Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name Silicon; Synapse by three graduates of UCLA, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce and is currently a subsidiary of American company Activision Blizzard, which itself is owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Based in Irvine, California, the company originally concentrated primarily on the creation of game ports for other studios before beginning development of their own software in 1993 with the development of games like Rock N' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings. In 1994 the company became Blizzard Entertainment Inc before being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates and later by Vivendi. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. Blizzard went on to create several successful video games, including the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series, and the MMORPG World of Warcraft.
