Um, didn’t windows drop support for those around the same time?
Microsoft EoL 2014 for XP, 2017 for Vista, however Diablo 2 is still playable on both even now.
They were making a remaster, canceled it and now are doing a remake.
I would be wary of reading too much into the use of remake vs. remaster in news articles. They are not always using them accurately. Hell, as others have said, Blizzard talked about WC3R as a remake at some point (just as the Bloomberg article call it a remake - when it clearly is not).
In all likelihood, D2R would be a remaster. Nothing has changed there.
The development has stopped and restarted. We know that from news and leaks.
Which leaks and news says it has stopped and started? Seemingly it only says development has moved around between teams.
In any case, even if it has stopped and started, that is not the same as changing from remaster to remake, which was the change we were talking about.
I see no reason to support a game on unsupported OS’s.
If gameplay, style, story etc. is unchanged, then I would definitely classify them as remasters. Just a new coat of paint on top of what still plays like the same game.
Which is not meant negatively. I very much hope D2 will be exactly that.
Whereas remake as I see it means you are basically creating a new game, based on the concept of the original. Like FF7R especially, but to a lesser degree also Resident Evil 2.
While a new game engine is a big thing, these days it is not that special for a game, without being re-released, to be upgraded to a newer game engine.
In any case, the terms are overlapping, and what matters is of course the actual games and not the names.
VV has managed to make new versions of old games, while being very faithful to the originals, which to me a great sign for D2R. Give me a faithful new release, then they can call it whatever 
Maybe you missed this:
https://diablo.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/diablo-ii-resurrected-needed-by-mac-players
When doing the remaster (21.11.2019):
https://diablo.blizzplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/diablo-ii-mac-os-catalina-issue-5.jpg
After canceling it:
https://diablo.blizzplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/diablo-ii-mac-os-catalina-issue-6.jpg
Not sure how that is remotely relevant.
Whether original D2 can run on Mac, 64 bit etc. has nothing to do with either remaster or remake.
Both would be a new game. A D2R would not make D2 able to run on anything new. D2R being a remaster or a remake would not change anything in that regard. A remaster is not a patch.
It’s pretty much it. And they can sell it for how much they want, which was their original aim - to make some fast money like with WC:R. And they moved away from it.
My definition is more simply on the
If you actually take the original game/code/whatever and update it (which is what was done to the FF remasters, age of empires DE, starcraft, etc), it’s a remaster. If you make the new game from scratch on a new engine it’s a remake.
For example, I believe if Vicarious Visions were to give D2 the same treatment they gave to Crash and THPS, the game would probably be made on a 3D engine.
For many people who are more on the purist D2 side, that alone would be enough to consider it a different game (even though it is possible to “simulate” the look and feel of a sprite-based game in a 3D engine, for example, like guilty gear XRD did by using a series of techniques such as manually posing and lighting every single frame of animation to imitate 2D animations with 3d models).
Sorry, but no. A remaster is not a patch. I mean, the fact they are selling it, means it is not a patch.
In any case, you have nothing that indicates that they moved away from anything.
Since a 3D game can 100% simulate a 2D sprite game (by making the camera fixed), I dont see how it being 3D would make it into a different game. Purists can feel whatever they want of course 
Now if they had a free-moving camera, then yeah, it would no longer be the same game.
Pretty yes. Remasters are big patches.
Anyone can sell whatever he wants under whatever description he wants. When the buyers don’t like it we have the WC:R case.
Yes, still nothing. If they announce a remake, we’ll know the development change from remaster to remake happened.
No… Because you have nothing that proves (nor indicates) it started out as a remaster.
Now, I expect it both started out as, and will be released as, a remaster. But time will tell of course.
Their Classic Team won’t do a huge patch including 64-bit support for 20 year old game and not sell it as a remaster.
All of this is just one big portion of speculation of course (D2 Resurrected is still a rumor). Blizzconline will show whether this theory is right.
Well, just fixing the camera isn’t really enough since model-based animations and sprite-based animations are different, not to mention the 360 degree movement, collisions and all that, but those are all things that can be indeed simulated with other techniques. The most fundamental aspect of maintaining 2D gameplay would be the frame timings and animations. The core of D2 theorycrafting comes from frame data (the so called breakpoints), so in order to have a faithful remake of D2 gameplay they would need to recreate those frame-by-frame animations and timings.
Even then that was ine QA tester, back in June. What he know recently is Team 1 was basically told to transfer to other teams or leave after the WCR fiasco. How long afterwards we do it know. But they did do some fixes to it so I would say it was rather recent given the VV news. 6 months could be within that time frame.
I doubt Team 1 went from WCR launch, to post launch fixes, then did a bunch if work to get another game, that has been said it will take an entire rewrite to make it work for modern gaming screens, ready for a soon to be announced/released project.
We know studios test all the time. This could have been just additional muscle to test things as they get stuff working. Nit necessarily an indicator of a somewhat ready game like the state D4 is in.
exactly. why can’t people just wait for blizzconline in less than a month? Instead of posting random rumor-mill crap claiming it as absolute fact or 100% confirmation. That can ONLY come from blizzard themselves. period. And considering D2 actually DOES have its own forum , its obnoxious all the D2 fanboys keep spamming the D3 forums with them when we already get constant D4 and D:I threads.
No. It could be like Blizzcon 2018. At the time, D4 was in active development. Jason Schreier discussed things about D4 being in development and was proved correct at Blizzcon 2019.
The recent articles said D2R was in development not that it would be announced in a month. Strawman arguments fail.
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