The 'Diablo IV' Nobody Ever Saw

This week, Blizzard released Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, an enlargement to the wildly fashionable fantasy action-role-playing game that tasks players with slaughtering masses of screeching demons and collecting the randomized cogwheel that they permission behind.

Since coming retired past year, Diablo IV has been a large occurrence for Blizzard, earning much than $666 cardinal (yes, really) successful its archetypal week. But earlier that merchandise came years of fits and starts, including a predecessor that was perceived wrong Blizzard arsenic an embarrassment and an iteration that was truthful drastically different, radical began wondering if it was truly inactive Diablo anymore.

Today, Diablo is 1 of Blizzard’s astir important franchises. But to astatine slightest 1 Blizzard enforcement who was astir successful its aboriginal days, it wasn’t adjacent a “real game.”

My caller book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, chronicles the full 33-year saga of the video crippled company, from the aboriginal hit-making days of Warcraft and StarCraft to its merger with Activision to past year’s $69 cardinal acquisition by Microsoft. This WIRED-exclusive excerpt tells the communicative of a canceled Diablo III enlargement and the Diablo IV that ne'er happened.

At the beginning of 2014, portion finishing up Diablo III’s archetypal expansion, Reaper of Souls, the squad astatine Blizzard began talking astir what was next. They had been operating nether the content that Diablo III would travel the StarCraft II model—one basal crippled followed by 2 robust expansions—and they had adjacent started brainstorming what the adjacent enlargement mightiness look like. “We were looking astatine truly large ideas, but thing definitive yet,” said writer Brian Kindregan.

Then, during an all-hands gathering soon earlier Reaper of Souls came out, they got quality that vacuumed the vigor retired of the team: Diablo III would not get a 2nd expansion. No substance what happened with Reaper of Souls, they were done. “Getting your adjacent task canceled is scary,” said decorator John Yang. There was nary wide mentation arsenic to wherefore this was happening—Blizzard’s executives were complimentary of their enactment connected Reaper of Souls and said the determination was not made due to the fact that of immoderate benignant of nonaccomplishment connected their part. “None of the answers met the sniff test,” said shaper Jeremy Masker.

What they didn’t cognize was that a big of factors was moving against the Diablo team. Chief enforcement serviceman Mike Morhaime and the remainder of Blizzard’s C-suite saw Diablo III arsenic a failure—a crippled that had damaged the brand—and respective of the executives didn’t deliberation Reaper of Souls would beryllium bully capable to crook it around. Morhaime was besides feeling unit from Bobby Kotick and his lieutenants astatine Activision, who were acrophobic that the developers successful Irvine were trying to enactment connected excessively galore projects astatine once. And past determination was the demonic elephant successful the room: Despite its large income numbers, Diablo III wasn’t equipped to present semipermanent revenue. People lone bought the crippled once, which made it hard for Blizzard to warrant keeping unneurotic a squad of 100 radical to enactment connected ongoing support.

Yet it besides seemed absurd to presumption the crippled arsenic a misstep. Diablo III was 1 of the astir fashionable games ever made, to the constituent wherever different companies would gripe that their ain games’ idiosyncratic counts went down importantly whenever a caller Diablo spot came out. “Did it marque World of Warcraft money? No,” said manager Jay Wilson. “But it made much wealth than astir things that Blizzard makes.” Production manager John Hight begged Morhaime and the different executives to hold until they shipped Reaper of Souls to marque the telephone connected a 2nd expansion, but it was futile. “The squad was devastated,” said 1 executive. “Not conscionable the Diablo team, but truly the full of development.”