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Michael Morhaime (born November 3, 1967) is an American
video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...
and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Dreamhaven, located in
Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, planned city in central Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was named in 1888 for the landowner James Irvine. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the ...
. Morhaime is best known as the co-founder and the former
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
of
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...
, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc., that was founded in 1991 as Silicon & Synapse. He served on the Vivendi Games executive committee from January 1999, when Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. became a subsidiary of Vivendi Games, until July 2008.


Early life and education

Morhaime was born into a
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
family and graduated from Granada Hills High School in 1985. He is also an alumnus of
Triangle Fraternity Triangle Fraternity is an American collegiate Fraternities and Sororities, fraternity for male students majoring in engineering, architecture, and the physical, mathematical, biological, and computer sciences. Triangle Fraternity organized at th ...
and received his
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in Electrical Engineering in 1990 from the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
(UCLA). In sixth grade, Morhaime, along with his brother and sister, purchased a video game console called the
Bally Professional Arcade The Bally Astrocade (also known as Bally Arcade and initially as Bally ABA-1000) is a second-generation home video game console and simple computer system designed by a team at Midway, at that time the videogame division of Bally. It was origi ...
, first released in 1978. Morhaime discovered that the console was programmable, and he taught himself how to write simple games on it, building off of example programming code he found in a gaming newsletter. As an electrical engineering student at UCLA, Morhaime focused more on hardware than on
software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
. "I procrastinated a lot," he admitted. Things changed after he got an internship at a San Jose microchip company. In his internship there, he learned about circuit design, and when he returned to school he was ahead of his computer architecture class. "I used to be the guy that sat in the back," he said, but after his stint in
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
, he said, "I started sitting up front."


Career


Blizzard Entertainment

While at UCLA, Morhaime bonded with
Allen Adham Allen Adham (born Ayman Adham) is an Egyptian-American businessman and video game developer best known for co-founding Blizzard Entertainment with Michael Morhaime. Early life Ayman Adham was born on September 6, 1966, in Los Angeles, Califor ...
after realizing they shared the computer password "Joe". Upon graduating, Adham persuaded Morhaime into forgoing his job offer at
Western Digital Western Digital Corporation is an American data storage company headquartered in San Jose, California. Established in 1970, the company is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives (HDDs). History 1970s Western Digital ...
to instead found Silicon & Synapse in February 1991, later renamed
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...
. After hiring their friend and fellow UCLA alumnus, Frank Pearce, they rented a small office in
Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, planned city in central Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was named in 1888 for the landowner James Irvine. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the ...
, hoping to benefit from nearby technology companies. In 1995, Blizzard released '' Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', its first number one selling game. "It's probably the game that put Blizzard on the map," Morhaime said. Besides its large number of sales, "it was the first game you could play over the Internet with a good experience," which was a novelty at the time, as well as being a defining selling point for its later titles. In planning for the release of ''
World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...
'' (''WoW'') in late 2004, Morhaime thought that the market for the much larger and more interactive new game, the first in their history to require players to pay a monthly subscription fee, would grow slowly. "We felt it was very likely the fee would be a deterrent for people, and that ''WoW'' would not sell as quickly as some of our previous games," he said. All of Blizzard's production and marketing decisions were based on that assumption. To Blizzard's surprise, ''WoW'' sold extremely quickly, leaving the underprepared Blizzard unable to keep merchants supplied with the game for a short time. "For the whole first year, we scrambled to keep up with demand," he said. "It probably took years off of our lives." ''World of Warcraft'' had approximately 11 million subscribers as of 2010. In 2017, Morhaime earned $12.3 million as the CEO of Blizzard. On October 3, 2018, Morhaime announced he was stepping down as the company president and CEO, instead becoming an advisor to the company. Morhaime was replaced by J. Allen Brack, the executive producer on ''World of Warcraft''. His advisory role concluded on April 7, 2019.


Dreamhaven

In 2020, Mike Morhaime founded Dreamhaven, a new video game company. The company is based in Irvine, California, and has two game development studios called Secret Door and Moonshot Games. Dreamhaven, Inc. operates under Moonwell Studios LLC.


Controversy

Following Morhaime's departure from Blizzard, in July 2021, the
California Civil Rights Department The California Civil Rights Department (CRD), formerly known as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), is an agency of California state government charged with the protection of residents from employment, housing and public accom ...
(CRD) (formerly known as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing) filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination in relation to unequal pay and retaliation against female employees in the workplace. Amidst the news of the lawsuit, former Blizzard employees spoke out about their experiences and the harassment they witnessed within the company. A former manager at the then-competitive gaming brand FXOpen Esports, posted to social media about her experience at a Blizzard holiday party in which a senior creative director kissed her in front of a group of Blizzard employees, including Morhaime who was president and CEO at the time. While he was not named in the lawsuit, and some employees were uncertain whether he was aware of the allegations, multiple employees confirmed that Morhaime was present at some of the company events where the alleged misconduct took place. Morhaime tweeted an apology saying he was “ashamed” regarding the lawsuit several days after the news broke.


Honors and awards

In 2008, Morhaime was inducted into the
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the g ...
. On the same year, Morhaime was honored at the 59th Annual
Technology & Engineering Emmy Award The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Engineer ...
s for Blizzard's creation of ''
World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...
''. Along with
Don Daglow Don Daglow (born circa 1953) is an American video game designer, programmer, and producer. He is best known for being the creator of early games from several different genres, including pioneering simulation game ''Utopia'' for Intellivision i ...
of
Stormfront Studios Stormfront Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. In 2007, the company had over 50 developers working on two teams, and owned all its proprietary engines, tools, and technology. As of the end of 2007, ...
and
John Carmack John D. Carmack II (born August 21, 1970) is an American computer programmer and video game developer. He co-founded the video game company id Software and was the lead programmer of its 1990s games ''Commander Keen'', ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Do ...
of
id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...
, Morhaime is one of only three designers or producers to accept awards at the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards and at the
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...
Interactive Achievement Awards The D.I.C.E. Awards (formerly the Interactive Achievement Awards) is an annual awards show in the video game industry, and commonly referred to as the video game equivalent of the Academy Awards. The awards are arranged by the Academy of Inter ...
. Morhaime received the national Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Technology category in 2012. In 2019, Morhaime was appointed the 2019 Honor Award at the Gamelab Barcelona, in Spain for his success in the gaming industry.


Multimedia

In 2012, Morhaime made a cameo appearance on '' The Guild'', a web series about the lives of a gamers' online experiences with an MMORPG that draws references to ''World of Warcraft''. He is known for his work with the gaming community, but also worked on the 2016 film '' Warcraft: The Beginning''.


Personal life

In 2010, Morhaime married his long-time girlfriend Amy Chen. In 2017, Morhaime bought a mansion in a gated
Rancho Mirage Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The city is a low-density desert community with resorts, golf courses, and country clubs within the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert. Nestled along the foothills ...
community in
Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Unit ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
for $2.25 million. He is a member of Elite Tauren Chieftain, a
metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...
band formed of and by Blizzard employees, where he plays
bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morhaime, Michael 1967 births Living people Blizzard Entertainment people Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductees Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American Jews American video game businesspeople 21st-century American Jews