Diablois back in the public spotlight following Blizzcon 2019, where highly anticipated sequelDiablo 4was officially announced. The excitement forDiablo 4ended up overrunning anotherDiablo-related rumor that didn’t end up panning out. That is, the rumor that Blizzard was going to announce aDiablo 2remaster during BlizzCon 2019 in addition toDiablo 4. But some discussion is still happening about the rumored remaster, leading to the franchise’s creators to even step in and comment on the possibility.
Speaking to GameSpot atPath of Exile’s ExileCon, where they were invited as special guests,Diablocreators Max and Erich Schaefer had some bad news for fans interested in aDiablo 2remaster. Namely, that they both believe such a thing to be an incredible challenge to do, due to certain circumstances withDiablo 2’s development. According to the Schaefers, late inDiablo 2’s development Blizzard North suffered the corruption of its backup data drives. Meaning that much ofDiablo 2’s original code and assets were irrevocably lost.
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“It’s all gone. We were supposed to have a backup but neglected it. We spent a day or two in sheer panic,” says Erich, capturing the gravity of the situation. While the team at Blizzard North was ultimately able to piece together the game based on chunks stored on individual computers, the history ofDiablo 2’s development was gone. “It would make it very difficult for Blizzard to do aDiablo 2remaster,” Erich confirms, noting that Blizzard would have to make many of the assets over from scratch.
That isn’t to say that Blizzard isn’t capable of creating aDiablo 2remaster, of course. The studio certainly has the resources and talent to do pretty much anything it chooses to do in game development, but that doesn’t mean that it would. Those resources could easily be put intoDiablo 4, which is certain to be much more lucrative in the long run. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to haveDiablo’s original creators step in and over insight into modern-dayDiablodevelopment.
Erich and Max’s comments regardingDiablo 2’s development could ultimately offer a hint at the future. While it’s true that Blizzard might have to replace all ofDiablo 2’s assets to remaster it, what better way to do that than to make assets forDiablo 4that can be used in aDiablo 2remaster? If Blizzard madeDiablo 4assets multipurpose and used them for aDiablo 2remaster, it’s possible that the gamecould still be released prior toDiablo4. Or otherwise made down the road. ForDiablo 2fans, there’s no reason to give up hope just yet.
Diablo 2is out now for PC.
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