If you don’t know who the hell is Mike Morhaime, clearly, you’re not a fan of Blizzard games. Co-founder and a former CEO of the company left Blizzard in 2018 after spending 27 years there. Most thought that this will be the end of his saga and he’ll retire for good. However, Mike had other plans – this week Mike announced his new video game company called Dreamhaven which already has two game development studios called Secret Door and Moonshot games.
Both studios are full of talent and are led by a group of industry veterans like Morhaime. According to the announcement, Secret Door is partly composed of former Blizzard employees. Among their ranks you can find names such as Chris Sigaty (a former executive producer on Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Starcraft 2), Eric Dodds (the original Hearthstone game director and a lead producer on the original Warcraft 3), Alan Dabiri (former technical and game director on Warcraft 3, Starcraft 2, and Heroes of the Storm).
Moonshot also features some familiar names – Jason Chayes (a former Blizzard Entertainment executive producer) will lead the new team. He will be accompanied by former Starcraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm game director Dustin Browder, and Hearthstone creative director Ben Thompson.
So yeah… Dreamhaven won’t be just another indie publishing company. These are the guys who build Blizzard from the ground up to what it is today – one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. While Dreamhaven has a lot to prove, the potential here is massive.
The only question some of you might have right now is WHY. Why do these veterans ditch their roles in Blizzard to start fresh? Frankly, we don’t know for sure but it’s fairly safe to assume that growing Activision’s influence was one of the key factors.
In their introduction Dearmhaven team wrote this:
“The team at Dreamhaven came together around a common goal to empower creators, help bring their ideas to life, and create original gaming experiences that foster meaningful connections between players.”
We don’t know about you guys, but we’re excited. These veterans showed their master class multiple times and we hope that this trend continues. Now we just have to wait for some new game announcements.
