Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment

This damning report from Bloomberg News journalist Schreier (Press Reset) details how Blizzard Entertainment, the video game hitmaker behind the World of Warcraft and Diablo franchises, lost its way. Schreier traces the studio’s history from its founding in 1991 by two UCLA grads and its raucous early days (screaming and fistfights were common occurrences around the office) to its maturation into an industry star and its fateful 2008 acquisition by competitor Activision. With an ear for pithy soundbites (“When millions turn into billions, everything changes”), Schreier draws on interviews with game testers, programmers, executives, and other Blizzard personnel to create a vivid portrait of the company’s decline under Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, whose prioritizing of profits over quality resulted in demoralizing mass layoffs and curtailing creative risks in favor of milking established franchises. Schreier makes clear that not all of Blizzard’s problems stemmed from Kotick; a 2021 lawsuit brought by the state of California alleged that since the company’s early days, the few women who worked there contended with unequal pay, sexual harassment, and an HR department unwilling to discipline perpetrators of misconduct. Animated by thorough reporting, this deep dive into the gaming industry’s dark side unsettles. Agent: Charlie Olsen, InkWell Management. (Oct.)