2024 has been a turbulent year for the games industry to say the least. Between record layoffs, studio closures, and high-profile game cancellations, it’s anyone’s guess why anyone could enter the industry with optimism. “I think in the past few years a lot of investment capital has discovered games as being a very profitable thing to invest in.
And a lot of money went into the games industry and so you had a ton of investment and start-up. I think there was probably a bit of over investment that is being adjusted now, but I don’t think that’s an indication that there’s anything wrong fundamentally with the business of games, I think it’s still continuing to grow,” counters Mike Morhaime, the former, longtime president of Blizzard Entertainment who oversaw the release of numerous hit games like World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Overwatch. “Maybe not as quickly as people thought.
With the [COVID-19] pandemic, there was a bit of a leap forward, and that didn’t get extrapolated forward the way that many people thought it would. It adjusted back to the curve that it was on before, but it’s still growing.” Morhaime is able to speak from a place of almost unparalleled experience.
For almost 30 years under Morhaime, Blizzard released a near constant string of hits that include Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo 2, Hearthstone, and Overwatch. It might be a coincidence, but since Morhaime’s departure, Blizzard hasn’t returned to th.