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The Game Archaeologist: How Hellgate survived being Flagshipped
It seems that it really wasn't too long ago that I was filling in the time between night classes by boning up on video game news. I was drinking up all of the hot up-and-comers, such as Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, when I caught word that the maker of Diablo was trying to do the same thing again, only more online, in 3-D, and with a cool modern-day/futuristic/horror vibe. There's no better way to put it than to say that from the start, Hellgate: London looked all kinds of cool. Oh sure, you can scoff now with your perfect 20/20 hindsight, but I'm betting that more than a few of you thought the same with me around that time. Diablo but with guns and an online persistence -- how could we not be intrigued? One of my most vivid memories was being torn between the idea of buying a lifetime subscription deal for $150 (again, this was before the free-to-play era, but also before the era of us spending the same money on alpha access. I'm just saying that you can't judge me.). I didn't buy the lifetime sub, if you were wondering, but I did play. I even enjoyed Hellgate: London for a month or so, although something about it never quite clicked with me. It was only after I bailed that I watched with horror that one of the most infamous chapters of video game disasters took place. It's kind of like when you look at pictures of an earthquake and say to anyone near, "I was just standing there a week ago..." From its giddy heights of pre-launch hype to the crash simply known as being "Flagshipped" to its subsequent resurrections (yes, plural), Hellgate is a fascinating tale of a good idea, a terrible launch, corporate scapegoating, and improbable survival.
Blizzard North considered making Diablo Junior for the Game Boy Color
David Craddock is a freelance writer (and former Joystiquer) who's putting a book together about Blizzard North, the studio that created the enormously popular Diablo series. Up until the book's release (it is called, of course, "Stay Awhile and Listen"), Craddock is doling out some insights that he's picked up from his research on Diablo's past development.Like, for example, the fact that a version of Diablo 2 was considered for the Game Boy Color and/or the Game Boy Advance. Following the release of the popular sequel, Blizzard North considered a single-player handheld game with the working (and adorable) title of Diablo Junior, which would have three separate cartridges on offer, each featuring a different class of hero. The game was never made, mostly due to the high costs of mobile development at that time.Craddock says Blizzard North also considered a second expansion for Diablo 2, which would have come out after Lord of Destruction. That expansion would have focused on multiplayer features, and set up customizable guild housing and banks. In the end, however, that expansion was also scuttled, and Blizzard North got to work on the long project that would become Diablo 3.
Upcoming book Stay Awhile and Listen delves into the history of Blizzard
Are you into video games? Of course you are. Are you into history? Are you into Blizzard Entertainment? And perhaps most importantly, are you into books? If you answered yes to all of these questions, then you're probably a rather small subset of people, but luckily for you, we've got just the thing to fill that niche. David L. Craddock's Stay Awhile and Listen is being published by Digital Monument Press, and if you're at all interested in how Blizzard came to be the industry powerhouse that it is today, it's probably worth a read. This isn't just some unofficial rag, though; Stay Awhile and Listen features input from a great number of Blizzard and Blizzard North developers. The book hits shelves, Nooks, Kindles, and Apple iBooks in Summer 2012. [Source: Digital Monument Press press release]
Gazillion's president says MMOs are in a rut
"I think MMOs in general are in a rut. It's still mainly WoW clones. A lot of people have done these games, but it's been that same kind of gameplay, and that doesn't mean that's what it has to be," says Gazillion's David Brevik. Who's David Brevik? Well he's the president and COO of the company bringing you the free-to-play Marvel Universe MMO (yeah, the one where you can't make your own character). More importantly -- in terms of gamer cred -- he also co-founded Blizzard North. Brevik was recently interviewed about WoW clones, free-to-play business models, and everything in between, and you can read the full text at GamesIndustry.biz. You'll need to register for an account to access the content, but registration is free.
Ex-Cryptic CCO Bill Roper joins Disney Interactive Media Group
Bill Roper's cultivated an impressive resume during his tenure with the gaming industry, including executive positions with Blizzard North, Flagship Studios and Cryptic Studios. He left the latter developer -- his last place of employment -- last August, and today revealed his new home: The Disney Interactive Media Group, where he'll work as the vice president of the Marvel franchise. Disney General Manager of Games Alex Seropian said, "With 17 years of experience in the worldwide gaming industry, we are confident that Bill has the creative vision necessary to help guide the next wave of development and product for DIMG's Marvel Games." We too are confident in Roper's abilities. And, considering his legacy, we can't wait to see how much dope loot he can squeeze into the next Spider-Man title.
Alleged screens of canceled 2005 Diablo 3 are heavenly
In internet time, 2005 might as well be the last century. Christopher Nolan was just beginning to tackle a new series of Batman films, many Joystiq writers hadn't even begun their illustrious careers and Blizzard North was rumored to be hard at work on Diablo 3. That is until Blizzard North was closed and most of its staff relocated to Blizzard's HQ in California, of course. Even with the closure, there was still a rumor floating around that a new Diablo would be shown at BlizzCon, a Diablo that actually took place in a Heaven being invaded by Hell. While none of us will ever play that Diablo 3, Kotaku has nabbed some screenshots allegedly taken from the canceled project. Examining the screens, it certainly looks like the Heaven plot was a reality. It also appears that Blizzard North had abandoned Diablo's traditional 2D isometric graphics in favor of a full 3D world, which isn't surprising given the runaway success of World of Warcraft. Hit the source link for more screens.
