Activision this morning announced Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1 + 2 Developer Vicarious Visions had been absorbed by Blizzard Support in future projects. A few hours later we now know that one of those projects is a Diablo ii Remake.
According to Bloomberg, Vicarious Visions supported Blizzard’s Team 3 –which is also responsible for the coming Diablo IV– For several months in the development of a remake from the 2000s Diablo ii, by far the most popular game in the RPG franchise.
The remake was originally the responsibility of Team 1, who was responsible for the much vicious Warcraft III: Reforgedbefore the project was handed over to Team 3 at some point last year. Team 1 has since been disbanded, some employees moved to new jobs at Blizzard, and the rest were laid off.
When the news heard of the news this afternoon, it was awash with concerns that Vicarious Visions would be pulled out of their own projects to disappear under massive blizzard initiatives like World of Warcraft and Overwatch. It remains to be seen if this is the best use of the studio’s talents following its success with Tony Hawks Pro SkaterThis is probably a better result than many expected.
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