Blizzard North

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Blizzard North was the Northern-California division of Blizzard Entertainment, known for the Diablo series. The studio was originally based in Redwood City, and then moved a short distance away to San Mateo, with Blizzard proper being based in Irvine (in southern California).

1 History
2 Games
- 2.1 As Condor
- 2.2 As Blizzard North

[edit] History

Blizzard North was originally an independent company. It was established in 1993 under the name Condor, founded by Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, and David Brevik. The company was purchased and renamed by Blizzard about six months before the release of their hit PC game, Diablo, in 1996. Diablo proved to be a considerable success, and the still-more successful sequel Diablo II was released in 2000. An expansion pack followed the year after.

On June 30, 2003, several key employees left the company to form the new companies Flagship Studios (8 moved here) and Castaway Entertainment (9 moved here). Two unannounced games were in production at the time, with one forced to be canceled due to around 30 employees leaving the company in total. Geoff Fraizer of Blizzard Entertainment has since said the canceled game was a "Blizzard North kind of game", from which some draw the conclusion that "Diablo 3" has been canceled. Blizzard North had worked only on Diablo games since Blizzard's acquisition of Condor until the time of this exodus. The resignations were partly due to a conflict with Blizzard Entertainment's owner Vivendi, and partly due to employees wishing to start something new.

On August 1, 2005, Blizzard Entertainment announced the closure of Blizzard North, saying that remaining employees were moving to its head offices to resume work on an unannounced project.