My new book is out TODAY

You can get Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment right now

At the beginning of 2021, just a few months before the release of my last book, I started thinking about former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. (As one does.) For years I had been hearing that Activision was taking a larger role in operations at Blizzard Entertainment, one of the biggest hitmakers in the video game industry. What I didn’t know was why. What made Kotick feel the need to step in? Why was this beloved company, once considered the Pixar of video games, now infested by finance bros and MBAs? And was the story really that simple?

Nearly four years, 350 interviews, and one $69 billion acquisition later, the answers to those questions have arrived in Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, which is out today in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. Unsurprisingly, the narrative is more nuanced and complex than it ever appeared from the outside.

Play Nice chronicles 33 years of Blizzard history. It starts off in the 1990s, before Blizzard was even called Blizzard, and details how a small group of artists and engineers created sensations like Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft. The company grew slowly and steadily until 2004, when it released World of Warcraft, one of the most lucrative games of all time. Blizzard transformed into an empire, with thousands of employees and billions of dollars in revenue.

Then the problems started. The Activision takeover. PR disasters, including an international incident that somehow got Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez teaming up with Ted Cruz. A sexual misconduct lawsuit. An acquisition by Xbox. And mass layoffs.

This is a book about the tension between creativity and the never-ending pursuit of growth. It’s a book about board-room battles, boys club culture, and how money and power can change people. It’s a book about the creative process and a lot of people trying to do their best under impossible situations. It’s a book about one of the most remarkable companies in business history. And it’s a book about a guy named Leeroy Jenkins.

Still on the fence? You can read excerpts about the Blizzard vs. Activision battle and the collapse of Titan. I wrote broadly about Blizzard’s growth problem on The Atlantic and I broken down the secrets behind its success on Bloomberg. And here’s an audio excerpt of the first chapter. You can also find me on just about every major gaming podcast talking about the book (including my own).

I hope you enjoy reading Play Nice as much as I enjoyed writing it.