David Brevik has been something of a font of information about the road not taken with Blizzard’s Diablo franchise. As we covered back in 2015, he revealed that before he had left Blizzard, Diablo III had been planned as an MMO, something that no doubt confirmed a lot of suspicions when it came to how early World of Warcraft resembled Diablo II in many ways. But it turns out that according to a recent tweet by Brevik, there was more planned for Diablo II as well, with an entire second expansion on top of the one that was actually released.
Unfortunately for those who would like to peruse all the concept art and early level design, it appears that doesn’t exist; Brevik states that while the second expansion existed at a design level, it never reached production stage, so it was just a document outlining ideas for new areas, classes, and so forth. Still, it’s another bit of insight into the way that the franchise almost went – and if that document ever turns up, people will no doubt be fascinated to read it.
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