Right after Activision announced Vicarious Visions’ merger with Blizzard Entertainment, a new Bloomberg report not only corroborated rumors of a Diablo II remake, it also corroborated a previous report of Vicarious Visions’ involvement in the project.
In May 2020, French website Actu Gaming claimed that the remake did indeed exist and it was being handled by the studio behind the recent Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk games. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has learned from sources close to Blizzard that this information is correct. However, Activision declined to comment on the report, stating only that Vicarious Visions “has been working with Blizzard for some time.”
One of Blizzard’s development teams, which was originally tasked with handling the Diablo II remake was reportedly dismantled last year, and the project was handed over to Vicarious Visions, which is also helping with the Diablo franchise overall.
Interestingly, back in 2019, the original developers of Diablo II disputed reports of a remake being in the works. According to them, Blizzard “lost a lot of assets” and it would be incredibly difficult to start over from scratch. Although Activision hasn’t officially announced anything, quite a few reports from credible sources suggest that the rumors aren’t untrue.
Activision acquired Vicarious Visions back in 2005 to “continue building its technical infrastructure.” “Vicarious Visions has a track record of success and we are very excited to partner with them,” the company said back then while noting that the studio’s titles have sold millions of copies.
We’ll update our readers when we have more information about the rumored Diablo II remake.
[Source: Bloomberg]
