170: Behind the Blizzard

The Nextlander Podcast

Jason Schreier joins us on a deep dive about the history, making, and almost undoing of Blizzard as chronicled in his new book Play Nice.
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CHAPTERS
(00:00:00) NOTE: Some timecodes may be inaccurate for versions other than the ad-free Patreon version due to dynamic ad insertions. Please use caution if skipping around to avoid spoilers. Thanks for listening.
(00:00:10) Intro
(00:00:53) Welcome Jason Schreier
(00:02:27) How do book sales work?
(00:08:05) The book tour
(00:11:08) The Games Industry: Bleakness AND Hope?
(00:16:42) Let's talk about Blizzard's early years
(00:43:41) Moving to middle Blizzard
(01:00:53) Project Titan
(01:08:07) Overwatch saves the day
(01:12:12) Overwatch League
(01:19:49) The first of the PR disasters
(01:24:32) Reckonings at Blizzard
(01:27:02) Overwatch 2
(01:33:26) Briefly mentioning some other Blizzard games during this time
(01:34:56) The end of Activision Blizzard
(01:49:11) Any tips for navigating news?
(01:52:04) Microsoft enters the picture
(02:03:12) Some other news that is actually related
(02:03:18) 343 rebrands to Halo Studios
(02:07:55) Is Tencent going to buy Ubisoft?
(02:13:03) What is the next book?
(02:18:33) Thanks again to Jason for joining us
(02:20:22) Wrapping up and thanks
(02:20:57) Mysterious Benefactor Shoutouts
(02:22:04) Nextlander content updates
(02:23:21) See ya!