Fallout New Vegas director's first D&D RPG launched on the same day as Diablo 2, "which sounds like it would be catastrophically bad," but it ended up helping it instead
Nov. 6, 2024Diablo 2 fans “were like, ‘Icewind Dale - what’s this? Yeah, we’ll pick that up too’”
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Fallout New Vegas director Josh Sawyer has suggested that Diablo 2 actually helped drive sales for his first D&D RPG, Icewind Dale, by launching on the same day.
According to Wikipedia, Diablo 2 launched on June 28 while Icewind Dale launched a day later on June 29, but the sentiment still stands that the two games launched very, very closely to one another. And in an interview withEdge Magazine, Sawyer acknowledged the perception that an RPG like Icewind Dale from a relatively small studio (at the time) launching at the same time as a juggernaut sequel like Diablo 2 would not be good for the former’s sales.
“Icewind Dale launched on the same day as Diablo 2, which sounds like it would be catastrophically bad, but it actually did pretty well,” Sawyer said, suggesting quite the opposite: that the timing actually benefitted Icewind Dale. “There were lines and lines of people to get Diablo 2, but a lot of them were into fantasy and isometric games, so they were like, ‘Icewind Dale - what’s this? Yeah, we’ll pick that up too.”
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After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer, I’m responsible for managing the site’s western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I’m too afraid to finish.
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