Diablo is now a huge franchise known to many players. However, its history could have ended many years ago due to financial problems.
The original game was created by Condor studio in the early 90s. The developers made some progress but overestimated their financial capabilities. An offer from Blizzard helped them avoid bankruptcy.
Erich Schaefer, the founder of Condor, shared his memories — at that time, the studio was already close to closing down:
The offer was unexpected, but very timely. The tax authorities were literally at our doorstep and threatened to close the studio.
According to the developer, at that time the budget for Diablo "was very modest" — less than half a million dollars. Thanks to the deal with Blizzard, everything changed:
After [our studio] was acquired, we sat down and started thinking about what we could do now that we were free from budget constraints and had a little extra time. We were looking for an answer to the question: how can we make our game as grand as possible?
In the end, the game was completed, and Condor became Blizzard North, which later made several more projects for the Diablo franchise.
Currently, Blizzard Entertainment is developing Diablo IV — the 13th season and the Lord of Hatred expansion were recently launched for the game.