Blizzard North

History

Blizzard North was founded in 1993 under the name Condor by David Brevik, Erich Schaefer, and Max Schaefer. The three met while working at FM Waves, a clip art production studio. Upon the closure of FM Waves, the trio scavenged its equipment to create Brevik's concept of a dungeon crawler game based on Dungeons & Dragons with roguelike gameplay. Brevik served as the president of the company between 1993 and 2003, while the Schaefer brothers held the Vice President positions.

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. 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. 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.

Upon the 2001 completion of Diablo II and its expansion content, Blizzard North split its development staff between Diablo III and a Diablo-like game set in space, dubbed Starblo by the studio. In June 2003, Blizzard North executives Bill Roper, Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, and David Brevik emailed Blizzard Entertainment's then-parent company, Vivendi Games, threatening to resign unless provided financial protections and communication on Vivendi's intent to sell Blizzard. Vivendi accepted their resignations effective immediately, spurring them to found Flagship Studios and recruit similarly disgruntled Blizzard North employees.

In August 2005, Blizzard Entertainment closed Blizzard North, claiming that its headquarters in Irvine, California, was struggling to supervise this secondary studio's troubled development of Diablo III. Blizzard North employees were offered the chance to interview for positions in Southern California supporting the development of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the first expansion to the company's MMORPG, whose success had far outpaced the Diablo series in sales.

Legacy

A few employees from the Diablo team, including Eric Sexton, Michio Okamura, and Steven Woo, launched a new company, Hyboreal Games.

Castaway Entertainment

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, but had yet to produce any products for that publisher when it was shut down in 2008.

Former Blizzard North members who joined the studio include Michael Scandizzo, Stefan Scandizzo, Alan Ackerman, Steven Woo, Rick Seis, 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.

Moon Beast Productions

Several key members of Condor / Blizzard North, founded Moon Beast Productions in 2021 as an independent game development studio. The team at Moon Beast Productions includes key Blizzard North founders and staff members, Erich Schaefer, Peter Hu (considered the primary architect of Diablo II LOD expansion) and Phil Shenk (Shenk the Overseer in Diablo II was named for Phil).

In December 2024 it was confirmed by several sources including VentureBeat that Moon Beast had secured $4.5 million in seed funding from a group including 1AM Gaming, The Mini Fund, Overwolf, Versus Ventures Gaingels, Cohh Carnage, and Mark Pincus. At the time of this writing July 2025 the project is in Pre-Alpha development and has not released title.

Games

As Condor

• NFL Quarterback Club '95 (1994) – handheld versions
• Justice League Task Force (1995) – Mega Drive/Genesis version
• NFL Quarterback Club '96

As Blizzard North

• Diablo (1996) – action role-playing game
• Diablo II (2000) – action role-playing game
  • Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (2001) – expansion pack

As Castaway Entertainment

• Yaris (2007) – racing advergame

Cancelled

• Diablo Junior
• NFLPA Superstars (for the canceled Panasonic M2 console)
• Diablo III (in development 2000–2005)

References

• Techspot: Alfonso Maruccia December 20, 2024 at 2:57 PM – New Studio Moon Beast ProductionsStudio founded by Diablo and Diablo II team want to revolutionize the ARPG on $4.5 million budget
• Venture Beat: Dean Takahashi December 18, 2024 6:00 AM Moon Beast Announces $4.5M in Funding secured Moon Beast Productions raises $4.5M for action RPG

References

1. Media, Black Shell. (November 7, 2016). "Indie Insider Podcast #9 – David Brevik and Graybeard Games – Black Shell Media".
2. (1996-03-06). "Davidson & Associates, Inc. Signs a Definitive Merger Agreement With Condor, Inc.". PR Newswire.
3. (July 1996). "Merger Madness Continues". [[International Data Group.
4. "Escapist Magazine – The Rise of Blizzard".
5. Fahey, Rob. (3 August 2005). "Blizzard North shut down; Diablo team moves to Irvine". GamesIndustry.biz.
6. Schreier, Jason. (October 2024). "Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment". [[Grand Central Publishing]].
7. "Hyboreal Games Q&A – Shacknews – PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads".
8. (2004-03-22). "Electronic Arts Signs Publishing Agreement with Castaway Entertainment".
9. "EA signs deal with Castaway Entertainment".
10. (22 March 2004). "EA in Agreement with Castaway – IGN".
11. (15 July 2016). "Castaway Entertainment shipwrecked, suspends operations".
12. (2005-09-07). "New Hires at Castaway Entertainment".
13. "Castaway sends out SOS".
14. Geddes, Ryan. (2008-04-08). "Castaway to Close its Doors".
15. "Blizzard North".
16. (March 10, 2022). "Diablo 2 Veterans Set Up New Studio to Work on Original IP".
17. "Peter Hu – Diablo Wiki".
18. "Shenk the Overseer – Diablo Wiki".
19. Takahashi, Dean. (December 18, 2024). "Moon Beast Productions raises $4.5M for action RPG".
20. (12 October 2012). "Blizzard considered "Diablo Junior" for GBC/GBA".
21. (15 October 2012). "Diablo Junior for Game Boy Color".
22. Brevik, David. (11 May 2016). "[[Game Developers Conference]]".