Blizzard's plans to launch Diablo II

In the days leading up towards D2R Items: Resurrected's launch, Blizzard seemed hesitant to make significant changes to the action-RPG classic, which would go to define a whole genre. Small elements, such as characters automatically collecting gold when walking close to it and the ability to turn it between off and on in Diablo II's game settings. It was obvious: Diablo II: Resurrected could have a pretty and optional new paint job, however, underneath the hood it's still the same game that Blizzard's loyal players have been playing for over 20 years.

Just a couple of months after the launch and Blizzard's plans to launch Diablo II: Resurrected look differently, mostly because of feedback from the community. An update recently added an actions bar that is available to PC players, which only a few months earlier seemed impossible. The addition of modern quick-cast feature appeared to suggest that an important threshold was now set in the direction of the future of the game--perhaps Blizzard is more willing to update Diablo II in a way that wasn't the case in the course of Resurrected's development.

If this shift in the game's strategy wasn't obvious before it's clear now. In the case of Diablo II: Resurrected patch 2.4 which is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of next year following an extensive testing period on the game's newly-launched public test world it won't be the identical RPG that fans played as kids. The patch 2.4 is the very first balance patch to Diablo II since patch 1.13c was released in March of 2010 which brought changes to the class skills as well as updates for recruitable mercenaries in the game, new Diablo 2 Resurrected buy items as well as more, for the first time in over 10 years.