Diablo Creator Reflects on How They Would Have Handled MMO Elements Differently

This week, we’ve got something exciting coming up for fans of the Diablo series—a fresh interview with David Brevik, the mastermind behind Diablo and Diablo 2. While the full chat is still a couple of days away, some intriguing snippets have already been shared. Brevik doesn’t hold back when critiquing the quick, reward-focused pace that dominates many of today’s ARPGs and MMOs. He points out, "you’ve cheapened the whole experience."

Another preview from the interview gives us a peek into what Brevik initially envisioned for Diablo 3, back in its early development days before he parted ways with Blizzard. Interestingly, some of these early ideas resemble aspects of Diablo 4, particularly its more MMO-like features. Yet, Brevik clarifies that his approach would have definitely differed.

"It ends up being different; I would have made different decisions than they made," Brevik told Videogamer. "Their choices for itemization and character development took a different path than I would’ve chosen."

He elaborated further on social aspects, noting, "The social elements of an MMO are critical. From a game design standpoint, I would have focused heavily on fostering social interactions."

The Transformation from Diablo 3’s Concepts to Diablo 4

This isn’t the first time we’ve learned about how grand plans for Diablo 3 didn’t quite materialize. In Jason Schreier’s insightful book, Play Nice: The Rise and Fall of Blizzard, Brevik and others reveal that Diablo 3 was initially supposed to follow in the footsteps of an MMORPG akin to Ultima Online. The game was to feature huge multiplayer towns where hundreds of players could gather and interact before branching off into various instances.

Today’s Diablo 4 echoes many of those early concepts. However, Blizzard faced challenges with this vision for Diablo 3, particularly as much of their resources were funneled into the wildly successful World of Warcraft. Consequently, they had to scale back Diablo 3’s ambitions significantly.

"It Wasn’t Just an MMO"

Brevik elaborates in the interview, “It was going to be an ARPG with the same perspective, but with MMO elements where you’re in a world, meeting others, grouping up, within a Shard, exploring dungeons, and more. It was a blend of World of Warcraft and Diablo.” Yet, he also talks about evolving the Battle.net experience from those ideas into something more immersive. When asked if he would pursue such a project nowadays, Brevik summarized simply: "no."

What’s David Brevik Up to Now, and Where Can I Hear the Interview?

After Blizzard’s acquisition by Vivendi, which led to the closure of Blizzard North, Brevik chose a new path. Presently, he steers his own venture, Skystone Games, which is dedicated to assisting and publishing indie developers.

You can catch Brevik’s full conversation on the VideoGamer podcast, available on Spotify, with the episode set to drop later this week.