Project Hades

Project Hades was the codename for a cancelled Diablo title.

History
Work on Project Hades began after the release of Reaper of Souls and the cancellation of The King in the North. The original mandate was for Team 3 to create a "Diablo IV," regardless of what form such a game would take. The project was overseen by Josh Mosqueira. According to three people who worked on the project, Hades would have been a Diablo game in the style of Dark Souls. It would be a Gothic, challenging dungeon crawler, utilizing a third person over-the-shoulder camera rather than the series's traditional isometric design. It was such a departure from previous games, some at Blizzard thought they might not even end up calling it Diablo IV. From 2014 until 2016, it was Team 3's main project, developed alongside a handful of patches and light content updates for Diablo III. However, it was cancelled in 2016. Reasons for the cancellation are unclear, but two developers involved with Hades have stated that the game had experienced a rocky development cycle and wasn't shaking up. Furthermore, Mosqueria left Blizzard in 2016. However, it is unclear with Mosqueria left because of the cancellation of Hades, or whether the project was cancelled because of his departure (Mosqueria has refused to comment on Hades).

The cancellation of Hades led to Team 3 splitting between two projects. The first was Rise of the Necromancer, which they hoped would act as a short-term solution for fans hungry for more Diablo content. The second group began worked on Project Fenris.