Resurrected ‘Remaster is coming this year, built by the old’ Destiny 2 ‘support studio

With Starcraft and WarCraft being remastered by Blizzard (with varying degrees of success), it should come as no surprise that a Diablo 2 remaster is likely to come. But now, according to a new rumor, we may have a name and a timeline and even an understanding of who specifically at Activision is working on it.

The report comes from the French site Actugamer, which appears to have a fairly reliable view of Blizzard specifically, previously predicting Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 announcements, so keep that in mind when listening to this info.

According to Actugamer, the Diablo 2 remaster is called Diablo 2: Resurrected, which sounds precisely like the type of name they would choose for that. It is supposed to launch in the fourth quarter of 2020 in time for the holidays, and it seems unlikely that we will have other high-profile Blizzard releases at the time (Activision, of course, will have a new Call of Duty). Given the popularity of the Diablo franchise, it could be its most successful remaster to date.

However, we all remember the disaster that was the launch of Warcraft 3: Reforged, which was one of the most broken and unpleasant versions of recent memory. I hope that lessons have been learned from that disaster, and I am hopeful based on the second part of this rumor, that Vicarious Visions is the one doing the Diablo 2 remaster.

Vicarious Visions is a very old studio that has been under Activision’s wing for a while. They previously worked on a wide variety of projects, from Skylanders to Guitar Hero, but with those dead franchises, their role has changed. My readers probably know Vicarious Visions better as a support studio Activision took it upon themselves to help Bungie develop the Destiny 2 content. They then produced pretty stellar things with Bungie like the Warmind expansion, and helped the PC port of Destiny 2 was one of the best in the business. So yes, I definitely think they are a good choice for a potential Diablo 2 remaster, based on their recent work. Fans of fate already miss them.

Why is this coming now? Because Blizzard, as always, is not being terribly timely with its releases. We know Overwatch’s somewhat odd PvE expansion, called Overwatch 2 despite its questionable credentials as a true sequel, is on the way, but it’s definitely not in time for this vacation.

Diablo 4 is also on the distant horizon, and while we’ve seen a decent amount of footage of it, it’s still likely going to be a few years away, so this release will scratch that Diablo sting in the meantime. Since you can still Play Diablo 2 original now and become hopelessly addicted, I have to believe that a proper remaster would have the same effect. It is unknown what the economy of the Jordan Stone will be like when he returns.

So, it would give some weight to this rumor, both from the source and from common sense. I really hope this is for the holidays.

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