14 DAY TRIAL // Mike Morhaime, the president, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment is the 11th person inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. To enter the Hall of Fame (one person per year), you should be voted on by the Academy's Board of Directors and, of course, be be a person that contributed to a significant advancement within the industry, while demonstrating proven success.
Part of the reasons Morhaime got voted is his contribution to the MMO world through World of Warcraft - the largest MMORPG in the world, with 9.3 million users. Also, Blizzard's success with franchises such as Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo did matter a lot.
After entering the Hall of Fame, Morhaime said: "This is a great honor, and I'm proud to receive it. The success that Blizzard Entertainment has had over the years would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and support of players around the world, and the passion and dedication of our employees, so I thank all of them for contributing to this achievement."
Mike Morhaime will be presented the honor by Dr. Ray Muzyka, CEO of BioWare Corp, on the 7th of February 2008 in the city where time never passes by - Las Vegas.
Before Morhaime, 10 other important names from the entertainment industry have entered the AIAS Hall of Fame: Trip Hawkins (Electronic Arts), Peter Molyneux (Lionhead Studios), Yu Suzuki (Sega of America), Will Wright (Maxis), John Carmack (id Software), Hironobu Sakaguchi (Square Enix), Sid Meier (Firaxis Games), Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo), Richard Garriott (Origin Systems), and Dan Bunten - known later in life as Danielle Bunten Berry (Ozark Softscape).
So, things are simple for you if you would like your name near all these: start a company, sell millions and millions of copies worldwide, be sure to gain a big popularity segment within the gamers and fellow developers or publishers and keep doing that for at least 10 years. Want a franchise name? Horde of Peacecraft and everybody will be happy. Good luck!