Former Blizzard CEO announces two new development studios

(Image credit: Dreamhaven)

Former Blizzard Entertainment CEO and founder Mike Morhaime has today announced a brand new games company: Dreamhaven.

It's not just the reveal of the new company that Morhaime had to reveal today. It turns out Dreamhaven has already established two game developers underneath the larger company, called Moonshot Studios and Secret Door.

Moonshot Studios is being led by a group of industry veterans, including former Blizzard Entertainment executive producer Jason Chayes. Elsewhere in the new studio there's former Starcraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm game director Dustin Browder, as well as Hearthstone creative director Ben Thompson.

Secret Door is also partly composed of former Blizzard employees. Chris Sagity was previously executive producer on Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Starcraft 2, as well as lead producer on the original Warcraft 3. Eric Dodds was the original game director on Hearthstone, and Alan Dabiri has filled both technical and game director roles on Warcraft 3, Starcraft 2, and Heroes of the Storm.

That's certainly a lot of former Blizzard veterans coming together under one new banner. As reporter Jason Schreier wrote earlier today over on Twitter, "many had left because of Activision’s growing influence on Blizzard’s culture and process."

Rumors have surrounded plenty of Blizzard-owned properties of late. Last year, it was reported that Blizzard had canceled a Starcraft FPS spin-off, and the year before in 2018, it was rumored that Diablo 4 had been a Dark Souls-like action game, before being rebooted by Blizzard.

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.