 2.4 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time -- a mark previously held by Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade went on to sell a record 3.5 million copies within its first month. The expansion was launched in South Korea in February 2007, the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau in April 2007, and mainland China in September 2007. As announced at the company's 2007 BlizzCon^™ game convention, Blizzard Entertainment is currently at work on the second World of Warcraft expansion, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King^™.

World of Warcraft initially launched on November 23, 2004 in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, with subsequent launches in South Korea, Europe, mainland China, Singapore, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau in 2005, Malaysia in 2006, and Thailand in 2007. The game has achieved unprecedented popularity on a global scale, with currently more than 10 million subscribers worldwide. It is available in seven different languages based on the regions in which it is played, and has earned awards and praise from publications around the world. A Russian-language version of the game is currently in development.

Blizzard Entertainment's original Warcraft game, Warcraft^®: Orcs & Humans^™, was touted as one of the best strategy games of 1994, and the game's epic sequel, 1995's Warcraft^® II: Tides of Darkness^™, won numerous awards, including the company's first Game of the Year award. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, released in July 2002, has likewise won several accolades and has become a staple of professional tournament gaming, along with its expansion, the award-winning Warcraft^® III: The Frozen Throne^™, which was released in July 2003.

Company Background
Prior to the release of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Blizzard Entertainment served as a third-party developer, creating entertainment software for various platforms, including MS-DOS, Macintosh, Sega Genesis, and Super NES. The company's best-known titles from this era include Rock 'n Roll Racing^®, The Lost Vikings^®, and Blackthorne^™.

The Blizzard Entertainment research and development group comprises more than 250 designers, producers, programmers, artists, and sound engineers. Each member of the Blizzard Entertainment staff is a true game enthusiast, giving the company invaluable insight into creating products for gamers.

Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, was founded in 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by Allen Adham, President & CEO Michael Morhaime, and Executive Vice President Frank Pearce.

暴雪娱乐公司官方简介

暴雪娱乐是首屈一指的娱乐软件开发商和发行商，在1994年创建暴雪娱乐商标后，公司快速成长为最受欢迎和尊敬的电脑游戏制作公司之一。通过致力于创作优秀，及其有趣的娱乐体验，暴雪娱乐从一开始起就一直保持着游戏质量的无与伦比的信誉。

暴雪娱乐接连不断地荣登销量排行榜首位游戏的往绩横跨十多年，其中不乏诸如《魔兽世界》，《魔兽争霸，混乱之治》，《暗黑破坏神2》，《星际争霸》这样的重磅大作，公司已经连续若干次赢得年度游戏大奖。另外，暴雪娱乐在线服务——战网是世界上最大的在线服务之一，拥有数以百万级的活跃用户。

基于暴雪娱乐游戏的高品质产品已经被证实很受欢迎并且获得相当多很有见地的赞誉。这些产品包括人偶模型，小说，漫画，桌面游戏，文字角色扮演游戏，服饰，以及魔兽世界卡片游戏，它是卡片游戏中最畅销的，为了将其游戏系列的触角延伸的更远，暴雪娱乐目前正在与传奇映画（Legendary Picture）——蝙蝠侠前传,超人归来，斯巴达300勇士幕后的特技制作工作室——合作制作真人版魔兽世界电影版.

星际争霸系列

2007年5月19号，在韩国首尔举行的暴雪全球精英赛上，公司宣布了星际争霸2——一直以来备受期待的最级别的即时战略游戏之一的续作——正在开发中。最初的星际争霸是有暴雪娱乐在1998年3月和发售的，它是公司第三款销量排行第一的畅销游戏并且被PC Data列为1998年最畅销游戏，游戏资料片，《星际争霸，母巢之战》被提名为1998年最优秀的资料片，并且被许多评论家视为到目前为止最优秀的资料片产品之一。

星际争霸是职业锦标赛的长期必备游戏，这点在韩国尤其明显，在那里，游戏的风靡对于职业竞技的诞生以及游戏电视转播现象的出现扮演了主要的角色，这也是PC游戏领域业务增加背后的关键驱动力之一

魔兽争霸系列

暴雪娱乐最近发布的游戏是《魔兽世界，燃烧的远征》，它是公司最畅销，获奖无数，付费的多人在线角色扮演游戏《魔兽世界》的资料片，于2007年1月在北美，欧洲，澳大利亚，新西兰，马来西亚以及泰国发售。《魔兽世界：燃烧的远征》创纪录地在24小时内售出240万份有效的拷贝，成为史上卖的最快的PC游戏。此前这个记录有《魔兽争霸：混乱之治》保持。《魔兽世界：燃烧的远征》继续在头一个月售出创纪录的350万份拷贝。2007年2月份在韩国资料片发售，中国大陆在2007年9月份发售。正如在公司暴雪嘉年华2007游戏大会上所宣布的，暴雪娱乐目前正在制作魔兽世界的第二部资料片《魔兽世界：巫妖王的愤怒》

魔兽世界最初于2004年11月23日在北美，澳大利亚，新西兰发售，随后于2005年在韩国，欧洲，中国大陆，新加坡，台湾，香港，澳门地区发售，2006年在马来西亚发售，2007年在泰国。游戏在全球范围内获得了空前的流行，目前全世界有1000万的用户。基于不同地域，游戏拥有七种不同语言的版本，并且在全世界范围内赢得来自杂志媒体的赞誉和奖励。俄语版的游戏目前正在制作中。

暴雪娱乐原版魔兽争霸游戏《魔兽争霸：人族与兽人》被作为1994年年度最佳即时战略游戏之一兜售，并且游戏的史诗续作，1995年的《魔兽争霸Ⅱ：黑暗之潮》赢得了无数的奖项，包括公司的首个年度游戏奖项。《魔兽争霸Ⅲ：混乱之治》,于2002年7月份发售，它同样也赢得若干的荣誉并且成为职业竞标的标配产品，与之相伴的是他的资料片，于2003年7月发售的获奖无数的《魔兽争霸Ⅲ：冰封王座》

暗黑破坏神系列

暴雪娱乐的动作角色扮演游戏（A-RPG）《暗黑破坏神》在1996年的12月的最后一周商家发售，以美国销量排行榜冠军的初次路面并被广泛地称赞有助于RPG类型游戏的复兴。在2000年。暴雪娱乐发售期续作《暗黑破坏神Ⅲ》，刷新了此前PC游戏首发最快销售的记录。公司紧接着在2001年发售了《暗黑破坏神Ⅱ：毁灭之王》,该资料片在首个月内就售出100多万份拷，成为2001年的销售冠军，此外还获得了广泛而重要的喝彩

公司背景

在发布《魔兽争霸：人族与兽人》之前，暴雪娱乐身为第三方开发者，为各个平台制作软件，这其中包括，MS-DOS，苹果机，世嘉MD，以及超任这个时期公司广为人知的作品包括《疯狂赛车》（Rock 'n Roll Racing^®,），《失落的维京》以及《黑色荆棘》（Blackthorne^™.）。

暴雪娱乐的开发和研究团体包含250多名设计师，制作人，程序员，艺术家，以及音效工程师。暴雪娱乐的每一个成员都是不折不扣的游戏狂热者，这赋予公司在创作针对游戏玩家产品方面非常宝贵的洞察力。

总部位于加利福尼亚州欧文市，身为威望迪游戏的分部的暴雪娱乐于1991年由Allen Adham，总裁Michael Morhaime, 资深副总裁 Frank Pearce以Silicon& Synapse之名成立的