Josh Mosqueira

Josh Mosqueira was the game director of Diablo III.

Biography
Mosqueira played the original Diablo when it was released.

Pre-Blizzard
Mosqueira has over 15 years of experience as a pen-and-paper designer and RPG writer with over 20 titles to his credit for White Wolf, Steve Jackson Games, and Dream Pod 9. He also served in the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders of Canada) Regiment for eight years. Before arriving at Blizzard, he held positions at Ubisoft Montreal, Relic Entertainment, and Vicarious Visions. His experience as a creative director, design director, and lead designer has spanned numerous genres, including real-time strategy games, first-person shooters, and action games. His prior credits include Far Cry 3, Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and Homeworld 2. He worked with Jay Wilson as part of the Company of Heroes team.

Blizzard Entertainment
Mosqueira was contacted by Jay Wilson in February, 2011. At the time, Blizzard Entertainment was hiring for a lead designer for Diablo III, and someone from Ubisoft had applied. Wilson had contacted Mosqueira in order to get information on Ubisoft's company culture. During the conversation, Wilson offered the position to Mosqueira himself. Mosqueira responded that he'd have to think about it, but quickly accepted the offer. Mosqueira joined Blizzard in May of 2011 as the lead designer for the game's console version. Mosqueira and his team were given creative freedom in altering their version of the game to suit the control scheme of a controller. As the PC version entered its "crunch period," Mosqueria and his team were temporarily transferred to work on the main game. After its release, they returned to work on the console version.

In 2013, he replaced Jay Wilson as Diablo III's game director. Initially, he wasn't going to apply to take Wilson's position, as he preferred overseeing the small console team as opposed to a team of 400. However, Wilson and other figures within Blizzard encouraged him to take on the role. As game director for Team 3, Mosqueira was responsible for overseeing the overall game design of the Diablo franchise, including its transition to a new platform and for a new audience. This involved maintaining the game’s creative vision, and overseeing a team of designers as they refined the game’s critically acclaimed gameplay experience. He specified the setting, protagonist, and antagonist of Reaper of Souls, wanting the two to balance out. After the release of Reaper of Souls, Mosqueira headed up development of Project Hades.

In December, 2014, Mosqueira and other members of Team 3 provided consultation with Bungie on the development of The Taken King, as Activision had noticed similar complaints leveled at Destiny as the original version of Diablo III.

Mosqueria left Blizzard Entertainment on July 1, 2016. It is unclear as to whether Mosqueira left because of the cancellation of Hades, or whether his departure prompted its cancellation. When asked in 2018, Mosqueira refused to comment.

Post-Blizzard
Mosqueira is currently a member of Bonfire Studios.

Trivia

 * Greed is one of his favorite monsters in Diablo III.