Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime announces new game company

[Shawn Knight]

Editor's take: Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime is back with a host of industry veterans, ready to create and share new experiences with gamers around the globe. Here's to hoping his encore career will be even more successful than the first.

It’s been nearly two years since Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime left the company he helped create in 1991. Industry veterans are rarely able to sit idle for more than a couple of years without getting the itch to jump back into the business and Morhaime is no different.

On Wednesday, Morhaime announced his encore career in the form of a new game company called Dreamhaven. Based in Irvine, California, the firm will create and publish original games under two studios: Secret Door and Moonshot.

Morhaime recruited a host of industry veterans with a common goal to empower creators and bring their ideas to life through the creation of original gaming experiences “that foster meaningful connections between players.”

Chris Sigaty will oversee Secret Door. Sigaty is best known for working on StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, Warcraft III and Hearthstone, just to name a few. Moonshot will be led by Jason Chayes, who has previously held high-level positions at Blizzard, Electronic Arts and Walt Disney’s gaming division.

Neither studio had anything concrete to announce but with next-gen consoles just around the corner, the emergence of mobile platforms and the PC being as compelling as ever, the sky truly is the limit.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/86857-blizzard-co-founder-mike-morhaime-announces-new-game.html

 

[Hexic]

A Blizzard talent base that don’t have their balls in Activition’s vice grip?!

Oh please, PLEASE rebuild the old Blizzard North quality and polish.

 

[winjer]

Free from the grip of Bobby Kotic and his minions.

 

[Achaios]

Oh yes, yes, yes, I am so happy.

All the best of luck to papa Mike. Hope more of the old boys will go help papa Mike.

P.S: Are we gonna see Mark Kern (Original WoW Team lead) too?

 

[psycros]

Let the Actiblizzard exodus commence.

 

[brucek]

through the creation of original gaming experiences “that foster meaningful connections between players.”

I think I've had enough of that. For many years I was a member of organized raiding guilds in World of Warcraft. It has its charms, but sometimes it also felt a lot like my day job, particularly re: organization and management. I'm sorry to feel this way, but I'm ready to have an option to replace any and all other slots for humans with AI team members. Sometimes I just want to be able to play when I want, for as long or as little as I want, without having to manage a team calendar.

 

[Hexic]

I think I've had enough of that. For many years I was a member of organized raiding guilds in World of Warcraft. It has its charms, but sometimes it also felt a lot like my day job, particularly re: organization and management. I'm sorry to feel this way, but I'm ready to have an option to replace any and all other slots for humans with AI team members. Sometimes I just want to be able to play when I want, for as long or as little as I want, without having to manage a team calendar.

And that’s totally fine, because that’s your preference at this point within the gaming environment. You may be preferential towards the Warcraft or Starcraft flavor (in Blizzard’s context at least) versus the MMO genre that always requires external involvement, management, and most importantly external social dependencies.

Personally, I enjoy the MMO genre because of the constant player-based evolution that drives the entire game itself; and the fact that I’m a sucker for world PvP.

But even if they made another RTS franchise I’d still be very interested, due to the fact that the quality, details, and polish of Blizzard North were (and still are IMO) unmatched.

 

[Mister_K]

They just need to hire younger, like-minded creative and hungry individuals and treat them well. Something large game studios such as Blizzard no longer do.

The problem I can see is that no one has the fire they once had when they were young. Basically, who is to say Mike and the rest of Blizzard OGs aren't just too old and washed out success stories who simply won't meet the expectations of fans.

They need to combine the passion for games with modern thinking. Hire talented guys who actually care about the games they are making and think outside of the box to deliver the "next-gen" games to us.