According to a French site, Activision Blizzard is still planning to release Diablo 2 Resurrected in 2020. This is to be a remastered version of Diablo 2. Additionally, 3 mobile titles and 2 more WoW expansions are reportedly in the works following Shadowlands.
Where does the information come from? The French site Actugaming.net reports that it has received this internal information from “sources close to the studio”. This information came directly after the investor report from Activision Blizzard, which provided barely any new information for this quarter, only stating that everything is going according to plan.
The editor from Actugaming had already correctly anticipated the major revelations from Blizzcon 2019. He had been tipped off by sources shortly before the BlizzCon that Blizzard would showcase Overwatch 2, Diablo 4, and WoW Shadowlands.
This is Diablo 2: Diablo 2 is a cult classic action role-playing game from 2000. The game was developed with “online gaming” in mind. This represented an important step for Blizzard and Battle.net.
The rumor that Diablo 2 is getting a “remaster” has been around for three years. It surfaced in June 2017, coinciding with a remake of Warcraft 3, which has already been released.
A remaster upgrades the game to meet “roughly” today’s technical standards for game quality. Improvements mainly relate to high-resolution graphics and cinematics. However, the gameplay remains untouched.
Diablo 2 Remastered is set to release late in 2020
The sources say: The sources state that Diablo 2 Resurrected is planned to be released in Q4 2020. However, the release may be delayed due to current circumstances, namely the COVID-19 crisis.
According to the sources, the Activision studio Vicarious Visions is working on the project. This is the studio that handled the PC port of Destiny 2 for Activision Blizzard in 2017. They also assisted Bungie with Destiny 2. Since Bungie and Activision parted ways in January 2019, the studio appears to be free.
The other support studio that Bungie had is currently working for Activision on Call of Duty.
A Remaster – not a Remake
This is how they want to do it differently than with Warcraft 3 Reforged: It is said that at Activision Blizzard they clearly heard how dissatisfied people were with Warcraft III Reforged. They believe this was partly due to poor communication about what the title was supposed to be.
Therefore, they want to make it clear: Diablo 2 Resurrected is not a remake, but a remaster.
Further info on Blizzard: The sources say that “several more projects are in the works at Blizzard”:
- including two expansions for WoW in the next 3 years
- 3 new mobile games. However, it is unclear whether the already announced Diablo Immortal is one of these 3 games
This is the Diablo situation: Diablo is now a sensitive area for Blizzard. Diablo 3 was incredibly successful, but some fans of the original games found it not dark and complex enough. Many of those turned to Path of Exile.
Blizzard shattered a lot of porcelain at BlizzCon 2018 when they presented the mobile game Diablo Immortal. Fans had hoped for a new core game, for Diablo 4. Blizzard followed up on this announcement in 2019. Neither Diablo Immortal nor Diablo 4 currently have a reliable release date.
In an interview in November 2019, the 3 original creators of Diablo criticized the new Blizzard. They stated that today’s Blizzard has hardly anything to do with the studio of yesteryear.
