The strategy worked: Overwatch launched on May 24, 2016, and became the fastest-selling game of the month. In December, it won Game of the Year at the industry’s biggest award show, The Game Awards, and after a year it had become a billion-dollar franchise. It was such a smash hit that during one Activision Blizzard board meeting, Kotick stood up and led a round of applause for Morhaime. From the failure of Titan had emerged one of the most successful games in Blizzard’s history. But the win wasn’t enough to keep Activision from getting more involved with Blizzard. If anything, the success of
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