Essays 07 March 2021, 18:59

Blizzard's Deleted Projects - Diablos We Never Got

Everyone knows the history of Diablo. First, there was (no) roguelike Diablo, then no Diablo II and two expansions, there was a no-Diablo a la Pokemons, and most recently, a soulslike no-Diablo... What? Don't you know those games? Here's a history lesson.

Diablo III – no to rehashes or MMOs

The Blizzard North team was formally disbanded in 2005. This came after executives at Blizzard Entertainment checked out the current progress of Diablo III - and decided to throw it out the window (under the influence of Vivendi, who owned the company at the time). This was actually the second time something similar had happened.

The first deletion of the third installment occurred in 2003, shortly after David Brevik and other prominent developers parted ways with Blizzard. The reason? Potential fratricidal rivalry with... World of Warcraft. According to the original idea, Diablo III was supposed to maintain the atmosphere of the previous parts of the series, but at the same time be moved to three dimensions (although keeping the isometric view) and include MMO elements. We don't know what kind of elements - David Brevik's vague references suggest a Path of Exile-like multiplayer experience rather than a true MMORPG - but the guild halls that were outlined in the second Diablo II expansion would certainly be realized here. Suffice it to say, the management didn't like the direction the designer took.

Here is the earliest Diablo III screen we have ever seen, dating back to 2001-2003.

That's when the Blizzard North team, as I mentioned in the Junior project paragraph, began to lose autonomy within the company, and developers were dictated from above what Diablo III should look like. The orders were roughly as follows: "Make it just like Diablo II." And the effect? The details we know about this project are even more skimpy than the MMO version. I did, however, find the testimony of David Craddock - a man who has covered Blizzard's history in books, having interviewed dozens of Blizzard employees.

Based on what I've learned, I think Blizzard North's Diablo III would retain enough of the spirit of Diablo II and add enough new elements that it would be a great game and a success - but not nearly as groundbreaking as "2". Nonetheless, the game was about a third complete, so who knows what turn things would eventually take?

In the slightly further - but still early - production phase, the striking similarity to Diablo II disappeared. Am I the only one who thinks Dungeon Siege when looking at that screen?

The other two-thirds didn't get made because in 2005, the board of directors assessed the project's condition and threw it out the window, and with it, the Blizzard North studio. Of course, "throwing out the window" is figurative - not all of the team's output landed in the bin. Jay Wilson, who later took over as lead designer forDiablo III, acknowledged that his predecessors had left behind "a lot of really good stuff," including "great monster designs," and decided to sneak a lot of those elements into his version of the game (including one boss fight). In turn, he described the problems of the previous iteration of Diablo III as follows:

I could see that the game was stuck at exactly the point I didn't want to be at myself. It didn't look much like Diablo II evolved. I think its creators were too focused on staying true to the brand instead of delivering something fresh and interesting. [...] People would look at it and say it looks like "Diablo 2.5". That's not how Blizzard works.

How about an MMO after all?

The words "Diablo 2.5" were spoken in late 2011, a few months before the release of the final incarnation of Diablo III, which had been six long and hard years in the making. Yes, the new team also took time to figure out what the game should look like. And when the team finally came up with a vision that satisfied both it and the Blizzard management (which, by the way, can't be said about all the players), it started making bold plans for the future. Plans for the future in which many people (with an ironic smile) could see them as a reflection of the past. In the same interview, Wilson also said:

I think the world from Diablo II is not diverse enough to be suitable for, say, an MMO game. While we don't have any plans to create an MMO in this universe at the moment, my goal is that after Diablo III is finished, the conditions will exist in which such a venture would become possible - in case it's something we want to undertake.

This is how Blizzard imagined MMOs in the Diablo world in the early 21st century....

Yes, Jay Wilson did not explicitly say that a "World of Diablo" would be created. However, many gamers have read between the lines and concluded that an MMO Diablo would be possible. The fact that Diablo III requires a constant internet connection to function and the presence of an auction house in the game were pointed out as clues. Such elements we actually rather did not expect in a traditional hack'n'slash game.

Anyway, today we know that actually Blizzard a decade ago dreamed of Diablo in a full-blooded MMO formula - and that these dreams were given up rather quickly. This was admitted by one of the developers in 2014, indicating that the future of the brand still belongs to the action RPG genre. After all, the industry has evolved to the point where every other online game has MMO elements - and Diablo Immortal and Diablo IV will be no different.