Diablo 2: Resurrected Developer Says The Game Won't Have Cross-Play

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The upcoming remaster of Diablo 2: Resurrected won’t have cross-play, according to a Blizzard developer on the project. While this twenty-year-old cult classic loot-based RPG is getting an all-new remastering for PC and consoles, this brand new remaster will not include cross-play. It turns out bringing such a beloved series back into the limelight can be a real challenge.

Diablo 2: Resurrected is the remastered edition of Diablo 2, a sequel to Blizzard’s Diablo on PC released in the year 2000. Diablo 2 continues on the story from the first game, taking place just after the end of the final act in Diablo, with the unnamed warrior unraveling under the strain of taking in the Lord of Terror’s essence into his own body, becoming a new prime evil for players to face. Players choose from a new roster of heroes to explore Diablo's world of Khanduras - the Amazon, Assassin, Necromancer, Barbarian, Druid, Sorceress, and Paladin. The plot of Diablo 2 ties directly into the story of Diablo 3.

In a recent round table interview with IGN Middle East, two of the main developers for Diable 2: Resurrected, have spoken about how they have been trying to balance the original design and aesthetic of the game all while bringing the game into the modern day with new graphics and quality of life changes. Some of these quality-of-life changes include cross-platform play, with players able to continue their progress across multiple consoles with cross-save. While Diablo 2: Resurrected will be available on all modern platforms, players will only be able to play together on the same platform. At this point in time, cross-play will not be available in the remaster, with various issues in the game’s design preventing cross-play from working. “Cross-play was a cool idea, but it just wasn’t the right fit for the game since the game has different UIs, control schemes, and stuff like that,” said Matthew Cederquist, Gamer Producer, to IGN, “We brought in cross-progression because it felt right, and we wanted to make sure that no matter what console, or platform a player wants to play on, they are going to get the best experience.”

The developers also discussed the team’s plan to keep the same feel of the game in line with the original Diablo 2. The team decided on a 70 - 30 art rule for the entire game. This rule would mean that only 70% of the art in the remake will be new, with the remaining 30% remaining the same but instead being used to add embellishments and modernization. “When we first started working on the game, we wanted to keep all the gameplay aspects, like discovering the Horadric Cube recipes, or the deep itemization systems or the drop rates, and all the storytelling. But when we approach things like the art, we wanted to push it and modernize it as much as we could,” Andre Abrahamian, Game Designer, told IGN.

It’s still unclear as to when both Diablo 2: Resurrected and Diablo VI will be released, with both only having been announced in last month’s digital Blizzcon event. In the meantime, Blizzard has been releasing plenty of news on how the remaster and next installment in the series will play out. Both are shaping up to be exciting new steps for the loot-RPG-based genre.