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Blizzard North

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Blizzard North
FormerlyCondor
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Founded1993
Founders
Defunct2005
Headquarters
San Mateo, California
,
U.S.
ProductsJustice League Task Force, Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
Websitewww.blizzard.com

Blizzard North (formerly known as Condor) was an American video game development studio based in San Mateo, California. The studio was the Bay Area division of Blizzard Entertainment, known for its Diablo series. The company was originally based in Redwood City, California, before moving a short distance away to San Mateo, with Blizzard proper being based in Irvine, southern California.

History

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Blizzard North was founded in 1993 under the name Condor by David Brevik, Erich Schaefer and Max Schaefer at the request of Brevik. The three had met while working at FM Waves, a clip art production studio which had gone defunct, and the trio initially used equipment scavenged from the closure of FM Waves. Brevik had found that the Schaefers shared an interest in gaming, and established Condor to follow on Brevik's concept for a dungeon crawler game based on Dungeons & Dragons but with roguelike gameplay.[1][2] David Brevik served as the president of the company between 1993 and 2003, while the Schaefer brothers held the Vice President positions in the company.

The company was purchased and renamed as Blizzard North by Blizzard Entertainment's former owner Davidson & Associates about nine months before the release of their hit PC game Diablo in 1997.[3][4] However, Blizzard North had complete autonomy from Blizzard Entertainment while David Brevik and the Schaefer brothers continued to manage the company respectively as the President and Vice Presidents.[5] Diablo was highly successful, and its 2000 sequel Diablo II even more so. An expansion pack, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, followed the year after.

By June 2003 two new games were in production. The first game in production was Blizzard North's version of Diablo III which later was scrapped and restarted by Blizzard Entertainment. The second was a Diablo-like game which would take place in space, dubbed Starblo by the studio. In the wake of rumors that Blizzard Entertainment's owner, Vivendi, was looking to sell its game division, the heads of Blizzard North demanded to their management to request assurance for financial protection in the wake of this rumor. Several rounds of tense communication between the companies followed. On June 30, 2003, leadership from Vivendi and Blizzard Entertainment met with the heads of Blizzard North, from which David Brevik, the Schaefer brothers and Bill Roper tendered their resignations. Blizzard Entertainment then announced further layoffs, cancelled work on Starblo, and directed the remaining team to focus on Diablo III.[6] Of those that were laid off, eight moved to form Flagship Studios, including Brevik, the Schaefer brothers and Roper. Another nine employees left to form Castaway Entertainment.[citation needed] By the time the exodus concluded, around 30 employees had left the company.

On August 1, 2005, Blizzard Entertainment announced the closure of Blizzard North. A key reason for the closure was Blizzard North's poor development of what was to be Diablo III, which did not meet Vivendi's expectations. Former Blizzard North staffers including Joseph Lawrence, Wyatt Cheng, and Matt Uelmen subsequently appeared in the credits of Blizzard's next retail release, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. The work of former Blizzard North artist Phroilan Gardner was featured in editions of World of Warcraft: The Trading Card Game around the same time.

A few employees from the Diablo team, including Eric Sexton, Michio Okamura, and Steven Woo, organized to launch a new company, Hyboreal Games.[7]

Castaway Entertainment

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Castaway Entertainment was established by former employees of Blizzard North, and was also based in Redwood City, California. The company signed a publishing agreement with Electronic Arts in March 2004,[8][9][10] but had yet to produce any products when it was shut down in 2008.[11]

Former Blizzard North members who joined the studio include Michael Scandizzo, Stefan Scandizzo, Alan Ackerman, Steven Woo, Rick Seis,[12] Ted Bisson, Bruno Bowden, Peter Brevik, Michael Huang, Kelly Johnson (artist), Michio Okamura, Tom Ricket (also known as Sluggy Freelance's Shirt Guy Tom), and Fredrick Vaught (after whom the Halls of Vaught in Diablo II were named).

Other notable employees include game designer Bill Dunn and art director Rick Macaraeg.

On April 4, 2008, Michael Scandizzo announced that Castaway was suspending operations due to financial problems.[13][14]

Games

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As Condor

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As Blizzard North

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Cancelled

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See also

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References

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  • Schreier, Jason (2024). Play Nice: The Rise, Fall and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 9781538725429.
  1. ^ Schreier, 2024, Chapter 3
  2. ^ "Indie Insider Podcast with David Brevik".
  3. ^ "Davidson & Associates, Inc. Signs a Definitive Merger Agreement With Condor, Inc". PR Newswire. 1996-03-06. Retrieved 2009-09-28.[dead link‍]
  4. ^ "Merger Madness Continues". GamePro. No. 94. IDG. July 1996. p. 16. Condor's name will change to Blizzard North as it finishes up Diablo, an eagerly awaited RPG due next month.
  5. ^ "Escapist Magazine - The Rise of Blizzard".
  6. ^ Schreier, 2024, Chapter 9: Resignations Accepted
  7. ^ Hyboreal Games Q&A - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads Archived October 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "Electronic Arts Signs Publishing Agreement with Castaway Entertainment". www.businesswire.com. 2004-03-22. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  9. ^ "EA signs deal with Castaway Entertainment". GameSpot. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  10. ^ EA in Agreement with Castaway - IGN, 22 March 2004, retrieved 2020-01-28
  11. ^ "Castaway Entertainment shipwrecked, suspends operations". Engadget. 15 July 2016. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  12. ^ "New Hires at Castaway Entertainment". GamesIndustry.biz. 2005-09-07. Archived from the original on 2021-10-23. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  13. ^ Castaway sends out SOS
  14. ^ Geddes, Ryan (2008-04-08). "Castaway to Close its Doors". IGN. Archived from the original on 2021-10-23. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  15. ^ "Blizzard considered "Diablo Junior" for GBC/GBA". 12 October 2012.
  16. ^ "Diablo Junior for Game Boy Color". 15 October 2012.
  17. ^ Brevik, David (11 May 2016). "Diablo: A Classic Game Postmortem". Game Developers Conference (conference talk). 30 minutes in. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 6 January 2019 – via YouTube.
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