Blizzard Is, Like, Totally Old
Snowstorm Entertainment, creators of games such as FightMaking, Planet of FightMaking, Devil and SunMaking, turns 20 this month. And yet no-one's ever heard of 'em. Oh well, good try chaps.
Ahahah. Heh. Ha. Quoth the kings of Blizzard, "In 1991, three guys fresh out of UCLA decided to start their own game company. Their goal: make cool games and have fun doing so." Back in February 1991, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce's studio was known as Silicon & Synapse, becoming the familiar Blizzard in 1994. A page dedicated to their anniversary promises all manner of nostalgic goodies over the coming weeks, although there's nothing up just yet. While we wait, I thought I'd write up a little timeline of Blizzard's greatest moments...
1991 - RPM racing makes a bit of money.
1992 – The Lost Vikings makes some money.
1992 - Dvorak on Typing sounds like it probably didn't make much money.
1994 – Warcraft: Orcs & Humans makes some money.
1995 – Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness makes a fair bit of money.
1997 – Diablo makes quite a lot of money.
1998 – StarCraft makes a lot of money.
2000 – Diablo II makes an awful lot of money.
2002 – Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos makes a pretty staggering amount of money.
2004 – World of Warcraft makes HOLY GOD ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD ALL OF IT OH MY GOD THEY'RE SO LUDICROUSLY RICH SOOOOOOOOOO RICH.
2007 – World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade makes blah blah lots and lots of money blah blah
2008 – World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King makes blah blah lots and lots of money blah blah
2010 – StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty makes probably not as much money but still an unbelievable amount.
2010 – World of Warcraft: Cataclysm makes even more money, somehow. How is it possible? No-one knows.
2011 – No-one else in the world has any money, because Blizzard has it all.
2012 - Blizzard buys God.
As a proper trip down memory lane, here's Blizzard's first ever game - RPM Racing.
That's Arthas driving the blue truck, y'know.
It's been a journey, gents - and best of all, you've always been a front and centre champion of the PC, and of genres that so many other companies have left behind in favour of tedious shooting galleries. It's very hard to begrudge you your underpants made of solid diamonds given that. Here's to the next 20 years. And Diablo III very soon, please.