Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment
Type	Division of Activision Blizzard
Founded	February 1991 (Silicon & Synapse) 1993 (Chaos Studios) 1994 (Blizzard Entertainment)
Headquarters	Irvine, California, U.S.
Key people	Allen Adham, founder Michael Morhaime, founder Frank Pearce, founder
Industry	Video games
Products	Video games
Number of people	4,700
Website	http://www.blizzard.com/

Blizzard Entertainment is an American video game developer.

Silicon & Synapse

Silicon & Synapse was founded in February 1991 by Allen Adham, Michael Morhaime, and Frank Pearce.

Chaos Studios

In 1993, Silicon & Synapse was briefly renamed Chaos Studios.

Blizzard Entertainment

Chaos Studios was renamed Blizzard Entertainment in 1994.

Acquisition by Davidson & Associates

Davidson & Associates acquired Blizzard Entertainment in 1994.

CUC International aquisition

CUC International acquired Davidson & Associates in 1996, CUC Software was formed, and Blizzard became a subsidiary of the latter.

CUC International and Hospitality Franchise Systems merge to create Cedant Software

CUC International and Hospitality Franchise Systems merged in December 1997 forming Cedant, and Blizzard's parent company was renamed Cendant Software.

Havas aquisition

On November 20, 1998, the French media company Havas, which itself was acquired by Vivendi in 1997, acquired Cendant Software for $800 million USD.

Blizzard Entertainment's parent company, Cedant Software, was renamed Havas Interactive.

Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing and Vivendi Universal Games

Seagram, the Canadian beverage and entertainment conglomerate that owned Universal Pictures, was broken up in 2000. In June 2000, Seagram's entertainment division was sold to Vivendi. After Vivendi acquired the French media conglomerate Groupe Canal+, the companies were merged into Vivendi Universal, on December 11, 2000.

On May 16, 2001, Havas was renamed Vivendi Universal Publishing after its parent company. As a result, Havas Interactive was renamed Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing

On November 13, 2001, the North American and international divisions were consolidated into Vivendi Universal Games.

On March 3, 2006, Vivendi Universal sold the majority of its media operations to General Electric and was renamed Vivendi. As a result, Vivendi Universal Games was renamed Vivendi Games.

Vivendi merges with Activision to form Activision Blizzard

On July 9, 2008, Vivendi Games was merged with Activision to create Activision Blizzard.

Acquisition by Microsoft

Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion USD on October 13, 2023, and the latter became a subsidiary of Microsoft Gaming.

Silicon & Synapse games (1991-1993)

Title	Year	System	Notes
RPM Racing	1991	SNES	The SNES version in included in Blizzard Arcade Collection for Nintendo Switch.
The Lost Vikings	1992	Genesis SNES	The 1992 Genesis and SNES, and the 2021 definitive versions are included in Blizzard Arcade Collection for Nintendo Switch.
Rock n' Roll Racing	1993	Genesis SNES	The 1993 Genesis, SNES, four-player, and the 2021 definitive versions are included in Blizzard Arcade Collection for Nintendo Switch.

Blizzard Entertainment games (1994-present)

Title	Year	System	Notes
Blackthorne	1994	SNES 32X	The 1994 SNES version, the 1995 32X version, and the 2021 definitive versions are included in Blizzard Arcade Collection for Nintendo Switch.
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans	1994	DOS
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness	1995	DOS
Diablo	1997	Windows
The Lost Vikings 2	1997	SNES	The SNES version is included in Blizzard Arcade Collection for Nintendo Switch.