Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment

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From a New York Times bestselling author and investigative journalist comes The Social Network for the video game industry, a riveting examination of Blizzard Entertainment’s rise and shocking downfall.

For video game fans, the name Blizzard Entertainment was once synonymous with perfection. The renowned company behind classics like Diablo and World of Warcraft was known to celebrate the joy of gaming over all else. What was once two UCLA students’ simple mission—to make games they wanted to play—launched an empire with thousands of employees, millions of fans, and billions of dollars.

But when Blizzard cancelled a buzzy project in 2013, it gave Bobby Kotick, the infamous CEO of corporate parent Activision, the excuse he needed to start cracking down on Blizzard’s proud autonomy. Activision began invading Blizzard from the inside. Glitchy products, PR disasters, mass layoffs, and a staggering lawsuit marred the company’s reputation and led to its ultimate reckoning.

Based on firsthand interviews with more than 300 current and former employees, Play Nice chronicles the creativity, frustration, beauty, and betrayal across the epic 33-year saga of Blizzard Entertainment, showing us what it really means to “bleed Blizzard blue.” Full of colorful personalities and dramatic twists, this is the story of what happens when the ruthless pursuit of profit meets artistic idealism.

Our Top Reviews

Reviewer: SM
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Meaningful Bio
Review: This was a great read! I was hooked after the sample and it delivered all the way. You could feel the different threads of controversy and pain being sewn at the beginning, and the author kept the themes, timelines, and people relevant at all times.The footnotes kept getting more and more insightful. I think adding a visual timeline of big corp changes like departures, releases, and acquisitions as a reference would have been helpful.It is hard to decompose every technical aspect that goes into game design, profitability/finance, and engagement. Readers shouldn’t expect to get into the nitty gritty of old Blizzard engines or the computational metrics of game design. It is more than surface level but not overwhelming.Actual 5/5

Reviewer: Exterminator
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: “Inside Blizzard: The Creativity, Crunch, and Corporate Clash in Play Nice”
Review: Positive:”Play Nice” by Jason Schreier is a fun, eye-opening dive into the highs and lows of Blizzard Entertainment. Schreier does a fantastic job unpacking the tension between Blizzard’s creative magic and the corporate pressures that started to shift the company’s culture, especially after its merger with Activision. It’s filled with juicy insider stories that give you a sense of what it’s really like to work at a powerhouse game studio. For any gamer or industry enthusiast, it’s a fascinating look behind the curtain that also feels relatable for anyone who’s had their passion collide with corporate demands.Negative:On the downside, the book sometimes gets a bit repetitive. Schreier really drills in on the company’s struggles with work-life balance and workplace culture, which are important but can feel like they’re hitting the same notes over and over. And while the insider jargon adds authenticity, it can be a little hard to keep up if you’re not already familiar with game dev lingo. But honestly, these are minor gripes in what’s otherwise a great read about the complex, often messy reality of making games.

Reviewer: Kyle
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: From Pixels to Problems! Great read!
Review: “Play Nice” offers an enjoyable deep dive into the tumultuous history of Blizzard Entertainment, chronicling its journey from a ragtag group of brilliant college students to its evolution under corporate ownership and its current state. Schreier provides fascinating insights into the antics of Blizzard’s early employees, showcasing their outlandish attitudes, relentless work ethic, and tight-knit camaraderie.The book explores how Blizzard transitioned from a company renowned for producing high-quality, polished games that left competitors in the dust to one struggling to preserve its heart and soul amid mounting corporate pressures. While the corporate side and C-suite executives are often cast in a negative light, Schreier thoughtfully examines the motivations behind their decisions, offering perspectives from all levels of the company—from executives and middle management to QA testers. This balanced approach provides a refreshing take, avoiding oversimplified blame and instead considering multiple sides of the story.And while it’s easy to villainize the suits in the boardroom, Schreier does a great job showing why some decisions were made. From executives to QA testers, he pulls back the curtain to reveal a mess of perspectives, reminding us that every bad decision has some kind of reason behind it (even if it’s still a bad decision).The book also revisits the scandals that put some serious smudges on Blizzard’s reputation, offering new angles and fresh commentary. As someone who once lived for Blizzard games—cheering at Overwatch League matches and losing entire weekends to Diablo marathons—I can’t help but root for Blizzard to find its way back to glory. And hey, if it means waiting another decade for their next masterpiece, so be it. It’s done when it’s done.

