Diablo III
Diablo III shipped with PvP cut from launch and replaced by free-for-all brawling. The pre-launch ranked PvP mode was cancelled publicly, and the scene that grew was casual co-op PvE with informal duels.
Diablo III launched in 2012 with one of the most-cited "PvP that wasn't" stories in modern Blizzard history. The original pre-launch plan included a structured Team Deathmatch arena mode that was demoed at conventions; Blizzard pulled it before launch citing balance and design concerns, replacing it with the brawling free-for-all mode added in patch 1.0.7.
Brawling lives in private games at the Scorched Chapel and serves as informal duels and screwing-around-with-friends PvP rather than competitive infrastructure. The Diablo III audience that wanted competitive PvP either stayed in D2 or migrated to Path of Exile when it launched. The cancellation is part of the genre's history of ARPG developers attempting structured PvP, finding the balance work too heavy, and reverting to lighter informal systems.
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