interactive entertainment founded 1993 as condor defunct 2005 headquarters san mateo california u.s. key people max schaefer erich schaefer david brevik products justice league task force diablo diablo ii diablo ii lord of destruction website www.blizzard.com blizzard north was the bay area division of blizzard entertainment known for its diablo series . the studio was originally based in redwood city california before moving a short distance away to san mateo with blizzard proper being based in irvine southern california . contents 1 history 2 games 2.1 as condor 2.2 as blizzard north 2.3 canceled 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit blizzard north was founded in 1993 under the name condor by max schaefer erich schaefer and david brevik . the company was purchased and renamed by blizzard about nine months before the release of their hit pc game diablo in 1996 . 1 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 . on june 30 however several key employees left blizzard north to form two new companies . eight moved to flagship studios including bill roper and the three blizzard north founders max schaefer erich schaefer and david brevik . another nine employees left to form castaway entertainment . citation needed 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 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 . citation needed 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 michio okamura and steven woo organized to launch a new company hyboreal games . 2 games edit as condor edit nfl quarterback club 95 1994 handheld versions justice league task force 1995 mega drive genesis version nfl quarterback club 96 as blizzard north edit diablo 1996 action role playing game diablo ii 2000 action role playing game diablo ii lord of destruction 2001 expansion pack canceled edit diablo iii in development 2000 2005 see also edit runic games references edit davidson & associates inc. signs a definitive merger agreement with condor inc. . pr newswire . 1996 03 06 . retrieved 2009 09 28 . hyboreal games q & a shacknews pc games playstation xbox 360 and wii video game news previews and downloads archived october 17 2006 at the wayback machine . paul loughrey november 29 2005 . blizzard north veterans form new independent development studio . gamesindustry.biz . retrieved 2007 05 05 . simon carless november 28 2005 . ex blizzard veterans form hyboreal games . gamecareerguide.net . retrieved 2007 05 06 . ryan ball november 28 2005 . blizzard vets form hyboreal games . animation magazine . retrieved 2007 05 06 . http www.gamespot.com pages company index.php company 39855 external links edit blizzard website v t e blizzard entertainment main franchises diablo starcraft warcraft other games blackthorne the death and return of superman heroes of the storm justice league task force the lost vikings overwatch rock n roll racing rpm racing related activision blizzard battle.net blizzard north blizzcon swingin ape studios retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title blizzard north & oldid 731806011 categories video game development companiesblizzard entertainmentdefunct video game companiesvideo game companies of the united statescompanies established in 1993companies disestablished in 2005companies based in san mateo californiahidden categories articles with wayback machine linksall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from july 2008articles with unsourced statements from may 2016 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages e tinadansk fran aisbahasa indonesiarom n svenskat rk e edit links this page was last modified on 27 july 2016 at 17 00 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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