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Vessel of Hatred

Diablo 2 Remastered rumors resurface

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Jugalator

Jugalator

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Nov 2, 2018
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"Diablo 2 Resurrected"?

So, French gaming news site Actugaming has posted an article (English translation) claiming that, during Activision-Blizzard's most recent investor's call, they learnt there is indeed a remastered version of Diablo 2 in the works. Currently going by the name Diablo 2 Resurrected, it is supposedly slated for a release in Q4 2020 although the current Coronavirus epidemic might cause delays, as it is said to have done for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, delaying the release from this summer to the end of the year.

The Remaster Rumor Mill

These rumors have cropped up before, and at one point it was even rumored that Blizzard would announce it together with Diablo IV this past Blizzcon 2019. Now, rumors happen all the time, especially surrounding classics like Diablo 2. So what warrants this attention, a thread on a random news post that might as well be cheap clickbait? Well, there might be some more to this rumor in particular than usual. See, a Twitter user and Twitch streamer who goes by the name Metro (@metro_ow) predicted several reveals for the past Blizzcon:
  1. The Overwatch 2 announcement.
  2. The Overwatch 2 hero Echo.
  3. The Diablo IV announcement.
  4. A Diablo II Remastered announcement.
Of all these predictions, only one sticks out as not coming true. The same streamer also accurately leaked the Overwatch hero Ashe the year before. This article's author Julien Blary (@Nari_Ju) accurately predicted, hours before Blizzcon 2019, ads for Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.

Diablo 2 Resurrected is supposedly being developed by the New York-based game studio Vicarious Visions, acquired by Activision in 2005 and known for Destiny 2 in partnership with Bungie, Doom 3 for the Xbox, Guitar Hero games and many others. The Actugaming source also claims that Blizzard will soon comment the disappointment over Warcraft 3: Reforged and that they believe they made a communications mistake, misleading fans into believing this was a remake when it was in reality a remaster, to Blizzard an important distinction, and that they will not make this mistake again with Diablo 2.

The Diablo 2 Remaster Trouble

Finally, a Diablo 2 remaster may not be an as simple work as "updating the graphics" as one may think. Diabloii.net once interviewed former Diablo co-creator David Brevik where it was revealed that he thought many of the original Diablo 2 assets have been irrecoverably lost (!) and that they also took shortcuts during development with a resulting code base that might be hard to adapt to e.g. higher desktop resolutions. This is also why I have personally taken these particular Diablo 2 rumors with a major grain of salt, but hey, there might just be a lot of salt out there after all... Let's just hope that, if true, this remaster won't leave many fans, uh, salty.
 
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I heard from a friend of a friend that VV was looking for QA testers for a "Cornerstone Franchise Title". She hinted that it was D2 remastered but i'd already read the Brevick interview and discounted the rumour.
 
superdave said:
I heard from a friend of a friend that VV was looking for QA testers for a "Cornerstone Franchise Title". She hinted that it was D2 remastered but i'd already read the Brevick interview and discounted the rumour.
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Exactly! My "rumor armor" has been pretty thick on this one because I've heard Brevik's opinion on this. But that's an interesting bit of info too!

Also, this was posted today: The Next Funko Pop Video Game Line

It's Tyrael! Also, it's specifically saying it's the Diablo II Tyrael.

Summer Games Fest is also planning a surprise game reveal for May 12 but there are of course many games to reveal... I think that one might be a long shot.
 
Jugalator said:
Summer Games Fest is also planning a surprise game reveal for May 12 but there are of course many games to reveal... I think that one might be a long shot.
Click to expand...

Any new release would only be announced at Blizzcon. I did see a recent announcement about covid-19 and the Blizzcon event. Gist of the announcement was....we'll try this year but it might not happen.
 
mrpinsky said:
The StarCraft remaster was not announced at Blizzcon. Diablo III was not announced at Blizzcon, either.
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I know but if there is a Blizzcon this year, what is their big draw other than some more D4 gameplay? D3 was announced at a Blizzard event in France if I recall. Can't remember where Starcraft R was announced. I'd guess that it was at a Blizzard event of some kind too. Chances are the announcement for any D2 R release wouldn't be made at the SGF, it would be made from their own stage.
 
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Just a little update on this -- apparently Vicarious Visions are to announce Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 remasters for Summer Games Fest. Arrgh. Diablo's minions grow weaker! Still, the rumor wasn't about a possible Diablo 2 remaster, but pointing it out specifically. VV is also a pretty big games studio. Although it's a bit worrying that they were working on another remaster... A bit too close for comfort with the rumor.

On the upside, Blizzard Entertainment will be showing up on those digital festivities!

If nothing else, it'd be cool to see a new bit of Diablo 4 gameplay or so. *trying to keep hopes in check* Another possibility is a date for Diablo Immortal, or at least a Beta date. It's about time we got something on that and according to their most recent investor's call, a public beta should be getting pretty close now.
 
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Is it just going to be a graphical improvement? I mean what exactly is this rumour saying? Remastered usually refers to an asthetic improvement like a face-lift. But if they make it so it's now properly adapted to 1080p wide screen then that would be a very big deal.
 
I'm still curious about the Funky Pop figure for Diablo 2 Tyrael with an exclusive release clearly planned for the cancelled E3 2020 (it even says so on various product pages for it!) that now instead just kind of... happened with a whimper... Could it have been meant to be timed with some sort of announcement? That was cancelled now that the entire event was? In that case, we ought to be very close now and the Summer of Gaming would feel appropriate.
 
Stop teasing me.
 
At this point in time I would be happy if they just made a 64bit version for Mac. Mind you at the rate Blizzard work we will be complaining about lack of ARM support before they release that.
 
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superdave said:
I heard from a friend of a friend that VV was looking for QA testers for a "Cornerstone Franchise Title". She hinted that it was D2 remastered but i'd already read the Brevick interview and discounted the rumour.
Click to expand...
Now hearing that this may be more than just a rumour and it's happening.
 
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