Wanna job at Irvine video game maker Blizzard Entertainment Corp.?
Now’s the time, with the creator of the popular multiplayer online game “World of Warcraft” advertising more than 40 open positions at its Irvine office.
Finding a good gig at a game company isn’t easy, yet Blizzard seems to have many jobs available.
So what’s the deal?
South Korean game maker NCSoft Corp. recently opened a studio in Irvine, not far from Blizzard, “apparently for the sole purpose of luring staff away from Blizzard, specifically the team working on the ‘World of Warcraft’ expansion pack,” according to a report on gaming Web site, MM Hell.
Officials with Blizzard and NCSoft, whose North American operation is based in Austin, Texas, declined to comment on the story.
“World of Warcraft” is Blizzard’s popular entry into the so-called “massively multiplayer game” market. In these games, players face off against each other via the Internet.
Other Orange County game companies are looking for their own massive multiplayer success. Interplay Entertainment Corp., the troubled Irvine game maker, is hoping to do a massively multiplayer game for its “Fallout” series. And InXile Entertainment, the Newport Beach game maker from Interplay founder Brian Fargo, is looking to develop a massively multiplayer game.
But “World of Warcraft” looks to be in a league of its own,it sold 240,000 hard copies of the game in its first 24 hours of release in November and has been a hot seller since. Last week Blizzard said it reached the 2 million subscriber mark.
Thanks in part to the game, Blizzard is the star performer of struggling parent Los Angeles-based Vivendi Universal Games Inc., itself part of France’s Vivendi Universal SA.
Blizzard’s Irvine design studio was spared in Vivendi’s latest round of layoffs last summer. The Business Journal estimates Blizzard’s yearly sales at $300 million, which puts it among the largest software makers in OC.
Could the job openings be just the result of a surging company looking to grow more? Maybe.
But as the MM Hell piece notes, the possibility is “unlikely due to the large number of senior and lead positions open.”
Blizzard rolls on nonetheless. The company has inked a marketing and distribution deal in China for “World of Warcraft” with Coca-Cola Co. and China’s The9 Ltd.
The deal could be worth $63 million in royalties for Blizzard, according to software analyst C. Ming Zhao of Terra Nova Institutional Inc. in New Jersey.
Coke is looking to sell soft drinks with “World of Warcraft” characters on cans and bottles, Zhao said.
Blizzard has been expanding in other ways of late.
The game maker recently bought Swingin’ Ape Studios, an Aliso Viejo game company Blizzard hired a year ago to help develop another highly anticipated game: “StarCraft: Ghost.”
End of an Era
The former parts of Newport Beach chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. keep spreading out.
The most recent case: A pact to share a Mexico facility between Woburn, Mass.-based Skyworks Solutions Inc., Conexant’s former wireless chip business, was allowed to expire.
Skyworks inherited the former Conexant test and assembly plant in Mexicali in 2002. Skyworks was created in 2002 through the combination of Conexant’s wireless chip business with Alpha Industries Inc. of Massachusetts.
Conexant paid Skyworks an average of $10 million per quarter last year and $5 million in the first quarter to use the plant. Skyworks now will use the facility entirely for its own products.
Last week another Conexant offshoot, Newport Beach-based Jazz Semiconduc-tor Inc., withdrew plans of its long delayed initial public offering.
Conexant owns about 40% of Jazz.
So Long Sherwood
It’s Wayne Inouye’s company now.
In truth, Gateway Inc., the computer maker famed for its cow spot boxes and homespun marketing, has been former eMachines Inc. Chief Executive Inouye’s company for more than a year.
Gateway bought eMachines early last year for some $266 million in cash and stock. But in an unusual turn, Inouye took over the buying company and moved it from San Diego to Irvine. Inouye then replaced virtually all of Gateway’s executives with ones from eMachines.
Now Gateway Chief Financial Officer Rod Sherwood, the last remaining top executive from the old Gateway, said he plans to retire later this year. The move will leave Gateway fully stocked with Inouye’s people.
It’s hard to blame Sherwood for the decision. He’s had a long run in tech.
Prior to joining Gateway, Sherwood served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at Loudcloud,now Opsware Inc.,the lukewarm encore by Netscape Communications Corp. cofounder Marc Andreessen.
Sherwood’s had other interesting gigs, including a stint at DaimlerChrysler AG, where he was a key contributor in redesigning the automaker’s development process and architect of a $3 billion cost-cutting plan.
He’s also held executive positions at Hughes Aerospace and DirecTV Group Inc., among others.
