Former Blizzard North President David Brevik recently talked about a second Diablo 2 expansion that was never made. Unfortunately, there's some confusion that it was going to be an MMORPG, but that's simply not the case.
David Brevik is a man with a solid history in game design, serving as one of the co-founders of the Diablo developer Blizzard North and the company's President for a time. Aside from Diablo, his credits include Marvel Heroes, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, and Hellgate: London. Most recently, he's been working on his indie game It Lurks Below — a game we had a chat about back in 2018.
Brevik recently revealed some behind-the-scenes tidbits about Diablo 2, explaining that a second expansion was "designed, never produced." He also commented on some other projects including an early version of Diablo 3 — and this has led to some confusion about the features of the second Diablo 2 expansion.
Second Diablo 2 Expansion Was Not an ARPG + MMO, Brevik Says
Over the weekend, someone asked David Brevik about rumors of a second Diablo 2 expansion that never came to light. Brevik responded to those tweets, explaining that this expansion had been designed but had never been produced. He added that it was made roughly 6–12 months before he left the company, and that's one of the driving reasons why it was never actually created.
Yes, sort of... it was only designed, never produced. I had a multi-page design doc going over new classes, new areas, new mechanics and story concepts. That’s as far as it got. https://t.co/l8xHYOF6z5
— David Brevik (@davidbrevik) February 13, 2021
I designed it about 6-12 months before I left. This is one of the reasons it was never made. It was before the 1.10 patch (in terms of timeline). We were also working on our version of Diablo 3 at the time, plus another unannounced project. https://t.co/gxCfeyD0Ou
— David Brevik (@davidbrevik) February 14, 2021
This line of questioning also led to some people asking about the other project Brevik mentioned — an early version of Diablo 3. This game would have had a lot in common with Marvel Heroes in many respects, effectively serving as both an ARPG and an MMO.
I would have been very different from any Diablo. I think it was really interesting. We used a lot of the game-structure concepts for Marvel Heroes. I was an APRG+MMO. MMO in terms of many people playing at once, not like WoW. It was scrapped because most of BlizNo left. https://t.co/dkKddyUlYs
— David Brevik (@davidbrevik) February 14, 2021
It's certainly nice to hear little tidbits about the Diablo content of yesteryear that had been planned. There's been a bit of a mix-up, though — some people have come to the mistaken conclusion that the second Diablo 2 expansion was going to be an MMOARPG.
As you can see from the above tweets, that's clearly not the case — note that Brevik's third answer is responding to a question about an early version of Diablo 3. In short, the second expansion for Diablo 2 would have certainly been interesting, but the "[ARPG]+MMO" elements that Brevik talks about were for its then-unreleased sequel Diablo 3.
For now, you can look forward to hearing more about Diablo at Blizzconline starting on Friday, February 19, 2021. You can buy David Brevik's latest game It Lurks Below on Steam for $19.99 or your regional equivalent.
Would you have wanted to play a Diablo MMO? Do you think the franchise is heading in the right direction with Diablo 4? Let us know in the comments below!
