The names of many former Blizzard employees are resurfacing. They are working on new games at a new company. But what does that mean?
For many fans of Blizzard, the last few years have been a significant blow. After all, many big names have left the company and are no longer working on games like World of Warcraft, Hearthstone or Diablo. However, we are only just now seeing where a large part of these brilliant minds have ended up. Under the leadership of Mike Morhaime, a new game studio has been founded: Dreamhaven.
What is Dreamhaven? Dreamhaven is a new game studio founded by Mike Morhaime and supported by many former Blizzard employees. Morhaime himself is a former founding member of Blizzard and left Blizzard a few years ago. His departure sparked many heated discussions. For many fans and critics, this was the moment when Blizzard was fully “assimilated” by Activision, as shortly afterwards, major restructuring and layoffs were announced, which drew a lot of negative attention.
Now we know where Mike Morhaime has ended up. He apparently remains in the gaming industry and now has his own company with Dreamhaven, which brings together many former colleagues and offers some developers a new home.
Who is involved? The employees of Dreamhaven, or the two subordinate studios “Moonshot Games” and “Secret Door,” are likely familiar names to many players as they were all prominent figures at Blizzard.
At Moonshot Games, the team includes:
- Jason Chayes, former Executive Producer of Hearthstone
- Dustin Bowder, former Game Director of StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm
- Ben Thompson, former Creative Director at Hearthstone
At Secret Door, the line-up of developers looks similar:
- Chris Sigaty, former Executive Producer for Hearthstone, StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm
- Eric Dodds, former Game Director for Hearthstone and Game Designer of StarCraft and World of Warcraft
- Alan Dabiri worked as Technical Director and/or Game Director on games like Warcraft III, StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm
What are Dreamhaven’s plans? So far, not much is known about the planned projects of Dreamhaven and the two subordinate studios. Both emphasize that they want to build the teams on values such as camaraderie, curiosity, courage, and trust.
What games are to be worked on is still unclear. However, they want to “bring players together” – it is therefore likely that it will involve at least multiplayer experiences.
When can we expect games? Since the company was just founded, excitement for new games should be tempered for a bit. Usually, it takes several years for initial ideas and concepts to turn into a showable game. Nonetheless, Dreamhaven should already be on your radar, as with a wealth of developer experience, there could be great things coming for players.
Other Blizzard developers have also already founded their own companies. Like Ben Brode, who is working on a Marvel game …
What do you think about this? Are you looking forward to the first games from Dreamhaven? Or are you skeptical about whether the old Blizzard veterans still “have it”?