Former Blizzard executive named president of Gazillion Entertainment
What's left to do for the man who created Blizzard's seminal Diablo series? A promotion to president and COO of a major gaming company is probably near the top of the list, and Gazillion Entertainment has done just that with former Blizzard North president David Brevik. Prior to assuming his new duties, Brevik served as the project leader for Gazillion's upcoming Marvel Universe title, and also was responsible for lead design and lead programming aspects of both Diablo and Diablo II during his tenure at Blizzard. Brevik dropped a hint as to one possible future for online gaming (as well as Gazillion's focus going forward) in a company press release detailing his appointment. "Gazillion is committed to developing top-tier online games. The future will be defined by console-quality games in the web browser, and we believe we can make this a reality today," he said.
Torchlight dev speaks about Blizzard competition, MMO plans
Max Schaefer, co-founder of Torchlight developer Runic Games (and former Blizzard North staffer) recently sat down for the most terrifying interview of his life. In an interview with German gaming news site PCGames.de, Schaefer was buffeted with strongly-worded interrogatives, at one point being told to "Defend yourself!" The harsh questioning was worth it -- Schaefer opened up about similarities between his studio's game and Diablo, explaining, "we plead guilty to trying to perfect a style of game we've worked on since the early 90's." The more intriguing part of the interview came when Schaefer discussed the future of the series -- a future which involves a free-to-play MMORPG based in the world of Torchlight. Just because the game won't put a hurt on your wallet doesn't mean Runic Games is skimping out; according to Schaefer, the Torchlight MMO will be a large production, complete with "a lot of customization, an overworld, random and instanced dungeons, PVP, and much more!" Schaefer added that the MMO is still about two years out. The studio plans to go into pre-production as soon as it squashes all the bugs in the offline version of Torchlight, and hopes to have the game reach the community with alpha and beta testing phases "as quickly as possible."
Castaway Entertainment shipwrecked, suspends operations
Castaway Entertainment, a studio established nearly five years ago by former Blizzard North devs, has become the latest casualty in an alarming trend among US game developers. Gamespot has reported that the studio has suspended operations, echoing similar death knells rung earlier this year Perpetual Entertainment, Iron Lore, and Stormfront Studios. According to the report, Castaway has cut back its staff from nearly 25 people to just six critical staff members, and that all development activity has been shelved. Since Castaway was founded in 2003 the studio has produced only a single title, the XBLA pox Yaris, with other projects such as the unreleased Diablo-style game Djinn never having made it out of the ether.
Behind the Curtain: What's in a name?
How much attention do you pay to the names behind the MMOs we're playing just now? Do you dig up as much information as you can on the developers, producer and designers involved in up and coming games? Do you even pay any attention at all?I'll be honest – I picked up Star Wars Galaxies based on the licence alone. While I've been a gamer since my Uncle gave me a ZX Spectrum as a child, I didn't know anything about the people behind Galaxies. I had heard about Everquest of course – I wasn't stupid after all – but Galaxies was my first MMO, and I was a noob in every sense of the word. I didn't know anything about the designers, the developers, and I didn't even think to check up on them.I was a little more aware when I came round to World of Warcraft. I was, and still am, a big Diablo 2, fan, so I knew who Blizzard were. I hadn't picked up Warcraft 3 when it came out, due to the PC I had t the time not being to run it, but I knew that it'd been a huge commercial and critical success for Blizzard, so I knew that it was a safe bet. Plus, it was taking the world by storm already, so it was a bit of a no-brainer. Maybe I'm just older and wiser now, or maybe the information is just easier to get a hold of, but I pay more attention to the people actually making the game that I'm interested in – I thought this week, we could have a look at some of the names you should be aware of.
L5 Games looking a lot like Blizzard
Forming a new game studio and want to build some instant cred in the industry? Following in the example of other companies who believe anything associated with the Blizzard name turns to gold, Gravity Interactive has announced the formation of a new subsidiary game studio called L5 Games, which is to be staffed by a sizable number of former Blizzard North employees. According to the story over at Gama, as many as half of the new staff has ten or more years of experience in the industry, with credits in such mega-hits as World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo.It's not exactly standard practice to flaunt the resumes of new hires in the press, but well... it's Blizzard, alright? Giant Interactive, which plays both publisher and developer roles for Ragnarok Online over in South Korea, is looking to beef up its U.S. operations, which have largely floundered to date, despite their game's unmitigated success overseas. "We intend to develop online games targeting the North American market, one of the fastest growing online gaming markets, with the outstanding developers of L5 Games who have a successful track record and thorough understanding of the culture of the North American market," says Gravity CEO Il-Young Ryu.While there's a temptation to be snarky about this, the fact of the matter is that they've successfully captured our intention. Now just don't disappoint us.
Hellgate: London demo available now
There's a Hellgate London demo out, for those of you who've been waiting for this maybe-MMO from the makers of the original Diablo (and lots of team members from the old Blizzard North). I say maybe-MMO because it'll be a lot like Guild Wars, in that it'll be free to play out of the box, and there will be a lot of single player fun available. But it's also got that MMO bent to it, in that you'll be able to pay for more exclusive content, and there will also be guilds and player housing. Oh, and did I mention it's an FPS with heavy RPG elements?So yeah, it's a game of many contradictions. But worry not-- you can try the game out yourself right now by downloading the hefty 1.4gb demo over at Worthplaying, GameDaily (disclaimer: AOL owns GameDaily, and they also own Weblogs, Inc, which owns Massively) or FileShack (shudder-- FileShack and I do not have a good history). KillTenRats says the demo lets you play as a Blademaster or Marksman, and that it'll take you through part of Act 1. He also hears that the demo is singleplayer only, so any big MMO elements will probably have to wait until the game is released.And the good news is that that's not too long a wait-- we should see Hellgate: London in North America on October 31st. Let us know what you think of the demo.
