Jason Schreier

It's hard to know what Microsoft is going to do with them because Microsoft as a whole has such a tenuous gaming... The gaming division's status is so tenuous right now. Yeah. That said, I've heard a lot of good things about Johanna Farris, their new boss. She seems to be well-respected. And it's definitely hard to argue that they haven't been battle-tested at this point at a company.

I think they're going to be able to emerge from the ashes of the lawsuit and all of the controversy they've had to deal with a little bit stronger. So yeah, we'll see. I don't know. Certainly, people seem to really enjoy The War Within and Vessel of Hatred. So I think people are happy with the stuff they've released recently, at the very least.

I think they're going to be able to emerge from the ashes of the lawsuit and all of the controversy they've had to deal with a little bit stronger. So yeah, we'll see. I don't know. Certainly, people seem to really enjoy The War Within and Vessel of Hatred. So I think people are happy with the stuff they've released recently, at the very least.

For sure.

For sure.

And that was a company that was in the hundreds rather than in the thousands. It's so funny. So a lot of people have read the book back in the day when I was kind of getting early feedback on it. A couple of people were like to me, hey, Jason, you have the wrong kind of act structure here because the way the book is separated, it's part one is... Rise, part two is Fall, and part three is Future.

And that was a company that was in the hundreds rather than in the thousands. It's so funny. So a lot of people have read the book back in the day when I was kind of getting early feedback on it. A couple of people were like to me, hey, Jason, you have the wrong kind of act structure here because the way the book is separated, it's part one is... Rise, part two is Fall, and part three is Future.

And people are like, the Fall comes too soon. Why is the Fall coming right after the release of World of Warcraft and the Activision merger and all that stuff? Because Blizzard was still pretty successful for years after that. And I was like, yeah, well, sure. But actually, the Fall is in the perfect place. Because after World of Warcraft, Blizzard... went on its path, Blizzard began its fall.

And people are like, the Fall comes too soon. Why is the Fall coming right after the release of World of Warcraft and the Activision merger and all that stuff? Because Blizzard was still pretty successful for years after that. And I was like, yeah, well, sure. But actually, the Fall is in the perfect place. Because after World of Warcraft, Blizzard... went on its path, Blizzard began its fall.

Blizzard changed drastically. They went from a company of hundreds to a company of thousands. They became a company of box products to a company of live service. And World of Warcraft really became this kind of albatross on their neck. And I think that the early Blizzard, that can't be recreated again for a variety of reasons.

Blizzard changed drastically. They went from a company of hundreds to a company of thousands. They became a company of box products to a company of live service. And World of Warcraft really became this kind of albatross on their neck. And I think that the early Blizzard, that can't be recreated again for a variety of reasons.

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.

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.