Few video game companies have the instant name recognition of Blizzard Entertainment. The studio is responsible for some of the biggest PC game franchises of all time, including Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. However, sexual misconduct scandals and a series of rocky game launches have tarnished the company’s reputation in recent years. If you’ve ever wanted to know the full story, veteran games journalist Jason Schreier chronicles the company’s 33-year-long history in his upcoming book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future Of Blizzard Entertainment.
Play Nice features interviews with over 300 current and former Blizzard team members from every era of the company, starting from its earliest years creating lesser-known console games and the golden eras of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo in the ’90s and 2000s, to its merger with Activision in 2008 and recent acquisition by Microsoft. The book’s title is a reference to one of the company’s core corporate values “Play Nice; Play Fair.”
Play Nice will release on October 8. You can preorder the hardcover edition for $30 at Amazon. Preordering now locks you in for Amazon’s preorder price guarantee, meaning you’ll only be charged the lowest price and don’t have to pay until your order ships. The book isn’t discounted yet, but most books wind up dropping in price at Amazon ahead of their publication dates. It’s also available in a $15 Kindle edition.
Schreier has covered video games for outlets like Kotaku and Bloomberg since 2011, and Play Nice is his third book investigating the industry. His first book, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, covered the development stories of popular titles like Stardew Valley and Dragon Age: Inquisition; and his second book, Press Reset, details the working conditions and labor issues rampant in game development. While both books are worth reading, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is one of several books on video game history that are part of Amazon’s buy one, get one 50% off promotion. Some other notable works in the sale include Lost In Cult’s A Handheld History, Ask Iwata, edited by Hobonichi, and The Game Console 2.0 by Evan Amos.