Blizzard has the unique reputation of being to gamers what Microsoft, Google or Facebook means to the ordinary people out there. It is heaven for whoever sees himself as a genuine gamer. With its reputation as the leading game development company Globally, Blizzard has succeeded to set a legacy that no other can imagine setting. It is important to note that this legacy was created via several hours of dedication, hard work, and passion, as seen in the results, churned out by the company. Here we will show you how to get a job at Blizzard.
How to get a job at Blizzard
Just as it is with getting a job you desire, you must put some vital steps in motion. First, find a role that suits your experience, write a cover letter, and submit a resume. But then, more importantly, ensure that you have a genuine passion for the gaming world generally. Many people who work at Blizzard will certainly have an interesting gaming experience they once had while they were playing a Blizzard game. Even though not everyone who works at Blizzard can be called a gaming fanatic, most of them are.
It is therefore imperative that you make yourself familiar with the core values at Blizzard which includes Gameplay First, Embrace your inner Geek, play fair, Lead responsibly and grow and learn. One thing about Blizzard is that they take their core values pretty seriously. In addition to this, ensure that you are very good at the position you are applying for. The bar is quite high at Blizzard as regards the criteria for engaging the services of people.
What Is It Like Working At Blizzard?
Even though some people may argue that junior staffs are not competitively paid at Blizzard, it suffices to say that this is a relative statement. One unique thing about Blizzard is that it loves to promote from within. What this means is that several people who have gone on to be quite influential and famous began from the lower rung of the ladder. Also, the majority of people who work here do so for 40 hours each week. Also, employees get paid per hour, which means you will be getting the full value for every minute you put into work.
Who Is Blizzard Entertainment?
Blizzard Entertainment is an American game developer and publisher located in California. The company is a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard which is a company that was founded in 1991 with the name Silicon and Synapse Inc. the company was created by three graduates from the prestigious University of California; Frank Pearce, Michael Morhaime and Allen Adham. The company had an initial focus on creating game ports for other studio games. They, however, began developing their software back in 1993 with games such as The Lost Vikings, Rock n’ Roll Racing as well as the Lost Vikings. By 1994, the company became known as the Chaos Studios Inc., after which it metamorphosed into Blizzard Entertainment after it was bought by Davidson and Associates.
The Takeover
Blizzard came out with Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and after this came several other video games such as Warcraft sequels as well as the multiplayer online role-playing game world of warcraft. The most recent works include Hearthstone, Reaper of Souls, as well as the seventh expansion for World of Warcraft. Back in July 2008, Activision would form a merger with Vivendi Games which lead to the addition of Blizzard brand name in the title of the holding company. In 2013, the company made known its purchase of 429 million shares from Vivendi. Due to this reason, Activision became an independent company.
What Is The History Behind The Blizzard Success Story?
Blizzard Entertainment is a creation of Allen Adham, Michael Morhaime, and Frank Pearce. The name Silicon and Synapse was a concept that originated from the founders with silicon standing for the building block of computers while synapse represented the building blocks of the human brain. Each founder contributed $10,000 each for the company to be funded with Morhaime borrowing his share from his grandmother.
The company focused on the creation of game ports for other studios during the initial two years. In 1993, Adham made it known to the other executives that he was not comfortable with the name Silicon and Synapse as it was confusing with people. The name was changed to Chaos Studios indicating the haphazardness of the process of development.
In the early part of 1994, the company was bought by Davidson and Associates for about $6.75 million. Not long after this, they were called up by Chaos technologies who wanted the company to pay US$100,000 to maintain the name. However, instead of paying the said sum, they opted to modify the name of the studio to Orge Studios. This name was however rejected by Davidson and associates and they made sure the company changed the name.
Soon, Adham began searching for a suitable name that was available. One of the first names that cut was blizzard thus leading to the name being changed to Blizzard Entertainment by 1994.
Then Came World Of Warcraft And Vivendi
Blizzard experienced quite a few changes in ownership with time. Davidson was bought with Sierra On-Line by a firm named CUC International back in 1996. CUC would later merge with a franchiser known as HFS Corporation to create Cendant in 1997. Then came 1998 when CUC was enmeshed in a financial fraud scandal for years before the merger occurred. Cendant saw its stock lose 80% in value within the next six months. The company would then sell its consumer software operations, Sierra On-Line to Havas in 1998 which is the same year Havas Bought Vivendi.
Also, in 1996, Blizzard bought Condor games which had before then been working on the role-playing game Diablo for Blizzard. Condor was soon renamed Blizzard North with the main headquarters of Blizzard in Irvin being renamed as Blizzard South to set a distinction between the two. Blizzard north came up with Diablo II back in 2000. Soon several key staff departed in search of other opportunities.
The Activision, Vivendi Union
Till 2006, the CEO of Activision had been making concerted efforts to resurrect the fortunes of the company from bankruptcy and had come up with a few other studios. However, one thing Activision lacked was a presence in the MMO market. Kotick observed that World of Warcraft was dragging in over a billion dollars each year in fees for subscription and soon started approaching the CEO of Vivendi about the possibility of buying their Vivendi Games. Levy was very much open to the idea of a merger as long as he had major controlling power of the company. Among the people, Kotick discussed with for advice included Morhaime who made it known to him that profitable inroads were been made into the Chinese market. Levy’s deal was accepted Kotick and the deal was approved by the company shareholders in 2007. The merger became completed by July 2008 and that meant the effective dissolution of Vivendi Games except for Blizzard. The new company was called Activision Blizzard.
A distribution agreement was soon established by Blizzard with a Chinese firm NetEase in August 2007 that allowed Blizzard games to be published in China. The deal had a core focus on StarCraft II which was at that time gaining wide traction in South East Asia.
With a peak subscription of 12 million monthly subscriptions in 2010, World of Warcraft would see its subscription sink to 6.8 million in 2014. Upon the aforementioned merger, Blizzard discovered that it was heavily reliant on its well-established concepts. It also observed that the industry was making a shift to idle games. A few small teams were established by Blizzard in the company to come up with new concepts in line with the Indie approach. It was in the process that one of the teams came up with the collectible card game which is based upon the Warcraft narrative universe. This ultimately became known as Hearthstone. This was unveiled as a free to play title and attained over 25 million players at the close of 2014. By 2018, it had exceeded 100 million players.
Soon, another team started work on another project named Titan. The project began gaining prominence in 2010 even as Blizzard began speaking more about the project with about a hundred people working on it. The project was eventually canceled in 2013 with the majority of the staff being reassigned with about 40 people left to find a way out. It was in the process that the team came up with the idea of a team-based multiplayer game and the project was to be known as Overwatch. It was released in 2016
Final Word
Getting a job at Blizzard isn’t exactly rocket science, but it requires tact and acumen. You need to be conversant with what the company is and what they stand for. We believe we have been able to equip you in that regard.
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