Jason Schreier

The other part of this is there are many aspects of the early Blizzard that you wouldn't want to recreate or be able to recreate in 2025. Because fortunately, the video game industry treats people a lot better now than it did back then. Yeah, in college.

Yeah, Supergiant.

Yeah, Supergiant.

Including... It's worth noting here, including at a company that is made up largely of ex-Blizzard people, run by Mike and Amy Morhaime. Mike Morhaime, of course, co-founder of Blizzard and was the president and CEO for a very long time. They started a new company called Dreamhaven. They haven't released a game yet, but they just announced their first game, Sunderfolk, a couple of months ago.

Including... It's worth noting here, including at a company that is made up largely of ex-Blizzard people, run by Mike and Amy Morhaime. Mike Morhaime, of course, co-founder of Blizzard and was the president and CEO for a very long time. They started a new company called Dreamhaven. They haven't released a game yet, but they just announced their first game, Sunderfolk, a couple of months ago.

And I went and visited them. I played the game. It's pretty cool. They, in a lot of ways, are trying to capture a lot of the good of Blizzard the old school Blizzard while also trying to fix some of the bad. And just as an example, I thought it was really interesting.

And I went and visited them. I played the game. It's pretty cool. They, in a lot of ways, are trying to capture a lot of the good of Blizzard the old school Blizzard while also trying to fix some of the bad. And just as an example, I thought it was really interesting.

I interviewed Morhaime on stage at a Bloomberg event in October, and he told me that Dreamhaven is about 37% of its employees are either women or non-binary, which I thought was really interesting because at Blizzard, even at their Like, even after the kind of old frat house days, the number was around 20% for females to have a Blizzard. So I thought it was interesting.

I interviewed Morhaime on stage at a Bloomberg event in October, and he told me that Dreamhaven is about 37% of its employees are either women or non-binary, which I thought was really interesting because at Blizzard, even at their Like, even after the kind of old frat house days, the number was around 20% for females to have a Blizzard. So I thought it was interesting.

And also, their game is being directed, the director of their game is a woman, which... It has never happened at Blizzard. There's never been a female game director at Blizzard. So again, I think that there are ways you can kind of recreate that ethos and Dreamhaven is certainly trying to. We'll see if they succeed and if their first game is a hit. But yeah, I'm keeping an eye on that for sure.

And also, their game is being directed, the director of their game is a woman, which... It has never happened at Blizzard. There's never been a female game director at Blizzard. So again, I think that there are ways you can kind of recreate that ethos and Dreamhaven is certainly trying to. We'll see if they succeed and if their first game is a hit. But yeah, I'm keeping an eye on that for sure.

To be clear, by the way, I don't think he's ever said that. No, no, no, no. This is my read on it. And yeah, and some of these ex-Blizzard companies have been more successful than others. Second Dinner, which made Marvel Snap, has had a huge amount of success. That's Ben Brode and a bunch of ex-Hearthstone people. Mm-hmm.

To be clear, by the way, I don't think he's ever said that. No, no, no, no. This is my read on it. And yeah, and some of these ex-Blizzard companies have been more successful than others. Second Dinner, which made Marvel Snap, has had a huge amount of success. That's Ben Brode and a bunch of ex-Hearthstone people. Mm-hmm.

Whereas others we either haven't heard anything from or they really have had mixed results with their game. So yeah, we'll see. It's much easier to say you want to recreate the old Magic than it is to actually do it.

Whereas others we either haven't heard anything from or they really have had mixed results with their game. So yeah, we'll see. It's much easier to say you want to recreate the old Magic than it is to actually do it.

Yeah, I mean, they're in the present of the games as the World of Warcraft team has unionized. I think what the process we're in right now is that a lot of the teams that have unionized are still trying to negotiate contracts. And a lot of those have taken a very long time, years in some cases. And that is really just to kind of zoom out for a second and explain the process.

Yeah, I mean, they're in the present of the games as the World of Warcraft team has unionized. I think what the process we're in right now is that a lot of the teams that have unionized are still trying to negotiate contracts. And a lot of those have taken a very long time, years in some cases. And that is really just to kind of zoom out for a second and explain the process.

Basically, if a team decides to unionize, whether it's an entire company's staff or just like a subset of a company, their process from there is they essentially go and have a bunch of meetings with company management and they say, hey, here's what we want. And management says, okay, you can have this, can't have that. And it's a negotiation from there.

Basically, if a team decides to unionize, whether it's an entire company's staff or just like a subset of a company, their process from there is they essentially go and have a bunch of meetings with company management and they say, hey, here's what we want. And management says, okay, you can have this, can't have that. And it's a negotiation from there.

And you come up with what's called a contract. And the contract, the collective bargaining agreement, or CBA, that is the power of the union. That is what says, you cannot lay people off unless this, this, and this. Or you must give us a cost of living raise increase every single year of this percent. That's the power of the union. And we haven't seen a ton of examples of that happening just yet.