It was recently announced that Vicarious Visions, the studio behind Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 and the Crash Bandicoot reboot, would be leaving Activision to merge with Blizzard Entertainment. The 200-person studio would shift focus to existing Blizzard games and initiatives. As part of this, Vicarious Visions will now be taking the helm on crafting a remake of the popular Diablo II.
According to an article posted on Bloomberg, Blizzard has been working on the Diablo franchise, including a remake Diablo II, for a while now. Initially the game was the focus for Blizzard's Team 1, the part of the company's California campus that was dedicated to reworking classic games. Previously, Team 1 has been responsible for many of Blizzard's titles like Starcraft II, Heroes of the Storm, and last year's Warcraft III: Reforged. However, due to the poor reception to Warcraft III: Reforged, Blizzard decided to reorganize the division late last year. As a result, most of Team 1 ended up being dissolved into other areas and Vicarious Visions was brought on to help with the Diablo franchise.
It makes sense for Blizzard to entrust a remake to Vicarious Visions who have a great track record with remastering classic titles. Recently, it had great success with their remastering of the first three Crash Bandicoot games (Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy) as well as the remasters of the two Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2). Not to mention, under Activision, the studio was responsible for popular titles like Guitar Hero, Spider-Man, Skylanders, Destiny, and Call of Duty.
While the news of the merger just broke, it seems that Vicarious Visions has been working with Blizzard for a while on the Diablo franchise. In fact, the remake is already being titled as Diablo II: Resurrected by the folks at Blizzard. Though there isn't much more news than that, the fact that the remake is coming and a priority for Blizzard is sure to get fans excited. It is possible we will get even more news concerning the game at this year's first online BlizzCon which is in a few weeks on February 19.