There are likely two reasons Blizzard is making this remaster:
- Diablo IV
- Diablo Immortal
(A possible reason 3 may be the sunsetting of BNet 1.0)
The last release under the Diablo franchise was Reaper of Souls in 2014. That is seven long years without a game in the franchise, which is an eternity compared to other games that have a new version out every 12 months.
I see so many threads and comments saying “The game needs to be modernized or it won’t last!”
The point of releasing this game for Activision-Blizzard is not to make lifelong players of Diablo II Resurrected, it’s to get people talking about the Diablo franchise again. That way when Diablo Immortal comes out the name will be relevant. (The same is true of Diablo Immortal for Diablo IV IMO)
It makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. Throw a little money at remastering an old game to revive the franchise and get people talking about it again. What doesn’t make sense is to throw a lot of money at making a whole new game out of an old one.
I think it’s highly unlikely we see things like new end game content or major changes after release. After the addition of ladder runewords/recipes to the non-ladder and single player modes I’m not even convinced we’ll see a ladder at this point.
For those of you holding your breath for massive changes, new content and essentially Diablo 2.5… I wish you the best of luck. May the odds be ever in your favor.
21 Likes
I think it’s also a distinct possibility they are launching this as a testing ground to see what is and isn’t a working dynamic for the development of Diablo 4. I think they plan on further developing this as an experiment.
4 Likes
Further development costs money. Big companies don’t like to spend money. They like to make as much as possible while also spending as little as possible.
6 Likes
Well like I say, it would be an investment. Experimenting here to see what works means they’ll be better equipped to develop a successful Diablo 4.
1 Like
If you’ve played Diablo 2 recently on battle.net, you will know that the original servers are in a bad state. Lag, random disconnects, temp bans for VPN/business isps… It sucks.
Then there’s the botting problem, and various other hacks that are used.
2 Likes
Yeah all the more reason for them to move the remaining players off of those servers IMO. Which is why I put reason 3 as a possibility.
They can’t force ads for new games and WoW pets down my throat when I’m playing on BNet 1.0, which cuts into their quarterly revenue.
2 Likes
Replace “Big companies” with “Activision” and you have the correct statement. Blizzard’s never had issues doing something, but big pappa Activision doesn’t let much happen.
2 Likes
Yeah I think the original Blizzard has been dead for a long time. Since around 2008 tbh. Ever since the merger the quality of the games has just dropped way off.
4 Likes
Yep. Completely accurate imo.
Stuff like act 6 etc? Yeah, no chance.
But smaller pieces of new content, like items, enemies etc? Seems reasonably likely. That is a pretty good way to get peoples attention.
A bit like their D3 maintenance mode. Tiny pieces of content, to keep things “going” until D4.
D4 is likely still ~2 years away. That is a long time if they dont do anything.
And while D:I might be relevant for bringing in new players to the franchise, it is also a mobile game. Not very relevant for anyone else, such as the people interested in D2R.
D3 is also being bundled with D2R so I have a feeling that they’ll just throw ads on the D2R launch screen about new D3 seasons and updates.
As tone-deaf as Blizzard can be, I think they have gotten the memo that many people interested in D2R might be somewhat less interested, if not outright hostile, toward D3 
4 Likes
I sat outside GME for the midnight release of D3. It was absolutely terrible at launch so I can’t blame anyone for feeling that way. Had they never added adventure mode I would probably be hostile also. I think over the years they added a lot of things that made D3 a decent game, but never held a candle to its predecessors.
1 Like
I agree D2R is a space filler before launch of other games in the franchise. The goal was still to make a profit but just keep fans interested in the diablo franchise while waiting for the next big things (presumably not D:I but D4 for many).
1 Like
Sadly if D:I is a mobile game with microtransactions they’ll probably gross a lot more from that over time than either D2R or DIV IMO. There is a toooooon of money in mobile game microtransactions.
Nope, nearly all hate toward D3 is fairly justified imo. People should not be childish about the hate of course, but the game is simply bad. Heck, imo most of the changes Blizzard made over the years, only made D3 worse and worse (power creep and legendary rain especially).
If Blizzard, after selling me D2R, decide that the best way to keep me as a customer is to give me a news story about yet another power creep D3 season… well, they would be doing a really bad job at keeping me around for D4.
The way I see it, D2R is exactly Blizzards chance to show that they can patch a game, without butchering it D3 style. Because if they cant do that, why would I dare to buy D4.
While the lack of lobby in console D2R might hurt D2Rs sales, I bet the game will be a big financial success. Lots of nostalgia build up.
2 Likes
Especially if they keeps costs low by cutting staff after release. VV will also likely have other contracts and not allocate a ton of resources to this once it’s out.
VV is now under Blizzard and has been for months. Most likely VV folks would be shifted to work on other Blizzard projects (announced and unannounced). I do not think that they would cut staff but reapportion.
VV has been absorbed by Blizzard. Or at this awkward Blizzard self-implosion point, maybe VV has absorbed Blizzard, since the VV boss is now ½ of the “boss team” of Blizzard.
I assume VV will be split into (and likely already are) D4, WoW and new projects.
But keeping a few people on D2R? That seems likely.
2 Likes
VV wouldn’t absorb Blizzard, VV was and still is an Activision dev first. Why do you think two of their employees were promoted to be coleaders?
With VV heads now coleading Blizzard, it’s easy to say that VV has absorbed Blizzard.
Just because a Chevy engine has a Ford shell around it doesn’t make it a Ford. (it makes it a Dodge) 
1 Like