1991: Allen Adham, Michael Morhaime and Frank Pearce start a game company called Silicon & Synapse. The company develops games for other publishing houses. Best known titles include Rock ‘n Roll Racing. The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne.
1994 The company changes its name to Chaos Studios, then changed its name to Blizzard Entertainment, realizing that another company had the prior name.
November 1994: Silicon & Synapse renames itself to Blizzard Entertainment and publishes its first Warcraft game, “Warcraft: Orcs & Humans,” available as a DOS CD-ROM and floppy disk for $45. The game wins PC Gamer’s Editors Choice award and best strategy game of 1994.
1994 The Death and Return of Superman is created based on the storyline of Death of Superman.
1994 Blackthorne, otherwise known as BlackHawk in European countries, is developed by Blizzard Entertainment.
December 1995: “Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness” is released and wins Game of the Year award from PC Gamer. About 50,000 copies are sold in the first weekend.
1995 Justice League Task Force is created by Blizzard. Like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, this game is in the fighting genre.
1996 Warcraft II Beyond the Dark Portal is created by Blizzard. Based on the Warcraft II Tide of Darkness, this game is an expansion pack.
December 1996: Release of action-role-playing game “Diablo” and Battle.net, one of the early forms of multiplayer gaming online. A half-million copies of Diablo sell within the first few months. Within six months, Battle.net registers 700,000.
March 1998: “StarCraft” launches, selling 1 million copies in first three months.
2000: Diablo II is released, selling 1 million copies in first two weeks. It sets the record for the fastest-selling PC game ever.
2001: An expansion to the Diablo sequel, “Diablo II: Lord of Destruction,” is released and sells more than one million copies in the first month.
July 2002: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos released, selling more than one million copies in first three weeks.
July 2003: An expansion to Warcraft III, “The Frozen Throne” is released. One million copies sold within the first month.
Nov. 23, 2004: “World of Warcraft” launches. In the US, 240,000 copies sold in first day, with 200,000 players creating online accounts within 24 hours, at $15 a month.
May 9, 2006: Plans are announced to develop a live-action “World of Warcraft” movie. Legendary Pictures, the studio behind Batman Begins and 300, will produce.
January 2007: An expansion pack to “World of Warcraft,” called “The Burning Crusade,” launches with 2.4 million copies sold in the first 24 hours .
May 19, 2007: StarCraft II is announced.
August 2007: World of Warcraft expansion pack, “Wrath of the Lich King ” is announced.
July 24, 2007: WoW subscribers surpass 9 million.
November 2007: The first comic book series based on “World of Warcraft” is released.
December 2007: Plans are announced for Activision (creator of “Guitar Hero”) and Blizzard’s parent company, France-based Vivendi, to merge as Activision-Blizzard.
December 2007: Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime is honored as the 11th inductee in the Hall of Fame by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences for “his role in expanding the MMOG audience beyond the hardcore.”
Jan. 22, 2008: WoW subscribers surpass 10 million – including more than 2 million in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America and about 5.5 million in Asia.
March 7, 2008: Blizzard Entertainment is ranked No. 3 game developer in the world by Think Services’ Game Developer magazine.
“Really?” said Jonathan “
Know those fancy 
I had a feeling I’d spot her. Yup, Hello Kitty is one of the featured Noobz in Blizzard’s art gallery. The custom Noobz were part of an employee contest; the three favorites were produced as limited editions are and are being sold at the BlizzCon store. Kitty didn’t make it.
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