Blizzard started off as a third-party developer for DOS, Mac, Genesis and SNES platforms, creating games like The Lost Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing, Blackthorne and The Death and Return of Superman.

Warcraft really carved out a place for Blizzard in the PC entertainment space, making the company one of the premier creator of realtime strategy games. The game's sequel, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, has sold more than two million copies worldwide, and titles like Starcraft and Diablo continue the company's stream of big hits.

Blizzard became part of publisher Havas (which later became Vivendi Universal and Vivendi Games in 1998), where it operated as a subsidiary operation. In December of 2007, Vivendi Games and Activision merged and used the high-profile Blizzard name in the joint company title, Activision Blizzard.