Blizzard Honors Passed Employee in Latest Diablo Patch

Diablo 3 patch 2.3.0 releases soon.

While Diablo 3 is certainly a popular, well-loved game, a new patch isn’t generally the kind of thing we dwell on here at Gamerz Unite: we’re too busy tackling the hard-hitting news, like the fact that the Nintendo NX will have games and that Online Casinos are a thing. But this particular patch introduces a powerful new item—Kanai’s Cube—which will change the way the game’s loot system works completely… and more importantly, pays tribute to a dearly departed friend.

First thing first: Kanai’s Cube, in Blizzard’s own words, does “All the things." It enables you to take the essence of legendary items so you can use their unique powers at will, without having to lug them around… AND it allows you to re-forge legendaries, in case their stats are too weak for your liking. This re-rolls the legendary as if you’d first picked it up, and even gives it a chance to become Ancient… but you could also lose the Ancient stat too, if you’re not careful, so… do that. Do careful. It can also combine gems, transmute appearances, and remove level limits… so… it’s super diverse.

But more important than all that is the name. Kanai. Ring any bells? It might: Kevin Kanai Griffith was an artist at Blizzard before he lost his battle against cancer and passed away last year. The gaming industry reacted passionately, and his family even started a charity in his name, but now Blizzard is imbuing his name and story forever in the lore of Diablo, his favorite franchise.

Video games have a pretty amazing history of putting dead people in their games, either for historical reasons (you can never kill Hitler too many times) or in honor of those past. It’s cool to see Blizzard doing this for one of their own—especially since it’s a name everyone will be using—and I hope the story behind the name remains unforgotten.