Blizzard North Lead Becomes Castaway

Representatives from developer Castaway Entertainment have announced that former Blizzard North studio lead Rick Seis is to join the company as technical director and lead programmer for its first, unannounced project, following the recent dissolving of Blizzard North. Castaway was founded in summer 2003 by a team of artists, programmers and designers who worked on Diablo and Diablo II at Blizzard North. These were later joined by veterans of the Might & Magic role-playing series and Maxis’ The Sims. "I'm delighted that I will be able to rejoin friends and former coworkers from Blizzard North," remarked Seis. “I look forward to reuniting with several others from that team very soon." Before joining Castaway, Seis held the position of development team lead at Blizzard North. Seis joined Blizzard North in 1994 as one of the company's first employees and served as both a senior programmer on the original Diablo and the lead programmer of Diablo II. He has also functioned as the company's director of technology. With development moved to Blizzard's Southern Califonia HQ, it's unclear whether a third Diablo sequel, once believed to be in process at Blizzard North, is currently in development. "We are very excited about acquiring more of the most important resources of Blizzard North: the people that comprised the team there were by far their most valuable assets,” stated Michael Scandizzo, president of Castaway Entertainment. "With the team we have built, we will be able to maintain the quality of development Blizzard North fans have come to expect."