Over the last weekend, Blizzard held its virtual BlizzCon 2021 – or BlizzConline, showing off what to expect from the beloved developed in the near future.
The biggest reveal of the show was arguably Diablo 2 Resurrected, a remastered version of the iconic dungeon crawler that is set to launch at some point in 2021. Rumours that this was on the way broke in January when the game's developer Vicarious Visions moved from Activision to Blizzard. We also got some more details about the upcoming Diablo 4, namely the new Rogue character class.
“Diablo II was a pivotal game for Blizzard and millions of players around the world. With Diablo II: Resurrected, we’re excited to bring this classic back to PC and also to consoles—with cross-progression on supported platforms—so that players can relive their memories, or experience Diablo II’s timeless gameplay for the first time, on their platform of choice,” Blizzard president J. Allen Brack said.
“With the new high-resolution audio and video in Diablo II: Resurrected, the game is as fun and engrossing today as it was twenty years ago.”
The other new game revealed at BlizzCon was Blizzard Arcade Collection. This is a digital re-release of three of the studio's classic titles: The Lost Vikings, Blackthorne and Rock N Roll Racing. This was available to download from February 19th.
“The Lost Vikings, Rock N Roll Racing, and Blackthorne ultimately made it possible for us to go on to create Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft, so we thought the Blizzard Arcade Collection would be a fun and fitting way to look back at our roots as a company,” Brack said.
“Many Blizzard gamers around the world fondly remember their time with these games and have often asked us to bring them back for modern platforms, so we’re thrilled to not only do so with this release, but to amp up the experience with new features and functionality available for the first time in each game.”
As always, Blizzard announced a new expansion for its free-to-play card battler Hearthstone. Dubbed Forged in the Barrens, this adds an extra 135 cards to the game, in addition to the new Frenzy keyword. This occurs when a minion survives an attack. Furthermore, Blizzard revealed that it was working on a new roguelike mode called Mercenaries. There wasn't much detail provided about this, but it will be launching later in 2021. As if that wasn't enough, Blizzard is introducing a new Classic mode which lets people play the card game as it was before any expansions.
Blizzard also revealed that it was releasing the Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft Classic. This originally launched back in January 2007. Meanwhile, the modern version of World of Warcraft is benefitting from the Chains of Domination update for its recently-released Shadowlands expansion. This adds a new boss raid, a dungeon and more.
Meanwhile, Blizzard provided a bit more information about Overwatch 2, with the firm saying that it planned to release "hundreds" of PvE Hero Missions.
