And the award for 46th most important business personality goes to... Mike Morhaime!
by Conrad Quilty-Harper 
{ Jun 21st 2006 at 8:55PM }
CNN Money has named Mike Morhaime, the CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, as the 46th most important person in a list of 50 personalities that represent Business 2.0. We'll leave out our annoyances with the list as a whole (c'mon, naming "consumer as creator" as #1? Cop out!) so instead we'll use Mike's naming as an opportunity to analyze the importance of Blizzard's crowning achievement, World of Warcraft, to the World of Business.The totality of CNN's tribute to Mike is dedicated to the wild popularity of WoW. The article claims that WoW is more than "just another video game", citing the uniqueness of the game's popularity (6.5 million users and climbing), profitability (WoW brought in $700 million last year) and peripherals (a thriving out-of-game market for virtual goods worth around $200 million) as factors that make Mike a uniquely influential business leader.
Big business' attraction to World of Warcraft's is no doubt due to the game's domination of MMO marketshare -- when you own 50% of a subscription based market you're bound to draw the attention of the suits -- so we wouldn't be surprised if WoW isn't the company's last MMO, despite earlier denials by a Blizzard staffer. Still, we feel sorry for Mike. On one side he's got the money crazy suits asking for more, MORE MMOs, and on the other he's got millions of StarCraft, Diablo and WarCraft fans screaming for sequels to their beloved franchise. He deserves an award just for being able to maintain that smug smile!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
zsavior @ Jun 21st 2006 9:37PM
What I really think he deserves a pat on the back for is his ability to think beyond his core market, in creating something emersive and interesting. WOW is totally accessible to people who are not heavily into MMORPGS, while offering something to those who are totally hardcore. When creating this world and the dungeons and quest he thought of two types of gamers rather than just one. This is something other game designes, and companies have not really done with success yet.
Rizzo @ Jun 22nd 2006 9:19AM
For the record, WOW did not bring in $700M as mentioned in this post. Vivendi Games, as a whole, brought in $700M. Big difference...
MyNameIsGame @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:32AM
What? No comments? Nothing?
Guess everybody is busy playing WOW.
Hamilton Shamilton @ Jun 22nd 2006 6:49PM
I think some people are also forgetting that Blizzard's other games have been hugely successful, and the reasons WoW is so successful are the same as why StarCraft, Diablo, and the Warcraft RTSes have been successful. Non-gamers don't seem to realize that Blizzard is not an overnight flash-in-the-pan success...they've been working hard at perfecting their games for many years and they have the audience to show for it.