Mike Morhaime Interview

[DemolitionSquid]

Clearly my sarcasm is beyond you.

[hyde]

Clearly my sarcasm is beyond you.

It might help if you read past my first sentence. I addressed your witty sarcasm (though I don't blame you, since it is FOX) and gave you a reasonable reply.
I didn't enshrine Mike Morhaime on a pedestal or equate him as a savior.

But hey if you don't want to possibly consider that the CEO of Blizzard, Mike Morhaime, doesn't have stock options or bonuses in hand with reaping in success with Blizzard - that's okay. Just keep blaming Kotick, that's what Mike probably wants.


Source:

Michael Morhaime
Chief Executive Officer of Blizzard Entertainment and President Blizzard Entertainment, Activision Blizzard, Inc.


ANNUAL COMPENSATION*

Salary $514,814
Bonus $451,580
Total Annual Compensation $966,394

STOCK OPTIONS*

All Other Compensation $40,648
Exercisable Options 170,000
Unexercisable Options 630,000
Total Number of Options 800,000
TOTAL COMPENSATION*

Total Annual Cash Compensation $3,616,293
Total Short Term Compensation $966,394
Other Long Term Compensation $40,648
Total Calculated Compensation $4,706,941


Jeez, lets do some math.
630,000 X 11.36 Stock price as of today = $7,156,800
So considering StarCraft 2 and WoW catacylsm comes out this fall, along with Call of Duty Black ops , that stock price is probably going to go up.
Even if he and Bobby Kotick can raise that by 50 cents or a dollar, we're talking about a lot of easy money.


Ensuring investors Blizzard has a stable pipeline for releases like StarCraft expansions and their Next Gen MMO - I can only see Mike Morhaime's pockets getting bigger...and bigger.

http://investing.businessweek.com/re...ticker=ATVI:US

[Wankey]

What's being argued here? He's earned his pay.

[hyde]

What's being argued here? He's earned his pay.

I'm arguging with Demolition Squid.

I thought...he thought...that Mike Morhaime is lying and is implying that he's an Activision Puppet. And it was indeed Activision who wanted to split StarCraft 2 into three retail products.
I threw out the notion that Mike Morhaime is a CEO and likes money too, and is probably as evil as Kotick in regards to trying to make money (Come on, they fired a lot of Blizzard North people and shut the studio down).

I'm just trying to shine the light on everyone here...

[DemolitionSquid]

What's being argued here? He's earned his pay.

No one has earned almost a million dollars a year. No one needs more than 250,000 to live in comfort.

1% of the population with 99% of the wealth is not an acceptable system.

I'm arguging with Demolition Squid.

He thinks Mike Morhaime is lying and is implying that he's an Activision Puppet. And it was indeed Activision who wanted to split StarCraft 2 into three retail products.
I threw out the notion that Mike Morhaime is a CEO and likes money too, and is probably as evil as Kotick in regards to trying to make money (Come on, they fired a lot of Blizzard North people and shut the studio down).

I'm just trying to shine the light on everyone here...

I do not think that. I pointed out he COULD be.

[hyde]

No one has earned almost a million dollars a year. No one needs more than 250,000 to live in comfort.

1% of the population with 99% of the wealth is not an acceptable system.



I do not think that. I pointed out he COULD be.

I don't want to argue with you Demolition Squid. I agree with you actually.
I just wanted to show the possibility that Mike Morhaime is actually the evil bastard who is making all these changes at Blizzard.

For the longest time I thought it was all Bobby Kotick, but wouldn't that just be great? I mean partition all the retail cuts, the invasive DRM (24/7 connected to B.net and no LAN), etc on Kotick?

That way, it doesn't tarnish the established "Indie Gamer Developer" image Blizzard has crafted over the years (Though don't get me wrong, they've been owned by "suits" for a long time, just been sold and shifted). But Mike Morhaime has been at the top for a long time, and I really do not think the title "CEO" has much to do with game developing.
(Why else would Bill Roper, and tons of Blizzard North high-up's just mass exodus Blizzard? Back then they answered to no one, they had to occassionally say hi to Vivendi Universal but that was about it. It's Mike Morhaime who is evil too, not just Bobby Kotick )

[Hav0x]

Yes, he is so evil and greedy that he waits 12 years to put out a sequel to what is probably their most famous and beloved game (before WoW)

[Triceron]

He's so greedy he lets you play online for free

[newcomplex]

(Come on, they fired a lot of Blizzard North people and shut the studio down).

Blizzard North was shut down because they missed production deadlines for a year straight, then they released a buggy unfinished game that had half its promised features missing that they ran out of money to implement. D2 is objectively the worst Blizzard game released. Which is saying a lot on the quality of other Blizzard games of course.

Nobody was fired, developers left on there own accord because they wanted more creative freedom. Previously they were an independent studio before being bought by Blizzard, and I guess after being bought a lot of developers wanted to work on there own again.

I can't any of them who left were particularly successful, half of them going to Flagship Games (lol) and the other half making a studio that went bankrupt before it even unveiled what it was working on.

(Why else would Bill Roper, and tons of Blizzard North high-up's just mass exodus Blizzard? Back then they answered to no one, they had to occassionally say hi to Vivendi Universal but that was about it. It's Mike Morhaime who is evil too, not just Bobby Kotick )

They still maintain a positive working relationshig based on the fact that it was announced Bill Roper got flown over to sort of "guest star" in Diablo 3 as Diablo himself, because that's whos it always been traditionally VA'd by.


I know we're on a video game forum, so people are expected to be a bit liberal lol, but whats up with assuming everybody who makes more money then you do is evil?

[Norfindel]

I love how StarCraft is one of his personal favorites - how many franchises has Blizzard really made? 4, 5?

~LoA

You think as i do