Chief Executive Mike Morhaime’s office at the Irvine headquarters of Blizzard Entertainment Inc. is part lair, part museum.
His desk—loaded with knickknacks and neatly stacked piles tidied by an assistant—is the least interesting part of his office, which is packed with symbols of Blizzard’s ever-expanding footprint on pop culture.
The amount of stuff in Morhaime’s office that stems from Blizzard’s big three game titles is astounding.
There are plush toys, beer steins, collectible boxed sets, action figures, books and a handful of Visa cards with images from Blizzard games.
The games bring in the bulk of $1.6 billion in yearly revenue for Blizzard, part of Santa Monica’s Activision Blizzard Inc.
Like other Blizzard founders, Morhaime never thought the games—or the company—would get so big.
“We always had the mentality that if we made great games, eventually we would have a successful business,” he said. “Kind of, ‘If you build it, they will come.’”
Morhaime said he and other Blizzard higher-ups look to DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. and Walt Disney Co.’s Pixar Animation Studios for inspiration.
Apple Inc. is another biggie.
“They do such a great job creating a really polished, streamlined user interface and serving a base of customers that is very brand loyal,” Morhaime said.
Fans of Blizzard’s games are at the forefront of game development at the company.
“We try to always view our decisions from the perspective of how it feels to our players,” Morhaime said. “If our players like what we are doing, we have a business. And if they don’t, then we are in trouble.”
Morhaime also is big on games of the non-digital type, including ping-pong and Texas hold ’em.
He plays guitar in The Artists Formerly Known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, a band made up of Blizzard workers that has a role in “World of Warcraft.”
—Sarah Tolkoff
