The Xbox VP (Ybarra) is mostly a PC guy, and Rod is someone you bring on to help make sure the project gets finished. Also, if you looked at how well the PC versions of Gears 4 and 5 were done you wouldn't be asking this.
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Bloomberg (Schreier): Vicarious Visions working on Diablo 2 Remake; Blizzard "Team 1" dismantled last fall
- Thread starter Schlorgan
- Start date
The Xbox VP (Ybarra) is mostly a PC guy, and Rod is someone you bring on to help make sure the project gets finished. Also, if you looked at how well the PC versions of Gears 4 and 5 were done you wouldn't be asking this.
I had a brief outline as to the many downgrades revealed at Blizzcon 2019 that you can read here:
WarCraft III: Reforged is looking a lot like WarCraft III: Remastered (confirmed no story changes, no Reforged cutscenes)
My first thought upon digging into the development updates on this game was that Activision probably slashed their budget. There's been a lot of disappointing news that emerged about this game. Starting off with the controversial retcon plans they had...
www.resetera.com
Long story short, budget cuts.
I'm sorry but I would absolutely without question take a THPS 3+4 title over a Diablo 2 Remake no matter what. So all of this plus the shut down of Team 1 is just angering me so damn much.
Not sure I understand this question... Even if they intend D4 to recapture the same essence of the earlier diablos, they wont be the same game, lol. That's kind of like saying why release WoW:Classic when Shadowlands also recaptures many of the games older feelings/essence.
Honestly with how successful Classic WoW has been, I expect them to lean hard on the remakes/re-releases.
Assuming its decent Ill definitely play D2 lol.
VV is located near my city, and I know a few people who work there. I keep holding out hope that they'll get the chance to work on an original IP someday, but apparently today is not that day.
Poor boy...
This won't end well. Upper management will demand the game to be released fast, it will be a mess, devs will be under a lot of stress and start leaving. VV follows Team 1 fate.
PS: So we can also say that one is working on Reforged. The abandoned the mess they created.
Fuck them really.
The current state of Blizzard really bums me out. WC3R was a complete abdication of their old philosophy; a cheap cash-in product, pushed out the door before it was ready. I skipped the WOW expansion and don't even play Hearthstone anymore. Crazy how I used to be a Blizzard superfan and now barely even care what they're working on.
Is it even being actively developed? It can't be a very big team...
I absolutely do not understand why the heads of game companies nowadays think that it's a great idea to decouple the 'Management' from the 'Development' (same thing happened with Cyberpunk...) - It's diametrically opposed to how Blizzard used to work. It used to be all about shipping a quality product with the long-term thinking that if they make the best shit out there, it'll create a community and the products will continue to sell, willingly sacrificing the short-term financial opportunities for long-term health of their products. That strategy made them one of the most trusted devs out there. Now that's all gone to the dodo... And even internally, I can't fathom how the devs feel about Team 1 just being quietly assassinated. If that can happen to them, it can happen to everybody. Does anybody in their management even think about people wanting to feel like they have any kind of job security?
I used to work at Blizzard and used to be proud of being a Blizzard employee. I don't think that kinda thinking exists today at that place anymore. It used to be all about passion and quality and trying to create the most epic shit out there. You can't uphold values like that if the reality looks like this.
I used to work at Blizzard and used to be proud of being a Blizzard employee. I don't think that kinda thinking exists today at that place anymore. It used to be all about passion and quality and trying to create the most epic shit out there. You can't uphold values like that if the reality looks like this.
Good point. But it's Blizzard, they are probably trying to find new ways to fuck things it. Three upcoming Diablo games feels like an overkill anyway.
With the dismantling of team 1 Blizzard is kinda dead to me. I think it's fair to say they've abandoned the strategy genre. Warcraft 3 reforged was an insult to fans and their own legacy. Hope every dev who loves making strategy games moves away from Blizz asap.
I mean, they did ominously say that Diablo IV "isn't coming soon; not even 'Blizzard soon'," so it's going to be a VERY long time before that one hits.
Hopefully the D2 remaster is a worthy stopgap release, at least. Vicarious Visions should do well if Blizzard lets them do their thing.
They're definitely adding new stuff/supporting it. It's not nearly as often as it used to be, but someone is doing work on the thing.
My guess is that they have a skeleton crew salvaging what was already in the process of being done and making some balance changes.
Feel like I've heard about this for a while now. Keep getting my hopes up about my favorites game.
Actually I still would. I am not concerned about their game's performance on PC. I was mostly concerned with consoles taking over PC preference for D4 as an ARPG with console leads overseeing the project. Now the game is far away but I'd rather not hype myself up with those 2.
The leak says remake and not remaster so: I think its highly likely that the remake will be in 3d which means incompatible with the old D2. So it would be its separate thing. One of the old Diablo 2 devs did an interview some time ago saying that translating the mechanics from 2D to 3D would be difficult because they cant just take the old approch and be done with it. And they run the old Diablo 1 / 2 servers since its release but I dont know if they will continue them with the current leadership.
The Activision news from this week indicates that they will announce more remakes / remasters this year so D2 Remake could be the showrunner of this years Blizzcon Online which is in 2 weeks.
I think the original plan was to unveil it at last years Blizzcon but it was so packed with games that they pushed the announcement back for this years Blizzcon.
A current day Acti-Blizz remake of Diablo 2 seems like a disaster waiting to happen. The way modern Blizzard does loot end games is terrible. Their storytelling for WoW, Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 has been overall pretty laughable (the Overwatch shorts were cool.) I would have been much more content with a Starcraft 1 style remaster of Diablo 2 over this.
If it was just Activision I'd probably have a bit more hope for the project (their solo remaster/remakes have been great generally) but now that Blizzard is involved... Man I just hope it's not horrendous.
If it was just Activision I'd probably have a bit more hope for the project (their solo remaster/remakes have been great generally) but now that Blizzard is involved... Man I just hope it's not horrendous.
Kinda shocked at how many people are so willing to toss Team 1 under the bus and be happy that VV are taking over.
Team 1 has put out some of the most beloved and played games of all time, and if they got destroyed by unrealistic time frames it's very likely VV would be as well.
Sad the team got done this dirty.
Team 1 has put out some of the most beloved and played games of all time, and if they got destroyed by unrealistic time frames it's very likely VV would be as well.
Sad the team got done this dirty.
I think we can trust Vicarious Visions after Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2.
Some of them are now at Mike Morhaimes new company Dreamhaven.
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True, but it's not just VV working on the project, it's the Diablo 4 team taking the lead on it apparently. So I no longer trust it.
Yeah it's such a big deal that Team 1 is killed off, it practically shows how they want to kill the RTS genre.
This is like Lucasarts or Westwood shutting down, it's surprising to see so little talk or reaction to what this move show.
It would probably matter more if they didn't already formally wind down the work on SC2 last year. Blizzard restructuring isn't a bad thing. It doesn't mean they don't care for RTS and that's it for the genre. This is the same kind of talk that was happening before SC2 was announced.