To the surprise of everyone, Diablo 2 got its first new class and major content update in 25 years as part of the shadow-dropped Reign of Warlock expansion. And now that the floodgates are wide open, Blizzard Entertainment is testing the waters to potentially add more new stuff to the 1999 RPG.
For a quick recap, Blizzard went all out at this week's Diablo Spotlight, revealing that the new Warlock class is coming to Diablo 2, Diablo Immortal, and Diablo 4 in a connected overarching narrative. Diablo 2's Warlock is in the game as I type, Diablo 4's is coming alongside an expansion in April, and Diablo Immortal is getting the class sometime this summer.
Lead designer Timothy Vasconcellos mentioned the possibility of additional fresh content for the 26-year-old classic in an interview with Eurogamer, noting that it depends on how the community responds.
"We are excited for the opportunity we have right now to see what the community says about what we're making," Vasconcellos says. "And if we're trusted with that legacy and if it's a positive reception and they say, 'No, you guys actually did do this very intricate dance preserving the 1999 game,' then maybe we can think about how we pursue those opportunities in the future. But we have to nail that otherwise we kill the game in trying to progress it forward."
Whether Diablo 2's Warlock is a "declaration of something new" hinges on what the millions of people who still play the game have to say about the update, according to lead producer Matthew Cederquist, though he also says the team is being very careful to not "mess up the Mona Lisa," so to speak. It's one of the reasons Diablo Resurrected remains unchanged if you decide not to purchase the Reign of Warlock expansion. It's not a classic experience if it's entirely reworked, after all.
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