A remake of 2000 Diablo 2 is in development, although the team now working on it is Activision’s former subsidiary, Vicarious Visions, which is now part of Blizzard Entertainment, Bloomberg reported this weekend.
The intrigue in the Bloomberg report is twofold: first, that the Diablo two remake is under construction, and secondly, that the decrepit launch of Warcraft 3: Reforged a year ago may have played a role in corporate leadership making the remake, called Diablo 2: resurrected, from Blizzard.
Blizzard team 1 was responsible for Diablo 2 remake, but after a post-launch internal analysis of Warcraft 3: Reinforced, Activision Blizzard took this project out of Team 1. Last week, Albany-based Vicarious Visions was incorporated into Irvine, California-based Blizzard’s development operations.
The dissolution of Vicarious Visions and its consolidation with the development of Blizzard was first reported on January 22 by GamesIndustry.biz. GamesIndustry.biz also reported that Jen Oneal, head of Vicarious Visions, is now executive vice president of development for Blizzard and reports directly to Blizzard chief J. Allen Brack.
Bloomberg called for the move to further consolidate control over Blizzard, publishing executives at Activision Blizzard Inc. in general. Blizzard and Activision have been together since the 2008 merger that brought Vivendi Games, then Blizzard’s parent company, on board Activision. Blizzard continued to work autonomously, developing games like Overwatch and World of Warcraft internally and largely remaining separate from Activision’s editorial realm of Call of Duty, Destiny and other mega franchises.
Bloomberg reports that the 2018 departure of Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime “has largely signaled the start of the acquisition of Activision”. Two months after Morhaime left, Blizzard effectively closed Heroes of the Storm and then, in October 2020, the company announced that it was ending all development in Construction on Star 2, which was launched in 2010.
Both HOT and StarCraft two were Blizzard Team 1 projects. Construction on Star 2The retirement of was announced on the same day that Team 1 was reorganized internally, Bloomberg said.
Warcraft 3: Reinforced, a remake of the 2002 real-time fantasy simulation, was a critical failure, with most critics and players deeply disappointed by the prevalence of bugs and glitches and the lack of expected resources. A week after launching on January 28, 2020, Blizzard apologized for Retiredof the launch status, promised that post-launch support would rectify the issues and offered refunds to anyone dissatisfied with the purchase.
Diablo 4 was announced at BlizzCon in November 2019. It doesn’t yet have a release date or window.