Reviewer: Ted O’Hayer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Incredible read
Review: As someone with a love of business books, software development, and video games, Schreier’s books are wonderful reads.Play Nice especially hits home as I’ve been a huge fan of Blizzard since 1998’s StarCraft. This book is an extremely well researched and paced tale about Blizzard’s trajectory and covers issues around compensation, deadlines, scope creep, burnout, and a public company’s desire for consistent revenue versus a model of infrequent but polished massive hits.I literally couldn’t put this book down and blazed through it. An easy 5 stars.

Reviewer: Viewtopia
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fascinating inside look
Review: With loads of primary and secondary sources at his disposal, the author does a wonderful job exploring the history of this influential video game maker. Following history specific to the company as well as for the industry overall, the reader gets a fine perspective for how Blizzard rose to prominence despite its rocky beginning (and middle and future). There’s also plenty of scoops and gossip that keep the pages turning, plus some hilarious (as well as troubling) anecdotes about the company’s culture. Overall, the book is an interesting study about how talent, creativity, and hubris can sometimes combine to create a monster (and not just the pixel kind).

Reviewer: Half-man
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Stunning and Realistic Insight into a Titan of the Game Industry
Review: As a former game dev at Blizzard I was cautiously optimistic about hearing insights into a company I had worked at. Having interviewed for the book, it was interesting to see how the things I had witnessed made it in, or didn’t. There were events at Blizzard that were a mystery to me, but thanks to Play Nice I can understand more about the rumors and back room tales that didn’t make much sense to me when I heard them.It’s an enjoyable read, and a fantastic look at the phenomenon I call Corporate Necrosis. The gradual degradation of the established culture that made Blizzard great, slowly falling apart as Kotick and his minions vomit acid onto award winning franchises and suck up the profit juice, leaving gaping holes in their reputation. A poignant cautionary tale to future game development studios considering selling out.

Reviewer: Jashazzard
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book is good for World of Warcraft players.

Reviewer: Marcelo
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Compré el libro y me vino totalmente destrozado, tuve que devolverlo. Una pena

Reviewer: Romain Derrien
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Très bon bouquin.

Reviewer: Emre K.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Ich habe „Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment“ von Jason Schreier vor Kurzem gelesen und wollte unbedingt meine Eindrücke teilen. Als jemand, der seit Jahren Blizzard-Spiele wie Warcraft und Diablo begeistert spielt, war ich total gespannt darauf, endlich mal hinter die Kulissen zu schauen.Was mich besonders angesprochen hat, ist die Menge an Insider-Wissen, die Schreier hier zusammengetragen hat. Er hat mit einer ganzen Reihe (ehemaliger und aktueller) Mitarbeiter gesprochen und bringt dadurch viele Perspektiven ins Buch, die man sonst so nicht mitbekommt. Man merkt, dass da wirklich lange recherchiert wurde und nicht nur an der Oberfläche gekratzt wird.Gleichzeitig gibt es auch Momente, in denen das Buch sehr ins Detail geht. Wenn man sich nicht so sehr für Management-Entscheidungen oder Firmenstrukturen interessiert, könnte das vielleicht etwas trocken sein. Mir persönlich hat es allerdings gefallen, weil ich dadurch besser verstehen konnte, wie Blizzard über die Jahre tickte und warum irgendwann vieles nicht mehr so lief wie früher.Alles in allem ist „Play Nice“ für mich ein echter Blick hinter die Kulissen – mit all den Erfolgen, aber auch den Krisen und Fehlern, die Blizzard im Laufe seiner Geschichte gemacht hat. Wer sich für die Hintergründe der Gaming-Branche interessiert oder einfach nur wissen will, was da eigentlich passiert ist, findet in diesem Buch eine spannende und vor allem gut recherchierte Lektüre.

Reviewer: Andrei-Ovidiu Coman
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Found the story interesting, compelling, sad and depressing as a life long StarCraft fan, but very interesting as a fellow software engineer

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