Michael Morhaime

Early life and education Morhaime was born into a Jewish family and graduated from Granada Hills High School in 1985. He is also an alumnus of Triangle Fraternity and received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1990 from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In sixth grade, Morhaime, along with his brother and sister, purchased a video game console called the Bally Professional Arcade, first released in 1978. Morhaime discovered that the console was programmable, and he taught himself how to write simple games on it, building off of example programming code he found in a gaming newsletter.

As an electrical engineering student at UCLA, Morhaime focused more on hardware than on software. "I procrastinated a lot," he admitted. After hiring their friend and fellow UCLA alumnus, Frank Pearce, they rented a small office in Irvine, California, hoping to benefit from nearby technology companies.

On October 3, 2018, Morhaime announced he was stepping down as the company president and CEO, instead becoming an advisor to the company. Morhaime was replaced by J. Allen Brack, the executive producer on World of Warcraft. His advisory role concluded on April 7, 2019.

Dreamhaven In 2020, Morhaime founded Dreamhaven, a video game company based in Irvine, California, with two internal studios: Secret Door and Moonshot Games.

In 2025, Dreamhaven published its first internally developed titles: Sunderfolk, a cooperative tactical RPG by Secret Door released on April 23 across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, and Wildgate, a crew‑based space‑shooter by Moonshot Games, which launched on July 22 on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Controversy Following Morhaime's departure from Blizzard, in July 2021, the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) (formerly known as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing) filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination in relation to unequal pay and retaliation against female employees in the workplace.

Amidst the news of the lawsuit, former Blizzard employees spoke out about their experiences and the harassment they witnessed within the company. A former manager at the then-competitive gaming brand FXOpen Esports, posted to social media about her experience at a Blizzard holiday party in which a senior creative director kissed her in front of a group of Blizzard employees, including Morhaime who was president and CEO at the time. While he was not named in the lawsuit, and some employees were uncertain whether he was aware of the allegations, multiple employees confirmed that Morhaime was present at some of the company events where the alleged misconduct took place. Morhaime tweeted an apology saying he was “ashamed” regarding the lawsuit several days after the news broke.

Honors and awards In 2008, Morhaime was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame. On the same year, Morhaime was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for Blizzard's creation of World of Warcraft. Along with Don Daglow of Stormfront Studios and John Carmack of id Software, Morhaime is one of only three designers or producers to accept awards at the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards and at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Interactive Achievement Awards.

Morhaime received the national Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Technology category in 2012. In 2019, Morhaime was appointed the 2019 Honor Award at the Gamelab Barcelona, in Spain for his success in the gaming industry.

Multimedia In 2012, Morhaime made a cameo appearance on The Guild, a web series about the lives of a gamers' online experiences with an MMORPG that draws references to World of Warcraft. He is known for his work with the gaming community, but also worked on the 2016 film Warcraft: The Beginning.

Personal life

In 2010, Morhaime married his long-time girlfriend Amy Chen. In 2017, Morhaime bought a mansion in a gated Rancho Mirage community in Riverside County, California for $2.25 million. He is a member of Elite Tauren Chieftain, a metal band formed of and by Blizzard employees, where he plays bass guitar.