“As far as game cancellations, we see that as a strength-a reflection of our commitment to quality, and how we’ve always operated,” the spokesperson said.

When asked, Blizzard did not address the cancellation of this expansion, but as part of a broader statement, spoke about cancellations in general. “They could’ve held off a few months and seen how Reaper did, but in their mind was irredeemable.” (When Reaper launched on PC in late March, 2014, Blizzard said it sold 2.7 million copies in its first week-a big number, but only a fraction of the ~15 million copies that Diablo III had sold across PC and consoles.)

“The perception overall was that management thought, ‘This team really screwed up,’” said one person who was there.

It’s still not clear why Blizzard wouldn’t want to support a game that had been so commercially successful, but the theory on Team 3 was that Blizzard’s management had lost faith in Diablo III and saw it as a failure, even before Reaper launched.

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