Of everything Blizzard announced at BlizzCon 2021 last month, one of the biggest and best-received reveals wasDiablo 2: Resurrected, a remaster of the classic ARPG from 2000 coming to PC and consoles later this year. Following that event multiple developers have discussed details about the game, such asDiablo 2: Resurrectedhaving new accessibility options, but it seems crossplay between various platforms did not make the cut.
A round table interview with designer Andre Abrahamian and producer Matthew Cederquist was published by IGN Middle East on March 4 that dives into the decision-making behind different aspects ofDiablo 2: Resurrected’s design. Among other things it confirmed thatfans can import saves from the originalDiablo 2, and Cederquist said cross-progression is a way to give players “the best experience” regardless of what they decide to play on.
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However, whileDiablo 2: Resurrectedplayers can transfer their data between platforms to ensure their progress is consistent, Cederquist said crossplay between users on varying platforms “just wasn’t the right fit for the game.” He said this comes down to the games having different UIs, control schemes, and other design elements. That being said, Abrahamian told IGN the developers “don’t have anything to announce at this time,” which suggests the feature may still be considered down the line.
Blizzard and Vicarious Visions developers have uniformly expressed this upcoming remaster is dedicated to capturing the experience of the original game, up to and including lead producer Chris Lena sayingDiablo 2: Resurrectedhas no planned balance changesat this time.Diablo 2was only released on PC, and Abrahamian said it took work to convey all of the game’s functions in an “easily readable” way on controller, so preventing PC and console platforms from interacting may have some merit.
There are certain advantages to playing on console that the PC version will not be able to replicate on its own. Specifically,Diablo 2: Resurrecteddevelopers have discussed the PS5’s DualSense controlleras offering interesting ways to experience the game thanks to features like haptic feedback.
Despite everything going into the remaster, Abrahamian said legacyDiablo 2will be playable through BattleNet. Yet the newer version boasts a number of changes that seemingly aim to make it the definitive edition, allwithout modern-gaming trends like microtransactions. While it won’t have crossplay, fans should be able to get a lot out of the experience, and perhaps updates will come down the line.
Diablo 2: Resurrectedlaunches later this year for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
