Back at the GDC 2016 conference, David Brevik, one of the main creators of Diablo, was asked about Diablo: Hellfire. His reaction perfectly summarized why this addition has been itching Blizzard for over 25 years.
Oh my god, really? You’re gonna bring that up? Basically, it was not made by us; we had a design doc, they didn’t follow it. They made a teddy bear quest. I was f*ing pissed. And that’s really it in the nutshell.
Next, Brevik elaborated on the subject and talked about what went wrong at the end of the 90s. The publisher of Diablo – Sierra – wanted to capitalize on the success of the original, while Blizzard was already working on Diablo 2. So, another team in Sierra was tasked with creating an add-on in an incredibly short time. Communication between the studios must have been even worse than traffic in Boston, and the end result was a hybrid of strange ideas, Blizzard’s inserts, and abandoned concepts.
This info I Braved the Diablo Expansion Blizzard Despises – No Regrets! was first published on Gamepressure.com 26 May 2023.