NPR's segment on Blizzard's Rise and Fall
Jason Schreier's 'Play Nice' and 'Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred' come out the same day
Blizzard is one of the few gaming companies to regularly make headlines across NPR. We’ve reported on the travails of its Microsoft acquisition for years. We’ve covered its sexual harassment scandals, its labor disputes, its microtransaction controversies, and its critical successes. Late last year, I even produced an interview with embattled Blizzard President Mike Ybarra.
But NPR’s news magazine shows have never dived so deeply into the company’s history than this week, when Here & Now’s Scott Tong interviewed Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, author of the new book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment.
“No other video game company has made the type of industry-changing franchises that Blizzard has, and nobody has made so many of them, with one exception — Nintendo,” says Schreier, “I like to refer to them as kind of the Pixar of video games.”
But after merging with Call of Duty creator Activision in 2008, Blizzard started to swing between risky long-term bets and steady cash cows. The company steered towards consistent sequels, mass-market mobile games and an ill-fated attempt to bring a professional esports league to its multiplayer phenomenon Overwatch.
“You have this company in Blizzard that really believes in innovation and creativity — they want to take all the time they need to make sure their games are great,” says Schreier. “On the other side of this boardroom battle, you have Activision, which believes very strongly in predictability and yearly releases — it was never going to work as a partnership.”
Read the full write-up of the 10-minute audio piece I put together here.
On a personal note, Play Nice is easily of my favorite books of the year. It’s as smooth and discursive as Schreier’s other volumes — Press Reset, and Blood, Sweat, and Pixels — but even more illuminating. While reading up a storm in preparation for the interview, I realized I’m essentially the same age as Blizzard, and can chart my life through its games. The book inspired me to return to World of Warcraft, which I’ve barely played, create Diablo IV characters with my wife (just in time for the new DLC, Vessel of Hatred), and even contemplate buying Warcraft III Reforged, just to see how it’s improved since the disastrous launch Schreier chronicled.
It’s also led me to mourn Blizzard’s glory days. I’ll never again peruse Frozen Throne custom maps like I did in 2003, Zerg rush through Starcraft LAN parties like I did in 2008, or recruit six-person teams for Overwatch like I did in 2016.
But I don’t have time to be too wistful — I still haven’t gotten through most of Vessel of Hatred and WoW expansion The War Within, not to mention the non-Blizzard juggernauts out this week: Silent Hill 2 and Metaphor Re:Fantazio. But fear not — NPR will be covering these games and more. Lots of nice things to play, indeed.
Other Here & Now Mastromarino Productions
The growing controversy around a CBS interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates
Father of Israeli-American captured by Hamas pushes for ceasefire one year after Oct. 7 attacks
'Incredibly scary': 3 million Floridians without power after Hurricane Milton makes landfall — I produced the Greg Allen part of this segment, which was packaged with an interview with another Florida resident.
North Israel one year after Hezbollah rocket fire led to mass evacuations
I also have to applaud my colleagues Julia Corcoran, Ahmad Damen, and Deepa Fernandes on this piece about a Palestinian American doctor and the more than 100 family members he’s lost in Gaza: One family's loss in Gaza