How Justice League Task Force Led To Diablo

Back in the days of the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis it was very common for two completely different versions of a game to come out on both systems. It could go so far as for two development studios to work on each version, with little collaboration. Former CEO of Condor David Brevik, shared that they were commissioned by publisher Sunsoft to make Justice League Task Force on the Genesis platform. It wasn’t until CES (Computer Electronics Show) 1994 that Sunsoft introduced Condor to their Super Nintendo developer counterparts, Blizzard Entertainment.

 

After getting ot know each other, the two studios shared the other projects they were working on, Warcraft from Blizzard and Diablo from Condor. While Diablo had been shopped around to various publishers, Condor had failed to get the game funded. Blizzard was the first one interested in the idea and eventually agreed to back the game. Condor and Blizzard didn’t always agree on design philosophy. Originally, Diablo was meant to be a slower turn based game where weapons and movement used different fractions of a turn. Blizzard had asked Condor to change it to real time, and eventually a vote was held to determine the system. A large majority of Condor’s staff was in favor of real time combat.

With close collaboration for some time, Blizzard Entertainment’s parent company purchased Condor and renamed it Blizzard North. While the studio would make other hits, Blizzard North would shut down in 2005 after long disagreements with Vivendi about their vision of Diablo III. Years later, much of the staff would start Ruinic Games and create the Torchlight series.   

Kurtis Seid, NoobFeed
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