Nearly 30 Years On, This Blizzard Series Is More Important Than Ever

Blizzard is one of gaming’s most profitable studios, with some of gaming’s most iconic franchises to their name. With MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and team-based shooters like Overwatch dominating the online space years after they debuted, it’s hard to imagine that the company was once a scrappy up-and-comer. Years before it was earning billions, Blizzard was the house that the original Warcraft helped build.

One of the other early games from the developer was Diablo. The dark fantasy action/RPG quickly became a hit for the studio and has since become one of its flagship titles. In the beginning, though, it was just an attempt to bring a bit more casual playability to the computer-based RPG. Here’s how Diablo went from a passion project to one of the most influential franchises in modern gaming.

The Origins Of Diablo

Launching almost 30 years ago, Diablo has become one of the foundational Blizzard titles and a legendary entry in the series. The initial idea for Diablo came from Blizzard North co-founder David Brevik. who wanted to create an RPG-style game that didn’t require too many layers of immersion before gameplay actually got going. Inspired by — of all things — NHL ’94, Brevik noted how the sports genre made it easy for players to select a specific role in the game and quickly jump into the action.

Seeking to replicate that element in the fantasy space, Brevik sought to combine the pick-up-and-go energy of console gaming with the computer game RPG genre. After meeting Allen Adham at the 1994 CES convention, the two began working together on a game that would eventually become the first Warcraft. When Blizzard was formally created, they agreed to develop the game — albeit with some changes to the concept, such as the inclusion of real-time combat and multiplayer.

Finalized by 1997, the game was initially released for Windows before getting a MacOS and PlayStation port the following year. At first, Blizzard had modest expectations for the game, with an optimistic hope for 100,000 copies sold. However, positive early press coverage began to spread over the burgeoning internet and in gaming magazines, leading to a massive number of pre-orders that eventually surpassed half a million copies. Once it became available in North America on January 3, 1997, it was the highest-selling computer game of the entire first half of the year, only being knocked out of the monthly top ten after ten months.

From A One-Off Idea To A Juggernaut Franchise

The success of Diablo may have come as something of a surprise to Blizzard, but it didn’t take long for the studio to capitalize on it. Diablo II was a ground-up sequel, retaining less than one percent of the programming code from the previous game. Brevik and the rest of his team added new layers to the gameplay, such as skill trees, and improved the multiplayer options. While the game took three years to finish, the success of the previous title ensured that Diablo II came out swinging. It sold over 2 million copies after just a month and a half, all while earning rave reviews.

Alongside Starcraft and Warcraft, Diablo helped cement Blizzard as one of the premier gaming studios on the planet, especially in the PC space. While the massive success of World of Warcraft and Starcraft‘s place as a perennial pro-gaming benchmark kept the franchise from becoming the face of the company, Diablo‘s popularity and subsequent expansions kept it in players’ hands during the long wait for a formal sequel, with many calling the sequel one of the best games of the 2000s.

Diablo III spent over a decade in development before it was formally released, and wouldn’t be formally announced until 2008. Notably, the game launched not just on PC but on consoles as well. By the time it finally launched, Diablo III had become one of the best-selling games of all time, earning 3.5 million sales globally within the first 24 hours of release. Bolstered by strong reviews and consistently compelling gameplay, the title kept fans busy until 2023, when Diablo IV launched and continued the franchise’s domination of all-time best-selling games.

Why Diablo Matters

Diablo was a watershed moment for Blizzard, helping transform it into the juggernaut it has become. More than that, Diablo‘s influence is still felt in gaming as a whole. The original title’s multiplayer options helped popularize dungeon crawlers for a new generation, setting up plenty of imitators. Diablo was crucial to the development and refinement of Battle.net, which has since become one of online gaming’s most consistent platforms.

The online gameplay modes, particularly the PvP combat of Diablo II, were an early indicator of how effective online gameplay could be in a competitive space. As such, Diablo (as well as fellow Blizzard title Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos) is seen as one of the early precursors of what would eventually become the Esports online space occupied by games like DOTA 2 and League of Legends. The focus on rogue-like exploration and loot-discovery can be seen in everything from Path of Exile to Hades, both of which took the formula and filtered it through their own unique approach.

Games like Diablo III, which pushed an “always online” approach to gameplay, laid the groundwork for other titles that do something similar across different genres, with such disparate games as Fall Guys and Fortnite taking cues from the legacy that the Diablo series perfected. All of this legacy stems from an attempt to bring a bit more lively action to the digital RPG space, and it’s worth recognizing — almost thirty years since the franchise launched — just how important it remains to the legacy of Blizzard and the current gaming landscape as a whole.