Diablo 2: Resurrected Crossplay Could Still Come After Launch Says Dev
While Diablo II: Resurrected will feature cross-progression, crossplay won't come baked-in at launch; however, executive producer Rod Fergusson says the possibility of crossplay arriving post-launch hasn't been ruled out. After several months of rumors and leaks, Blizzard Entertainment officially unveiled the Diablo II remaster last weekend during BlizzConline 2021.
In addition to the base game, Diablo II: Resurrected will come packaged with Lord of Destruction, an early 2001 expansion that introduced overhauled gameplay mechanics, two new character classes, and a fifth act. It'll boast a few other interesting bells and whistles, too, including cross-progression across all platforms. Plus, players will be able to freely switch between the original Diablo II and the remastered visuals at leisure. And a number of quality of life improvements are set to further enhance the overall experience, with the addition of a larger stash, revamped UI, and controller support. Better still, Blizzard confirmed the remaster will not include microtransactions.
Executive producer Rod Fergusson recently spoke with Eurogamer about the highly-anticipated remaster. Upon being asked about cross-platform play, Fergusson said it's a feature Blizzard has considered, though it will not be available at launch. Apparently, the studio plans to continue investigating the possibility of crossplay, which suggests a post-launch update could add the feature in. Fergusson told Eurogamer the following:
"Right now you can play against people, because there will be global leaderboards, but you can't play immediately with them. So there won't be crossplay. It's something we looked at, for sure, as part of looking at cross-progression, but the cross-progression was the clearest indication of what we should be doing. And so cross-play is something we continue to look at. But it's not something that's going to be in there at launch."
Whether or not Blizzard has run into technical or logistical issues hindering crossplay's readiness isn't known. Fergusson's statement on the matter certainly doesn't offer any hints in this regard. Given crossplay's increasing popularity in recent years, such an addition seems as though it could be a boon for Diablo II: Resurrected.
BlizzConline 2021 gave the spotlight to another long-awaited adventure, Diablo IV. Admittedly, the news surrounding it wasn't as exciting as the Diablo II reveal, but Blizzard did manage to build a bit of hype by unveiling Diablo IV's Rogue class. As a dexterity-based character, the Rogue could become a fan-favorite pick.
Diablo II: Resurrected launches on an unspecified date later this year for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S platforms.
Source: Eurogamer
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