It looks like former president of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Morhaime, has been quite busy since stepping from the mantle in 2018, this week announcing his brand new game company, Dreamhaven, and two studios, Moonshot Games and Secret Door. Under the Dreamhaven umbrella, these studios will aim to “reimagine the studio model by empowering studios to establish independent identities, voices and cultures” and “take the chances that most big publishers won’t, and many smaller studios aren’t always able to”.
Both Moonshot Games and Secret Door comprise several veteran ex-Blizzard employees, who have worked on some of the biggest games and most successful in recent memory. Moonshot Games’ impressive line-up includes Ben Thompson (Hearthstone), Dustin Browder (Starcraft II), and Jason Chayes (former Blizzard Entertainment executive producer). “Though it’s very early days, when we think about Moonshot, we imagine a studio that celebrates curiosity and courage,” Chayes said in an interview with The Verge. “We aspire to be bold in our approach, and we think the best way to do that is to create a culture centred around trust.”
Over at Secret Door, the crew will include Chris Sigaty (Hearthstone), Alan Dabiri (Warcraft III and StarCraft II), and Eric Dodds (World of Warcraft and Starcraft). Each studio will be distinct from each other, with Secret Door’s hiring of a server engineer hinting at a focus on multiplayer experiences.
While neither studio has announced any games that are currently in development, I think it is fair to assume that Dreamhaven is a company to keep an eye on.