Global Blizzard

Exercise 3 has us examining a interesting brand, their philosophy, identity and all that jazz. And what brand is more entertaining than Blizzard entertainment:

People who play computer games on a regular basis will almost certainly know about Blizzard entertainment, for people who dont... they make computer games but not just any computer games. Games that have people in rehab for addiction, games that have sponsored tournaments before a game is even fully released, games that have people waiting for up to 10 years in feverish anticipation for there next release. Yip Blizzard is a brand that holds a lot of weight in the pc gaming  community, one that takes the philosophy of Quality over Quantity to a whole new level. In fact the company has been know to completely cancel games (projects that take years and millions of dollars to develop) if they are not up to Blizzard insane standards. Most game development companies dont really have the resources to publish there own games and rely on big publishing companies to produce their work for a global market. Blizzard on the other hand, not only publishes their own games but once a year hold their very own video game convention: Blizzcon.

This illustrates what Blizzard does best (besides making crazy good games) PR and generating hype. Where other game companies take about 2 or 3 years to develop a game or make a sequel to some franchise, Blizzard sometimes takes up to 10 years to release a game, while they do this they slowly trickle game content to the salivating masses, giving little snippets of footage, updating websites with concept art or intros to the story line then they hold a convention where the development team goes over every little detail of their progress. Then there's merchandising and literature extending games story lines all to make their target market  burst with anticipation. Then when a game is finally released they tend to sell out very quickly.