Vicarious Visions tasked with Diablo 2 remake following Blizzard Entertainment merger

Vicarious Visions will be working on Blizzard Entertainment games in the future following its merger this month, according to new reports. The move will bring approximately 200 Vicarious employees under Blizzard Entertainment's remit, with CEO Jen Oneal also taking a leadership role at Blizzard.

Activision acquired Vicarious Visions in 2005, before which the latter had released countless Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color games, including Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, 3 and 4. Since then, Vicarious Visions has developed numerous Guitar Hero games and, more recently, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2.

The merger of Vicarious coincides with Blizzard reorganised its Team 1 development team, which had handled the likes of StarCraft II. Writing for Bloomberg, Jason Schreier claims that the lacklustre reception of Warcraft III: Reforged resulted in the changes at Blizzard. Reputedly, Activision Blizzard accepted pre-orders for Warcraft III: Reforged without informing developers of its imminent release. Blizzard will now task an outsourced team to fix and update Warcraft III: Reforged.

As a result, Vicarious Visions will now remake Diablo 2, Schreier claims. Vicarious Visions and Blizzard have been working together on the Diablo franchise since last year, but Team 3 will continue to develop Diablo IV. In short, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 will be the last game with Vicarious Visions as lead developers, but the studio will remain in Albany, New York. 

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