Blizzard, perhaps the finest game maker on the planet, has turned 20 years old.
Two of the company's three co-founders, Michael Morhaime and Frank Pearce, have marked the occasion by videoing a message of thanks to the people who bought their games and enabled such a prosperous existence.
"When we first started the company in 1991 there were just three of us and we really just wanted to use this opportunity to thank you for all these years of support, because without you we wouldn't be able to do what we do," said Morhaime.
Pearce added that he was "humbled" by the community support around the world. He likes that you share Blizzard's "intense passion for gaming" and that you demand "an even higher standard of quality than we hold ourselves to".
Morhaime concluded: "We really do want to continue meeting and exceeding your expectations with even more cool stuff in the future."
Blizzard began life as Silicon & Synapse, releasing games including Battle Chess (1992), The Lost Vikings (1992) and Rock N' Roll Racing (1993).
In 1994 the name changed to Blizzard and that year the first Warcraft game was released - an RTS for PC. In 1997 Diablo arrived, and in 1998 StarCraft showed up.
Those three games - Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft - are Blizzard's primary focus today.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...s-20-years-old