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→2000: Work Begins on Diablo III: it might due to have developer articles later
==2000: Work Begins on Diablo III==
Work began on a third title in the Diablo series shortly after Diablo II was completed, in June 2000. This fact was alluded to in various interviews and comments by the D2 team, and more obviously in various biographies. For instance, when the Blizzard North exodus began in mid-2003, several key members of the Diablo II team formed [http://castawayentertainment.com Castaway Entertainment] (now [http://www.bigtreegames.com Big Tree Games]). One of the founders, [[Stefen Scandizzo]], said the following in his company bio, with an underline for emphasis.
<blockquote>
Stefan joined Blizzard Entertainment in 1998 as a level designer. While at Blizzard, he developed key functional elements for ''Diablo II''’s random maze generation and also created much of the dungeon layouts using both his artistic and programming skills. He continued his level designing in ''Diablo II''’s expansion: ''Lord of Destruction''. <u>In 2000, Stefan started producing 3D monsters for the character team for an unannounced upcoming sequel</u>. Stefan worked for Blizzard for five years.
<s>http://castawayentertainment.com/about.html</s>
</blockquote>
This same point was made by [[Michio Okamura]]'s biography when he left Blizzard North to co-found [http://www.hyborealgames.com/ Hyboreal Games] in December 2005; his bio was similar to Stefan's, in that it initially said his work at Blizzard North was on an "unannounced sequel," before the wording was changed to "unannounced project." Given that the only games Blizzard North ever released were in the Diablo series, and that we now know Warcraft and Starcraft games were being worked on by teams at Blizzard Irvine, it's pretty clear that the only other possible game world to set a sequel in was the world of Diablo.
==2005: Blizzard Centralizes Operations==