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Community => Entertainment and Television => Topic started by: CaseAgainstFaith on May 29, 2012, 10:33:01 am

Title: Diablo III that never was
Post by: CaseAgainstFaith on May 29, 2012, 10:33:01 am

Note: I am not saying Diablo III that was released was a bad game.  Just pointing out that if the article holds true, it probably could of been a lot better.

The first Diablo wasn’t developed by Blizzard. It was cobbled together by a small developer called Condor which was bought up just six months before the release of Diablo and renamed Blizzard North.

Blizzard North was also responsible for the sequel, Diablo II and a Diablo II expansion pack.

screen shots of Alpha version- http://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2012/05/diablo-3-2005-2.jpg (http://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2012/05/diablo-3-2005-2.jpg)
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2012/05/diablo-3-2005-1.jpg (http://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2012/05/diablo-3-2005-1.jpg)

They had started working on Diablo III years ago, and the screenshots above and below are what that game looked like back in 2005.

Unfortunately, a falling out between many of the Blizzard North people and the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment, Vivendi, led to the resignation of much of the developers’ staff.

Condor founders Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, and David Brevik along with  Bill Roper left Blizzard North in 2003. Dozens more employees left the company afterwards. The Condor Founders went on to start the short-lived Flagship Studios.

Diablo III was officially canned and Blizzard North was shut down in 2005.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/05/28/the-diablo-iii-that-never-was/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/05/28/the-diablo-iii-that-never-was/)

I remember Blizzard north shutting down, but I would of figured blizz would of  handed the D3 project off to another group sooner and basically had them polish it up and make money sooner.  I do wonder though what could of been had Blizz North not fell apart.

Title: Re: Diablo III that never was
Post by: Art Vandelay on May 29, 2012, 10:40:23 am

Ok, seriously dude. Could have. Could HAVE.

Title: Re: Diablo III that never was
Post by: Kain on May 30, 2012, 07:17:13 am

Oh, look. It's THIS topic again. >_>

Title: Re: Diablo III that never was
Post by: The Illusive Man on May 30, 2012, 04:48:12 pm

And what is hilarious about topics like this is the fact that Blizzard is even in worse shape due to Activision.

Title: Re: Diablo III that never was
Post by: Witchyjoshy on May 30, 2012, 05:56:41 pm

So you've let us know, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Title: Re: Diablo III that never was
Post by: Distind on June 01, 2012, 06:43:55 am

Since I've only said it a few dozen times: http://www.torchlight2game.com/

The dungeon crawler made by a decent chunk of the blizzard north guys, after they bombed the hell out of things with hellgate. The first was pretty good, this one is shaping up to be far better than D3.