Details On Diablo 2's Scuttled Second Expansion Revealed

Diablo 2 was supposed to get a second expansion after the success of Lord of Destruction, but it never came out, a former developer at Blizzard North has revealed. David Brevik was the project and design lead on Diablo 2, and he has detailed in interviews how Blizzard North collapsed well into production of its version of Diablo 3, and how most of the key staff on Diablo 2 departed the company to form Flagship Studios. [Update: Blizzard has announced Diablo II: Resurrected, a remake of the classic RPG, at BlizzCon.]

But while the difficulties associated with Blizzard North's doomed Diablo 3 are fairly well-documented--with Brevik describing it as an ARPG mixed with an MMO--this second Diablo 3 expansion isn't as well-known. According to Brevik, he prepared a large design document that described "new classes, new areas, new mechanics, and story concepts." However, the document was never implemented in any form due to the difficulties surrounding Diablo 3. According to Brevik, it would've included a Cleric class. An article written by journalist David Craddock suggests that the expansion would've focused on multiplayer, with the ability for players to make their own "guild halls."

According to recent reporting, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 developer Vicarious Visions has been folded into Blizzard to work on a Diablo 2 remake. The team will apparently not be working on its own non-Blizzard projects. This puts a question mark on any potential follow-up remakes for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, as well as a full sequel.

We already know that Blizzard is working on Diablo 4, but we don't know a release date or timeline yet, other than the game will not release in 2021. A panel titled "Diablo - What's Next" is scheduled for this weekend's BlizzCon, so we'll hopefully know more then.

This isn't the first time that Brevik has spoken publicly about Diablo 2's development. He discussed how the whole team crunched for three or four months on Diablo 2 late last year and how that impacted the mental health of the developers. Additionally, he discussed the impact of color-coded loot in a lengthy feature last year.