Blizzard canceled a roguelike version of Diablo 4 with permadeath and Batman: Arkham-style brawls

If things had gone differently at Blizzard 10 years ago, we might've been playing a version of Diablo 4 with melee brawls akin to the Batman: Arkham series. I'm not even sure that idea sounds good on paper, but it didn't seem to work out in practice either because Blizzard eventually rebooted the project into the demon-slaying action RPG we have today.

In an excerpt from his book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment on Wired, Jason Schreier tells the story of the Diablo 4 that never was.