Two employees recalled to The Post a line in the 2019 version of the game’s script that was written as, “And then she was raped, brutally.” Employees would repeat the punctuation — comma, period — out loud to each other, alarmed by the direction Stępień had gone with the script.
“Rape has no place in the ‘Diablo’ universe,” said a former employee. “It’s not a thing that we should be tackling because it takes a certain amount of nuance and a deft hand.”
The “rape version,” as multiple employees called the script, was ultimately overhauled in the same year, and the female character was cut from the story.
Blizzard spokesperson Reynolds told The Post that “the story in question was floated more than three years ago under different leadership as character backstory, not game content. At that time, it was deemed inappropriate, and we went in a different direction. We remain confident in the team — they’re building something incredible, and have received a lot of positive feedback from players.”
