I seriously doubt that was what the original creators intended. It's like, okay, well, yes, that's a bug. When it comes to things that could even be perceived as bugs, these are things like, if you stand in this one spot during this one boss fight, the boss can't get to you. Rob Gallerani, principal designer at Vicarious Visions. But that's something that's core to the game, core to the loop. So things like a very small inventory, stamina management, potion management, tomes for your scrolls - those are things in other games just become button presses. Rob Gallerani: There are certain things players are like, oh, why is this a mechanic, right? And those are the ones that are very easy for us to say, well, we have to keep that because that's core to D2. You mentioned embracing the quirks of the original Diablo 2. Gallerani was the design lead on the Warmind expansion for Destiny 2 and led the puzzle team on its Black Armory expansion in 2018, before Bungie parted ways with publisher Activision and took Destiny with it. Vicarious Visions was reportedly made a part of Blizzard to work on Diablo 2 Resurrected after the powers that be gave the project to the team behind Diablo 4 instead of the team that was initially set to make it: Blizzard's Team 1 - aka the team that made the poorly received Warcraft 3: Reforged and, before that, MOBA flop Heroes of the Storm and real-time strategy game StarCraft 2.
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Sane Trilogy and, most recently, the well-received Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2. Gallerani works at Vicarious Visions, the studio behind the superb Crash Bandicoot N. How about a Netflix show? Everyone's doing it. Now, Fergusson oversees Blizzard's collective efforts around all things Diablo, as well as exploring opportunities to extend the Diablo universe. And from Fergusson specifically, we asked about the Diablo masterplan - or as he puts it: "the re-emergence of Diablo."įergusson, who joined Blizzard in early 2020, is famous for his time working on the Gears of War franchise at Epic Games and, more recently, The Coalition, but he's also known as the "closer" who helped get troubled Irrational shooter BioShock Infinite out the door.
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Rod Fergusson, executive producer and head of the Diablo franchise at Blizzard Entertainment.Īhead of BlizzCon 2021, we spoke to executive producer and head of the Diablo franchise at Blizzard Entertainment Rod Fergusson, and Diablo 2 Resurrected principal designer Rob Gallerani to find out more about the project and how the game will play when it's released for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S and Nintendo Switch later in 2021.
That's three new Diablo games all in development at Blizzard, while support for the nine-year-old Diablo 3 continues. And then there's Diablo 4, which is still a while away, waiting in the wings. Viewed through the lens of Immortal, Diablo 2 Resurrected is a prequel of sorts.
Blizzard's plan for Diablo 2 Resurrected is for it to lead series newcomers directly into mobile game Diablo Immortal, which is set right after the events of the second game. Things are certainly heating up in the world of Diablo.