Blizzard North (formerly known as Condor) was an American video game development studio based in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ; ) is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. About 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco, the city borders Burlingame, California, Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough, California, Hillsboro ...

. The studio was the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

division of

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, ...

, known for its ''Diablo'' series. The company was originally based in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...

, before moving a short distance away to San Mateo, with

Blizzard A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling ...

proper being based in Irvine, southern California.

History

Blizzard North was founded in 1993 under the name Condor by David Brevik, Erich Schaefer and Max Schaefer at the request of Brevik. David Brevik served as the president of the company between 1993 and 2003, while the Schaefer brothers held the Vice President positions in the company. The company was purchased and renamed as Blizzard North by Blizzard Entertainment's former owner

Davidson & Associates Davidson & Associates, Inc. was an American developer of educational software based in Torrance, California. The company was founded in 1984 by husband-and-wife Bob and Jan Davidson, the latter of whom led the company as president until Januar ...

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. By June 2003 two new games were in production. The first game in production was Blizzard North's version of '' Diablo III'' which later was scrapped and restarted by Blizzard Entertainment. The second game was Diablo-like game which would take place in space. On June 30, however, several key employees left Blizzard North to form two new companies. Eight moved to form

Flagship Studios Flagship Studios was a computer game company founded by Bill Roper along with , , and David Brevik, former high level Blizzard North executives. The core personnel of Flagship Studios had been collaborating as a team since 1993 when they found ...

, including Blizzard North founder and president David Brevik, the Schaefer brothers and Bill Roper who was transferred from Blizzard Entertainment to Blizzard North in late 1996. Another nine employees left to form Castaway Entertainment. By the time the exodus concluded, around 30 employees had left the company. The resignations were partly due to a conflict with Blizzard Entertainment's owner,

Vivendi Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...

, and partly due to employees wishing to start something new. Back at Blizzard North, however, the resignations had a common effect; of the two unannounced games that were in production, one was canceled. Blizzard Entertainment has since said the canceled game was a "Blizzard North kind of game". On August 1, 2005, Blizzard Entertainment announced the closure of Blizzard North. A key reason for the closure was Blizzard North's poor development of what was to be ''Diablo III'', which did not meet Vivendi's expectations. Former Blizzard North staffers including Joseph Lawrence, Wyatt Cheng, and Matt Uelmen subsequently appeared in the credits of Blizzard's next retail release, '' World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade''. The work of former Blizzard North artist Phroilan Gardner was featured in editions of '' World of Warcraft: The Trading Card Game'' around the same time. A few employees from the ''Diablo'' team, including

Eric Sexton ''Diablo'' is an action role-playing video game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment in January 1997, and is the first installment in the video game series of the same name. Set in the fictional Kingdom of Khandu ...

, Michio Okamura, and

Steven Woo Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...

, organized to launch 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 when it was shut down in 2008. Former Blizzard North members who joined the studio include

Michael Scandizzo Michael Scandizzo is the president and project lead of Castaway Entertainment, a company formed out of former Blizzard North employees in 2003. He is also responsible for programming on Diablo II ''Diablo II'' is an Action role-playing game, a ...

, 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.

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 An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre. Definition The games emphasize real-time combat where the playe ...

*'' Diablo II'' (2000) -

**'' Diablo II: Lord of Destruction'' (2001) -

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or a ...

Cancelled

* Diablo Junior * ''NFLPA Superstars'' (for the canceled Panasonic M2 console) * '' Diablo III'' (in development 2000-2005)

References

* * * *

External links

Blizzard website
{{Authority control Blizzard Entertainment Video game development companies Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies established in 1993 Video game companies disestablished in 2005 Companies based in San Mateo, California Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area