Former Blizzard CEO Leaves For New Game Company, Dreamhaven

In 2018, Mike Morhaime stepped down as Blizzard president, a company he helped to create. A year later he decided to leave the company altogether, and now we know why.

The former CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Morhaime, along with other former Blizzard employees, has recently announced the creation of a new game company, Dreamhaven. Dreamhaven, based in Irvine, Calif. has established two development studios, Moonshot and Secret Door, each working on yet to be announced original titles.

Morhaime will act as CEO of Dreamhaven as a whole which marks his first major move in the gaming industry since walking away from Blizzard. “I’m excited to team up with such talented people who care deeply about games and their communities,” Dreamhaven CEO Mike Morhaime said in a statement on the company’s website. “With Dreamhaven, we look forward to creating and sharing new experiences with players everywhere.”

At Dreamhaven, Mike is joined by his wife Amy Morhaime, who “basically oversees most of the operations.” She goes on to state, “I spend a lot of time focusing on how we build culture at the company. Diversity, as you know, is very important to me.”

Focused on the larger projects is Moonshot, headed by industry veterans and former Blizzard employees Jason Chayes (Blizzard executive producer who worked on Hearthstone, and lead producer on StarCraft 2), Dustin Browder (game director on StarCraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, and Command and Conquer), and Ben Thompson (creative director on Hearthstone). Based on these veterans alone, there is ample experience in the online multiplayer game genre.

Also helmed by industry veterans, Secret Door is led by Chris Sigaty (executive producer on Hearthstone, StarCraft 2, and Heroes of the Storm, and lead producer on the original Warcraft 3). He is joined by Eric Dodds (first game director on Hearthstone) and Alan Dabiri (game director on Heroes of the Storm) and will be working on the smaller titles for the parent company.

“The amount of game development and publishing experience at Dreamhaven combined with the camaraderie between our studios is already providing an unparalleled environment for creative collaboration,” said Secret Door studio head Chris Sigaty. “Dreamhaven is providing everything we need to head into uncharted territory.”

Neither team’s games have been made public as the company itself is in its early stages of development. This means that we shouldn’t expect announcements anytime soon though, according to the Washington Post, Dreamhaven is setting its focus on multiplayer games first. Regardless, it’s still something every Blizzard fan, sans Activision involvement, is going to want to follow optimistically.