Excerpt From Jason Schreier’s Next Book Reveals Conflict Between Blizzard & Activision

Famous games journalist and current Bloomberg writer Jason Schreier has written and published several books in the past, including the popular Blood, Sweat And Pixels. Now, he has published an excerpt from his next upcoming book, Play Nice The Rise, Fall, And Future of Blizzard Entertainment.

One of the best nuggets of information in the whole thing (it’s quite long) is one the biggest pieces of contention between Blizzard and Activision.

What was the centre of that conflict?

Well, the section reads:

“One of the most significant fights between Activision and Blizzard was over how to reward staff.

Kotick believed in giving the biggest bonuses to the teams that delivered the largest profits, which would encourage more people to move to World of Warcraft, while Morhaime thought the entire company should benefit from profit-sharing, otherwise, there’d be no incentive for people to experiment with new ideas.

They struck a few compromises over time, as Morhaime agreed to shift a greater portion of profit-sharing to the World of Warcraft team without eliminating bonuses for other divisions, but the argument was always simmering.”

Again, that’s just one of many interesting details, but you can read the excerpt in full by heading over here, if you’re interested.

Written by Jason Schreier, the book ‘Play Nice The Rise, Fall, And Future of Blizzard Entertainment’ will be released on 8 October 2024.