Cancelled Diablo 3 looks a lot like Diablo 4
The director of the cancelled Diablo 3 has spoken on what could have been - and it sounds familiar, as the forgotten game looks like 2023's Diablo 4.
07th Jun 2023 17:25
Images via Blizzard
Cancelled Diablo 3 looks a lot like Diablo 4
The director of the cancelled Diablo 3 has spoken on what could have been - and it sounds familiar, as the forgotten game looks like 2023's Diablo 4.
07th Jun 2023 17:25
Images via Blizzard
Sanctuary is now open to all, and as players are crossing the Black Lake for the first time, it's official - Diablo 4 is here. What was once a super-nerdy property has surprisingly become the trendiest new games on the market, and that's not bad for a top-down story of necromancy and demons.
Diablo 4 is proving to be a treat for new and old players alike, and though we're now on the fourth entry, we had to start somewhere. Now, a leaked developmental version of Diablo III has revealed that the aesthetics of Diablo 4 have been kept in mind for some time.
Scrapped Diablo III looks a lot like Diablo IV
Blizzard North was the first sub-division of developers to tackle the notion of a third Diablo game, and as Blizzard's President at-the-time has come forward with new details about the doomed title, it's clear that the concepts that have come together to make Diablo 4 what it is today.
"It was going to be a cross between an RPG and an MMO, so it would still have an ARPG perspective but in a massively multiplayer setting," says co-creator and Blizzard North president David Brevik to PCGamer. "We wanted it to feel more like a real-world than a place that you would visit."
Explaining what else Diablo III would've been like, Brevik added, "You would see other people and other adventurers doing things, and you could team up and work together, or go your separate ways. The premise was having thousands of other players in the same world as you, making it more of a place.
"We knew that we had to make a 3D engine and had to make Diablo 3 3D instead of 2D. It was still gonna be isometric, so the idea was to lock the view so the camera wasn't really going to be [moving]."
What happened to the scrapped Diablo III?
After Blizzard's parent company (Vivendi) went on something of a spending spree when it comes to acquisitions back in the early '00s, its financial decisions caught up with it. Eventually, the publisher had to make some cutbacks to stave off bankruptcy.
Blizzard North was left to worry about its livelihood as the game was half-finished in 2003. The company's higher-ups left to create their own studio, and as many other staff members followed suit in resignations, Vivendi announced the full closure of Blizzard North. This demolished the semi-produced Diablo III.
Of course, we did get a third Diablo title, but it took some time. And now, as its ideas have finally come to life in Diablo 4, we've finally come full circle. It looks like the concepts of Blizzard North's Diablo III have finally come to life. We do love a happy ending.
About The Author
Joseph Kime
Joseph Kime is the Senior Trending News Journalist for GGRecon from Devon, UK. Before graduating from MarJon University with a degree in Journalism, he started writing music reviews for his own website before writing for the likes of FANDOM, Zavvi and The Digital Fix. He is host of the Big Screen Book Club podcast, and author of Building A Universe, a book that chronicles the history of superhero movies. His favourite games include DOOM (2016), Celeste and Pokemon Emerald.
