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World of Warcraft executive producer John Hight believes in the power of video games to help unite people and ease the divisions in the world amid a time of great unrest. He also stressed that Blizzard has a responsibility to make WoW the best possible social network it can be to help people stay in touch and communicate amidst the global pandemic.

Speaking to GameSpot at BlizzConline, the Blizzard veteran said he believes video games can be a great force for good during this challenging time.

“Aside from the pandemic, all the other stuff that’s going on in the world and all the divisiveness … I really hope that things like games can get us to realize, ‘Hey we have a lot in common,'” Hight said. “That the stuff we’re getting all spun up about is just that–it’s all kind of in our heads. If you remove the physical barriers and we’re all just in this world doing things together, I think we start to realize the commonalities [we share].”

Video games overall are seeing an uptick in players amid the COVID-19 pandemic as people stay home to stay healthy and safe. WoW is one of the games people are turning to, and Hight remarked that he feels a responsibility to help make WoW the best possible social experience that it can be so people can have a good time and stay in touch with friends when they can’t or might not want to travel.

“We have a big responsibility right now. If you can’t even get out and see your family or go cross country to see a friend … part of your normal life is interaction with other people,” he said. “WoW provides you with a way–games in general provide you with a way–to at least interact. To be able chat to with each other, to be able to to play together.”

GameSpot will have much more from our interview with the Blizzard developers soon, so keep checking back for more.

Next up for WoW Classic is the Burning Crusade expansion, which launches later this year on PC. For more on what we know so far, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of all the key Burning Crusade details.

You can also check out some of the top BlizzConline stories below, as well as our roundup of all the big BlizzConline news:

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When Blizzard announced World of Warcraft Classic, the developer had no idea it would become the hit that it is now. The developer thought bringing back the OG WoW would be something appealing to hardcore fans but not many more than that. As it turned out, that wasn’t the case, and the game is now gigantic, with an expansion, The Burning Crusade, on the way this year.

Executive producer John Hight told GameSpot at BlizzConline that the community for WoW Classic is “as large” as the modern WoW community, but he declined to share any further details about specific numbers when pressed. Still, what’s clear is WoW Classic is a huge hit, and it’s changed how Blizzard as a studio approaches its ongoing development and support.

“It certainly surprised us. When we put out Classic, we weren’t sure is this going to be a big deal or not. We kind of thought, ‘Our core fans are really going to love this, so let’s do this for them.’ And then, no, it became a whole big community of WoW players. As large as our modern WoW community. That surprised us,” Hight said. “We realized, ‘Oh gosh we have to support two communities. How do we do that?'”

“And so, I think part of that is adapting to that … we have a dedicated team specifically for Classic but also the main Warcraft team is responsible for supporting Classic,” he said. “It’s fun in a way because two sets of content we have out there and keep people entertained. I’m really glad it’s part of your WoW subscription. We have people that play both games.”

Asked to clarify the “as large” comment, Hight declined to give any specific figures, but he said confidently that Blizzard stands alone in the MMO community thanks to Classic.

“Suffice it to say, I believe we probably now hold the record for the two biggest MMOs on the planet Earth. So it’s a significant community. Much bigger than we thought it was going to be,” he said.

Hight acknowledged that there is variation by region between player population for WoW Classic and modern WoW, pointing out that the player base in China is much bigger than Blizzard believed. He said Blizzard believes WoW Classic would have similar player numbers to modern WoW in China, but the game has done better at appealing to subscribers there and also bringing in new players who never played WoW and want the Classic experience.

GameSpot will have much more from our interview with the Blizzard developers soon, so keep checking back for more.

Next up for WoW Classic is the Burning Crusade expansion, which launches later this year on PC. For more on what we know so far, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of all the key Burning Crusade details.

In the meantime, you can check out some of the top BlizzConline stories below, as well as our roundup of all the big BlizzConline news:

The rumors are true. Blizzard is developing a remaster of its classic PC game, Diablo II, and it’s called Diablo II: Resurrected. Blizzard describes it as the “definitive remastering” of the game, along with its Lord of Destruction expansion. The fact that a remaster exists is a surprise, given that the original files were said to be actually lost by the original creators.

But indeed it is happening, and it’s on the way to PC and console. Resurrected launches in 2021 and it will be released on PC, Xbox One/Series X|S, PlayStation 4/5, and Nintendo Switch, with cross-play between platforms. Additionally, progression can move between platforms. As rumored, the game is being developed by Tony Hawk studio Vicarious Visions, which was recently folded into Blizzard Entertainment.

Resurrected changes Diablo II in a big way. Gone are the 2D sprites in favor of a “full 3D physically-based rendering,” featuring dynamic lighting and revamped animations. The game supports resolutions up to 4K depending on your platform.

Blizzard also announced that all 27 minutes of cinematics are getting shot-for-shot remakes “from the ground up.” The soundtrack has been updated, too, with support for Dolby 7.1.

“Diablo II was a pivotal game for Blizzard and millions of players around the world. With Diablo II: Resurrected, we’re excited to bring this classic back to PC and also to consoles–with cross-progression on supported platforms–so that players can relive their memories, or experience Diablo II’s timeless gameplay for the first time, on their platform of choice,” Blizzard president J. Allen Brack said. “With the new high-resolution audio and video in Diablo II: Resurrected, the game is as fun and engrossing today as it was twenty years ago.”

Resurrected also has a classic mode of sorts, a la Halo’s Anniversary games, where you can press a button to switch between modern and retro graphics. The game’s trademark gameplay, “quirks and all,” will be present in Resurrected, along with some quality-of-life improvements such as the introduction of a shared stash.

Diablo II: Resurrected launches later in 2021 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, along with last-gen consoles. A technical alpha test is in the works for PC, and you can sign up for it on the Diablo 2 website.

Blizzard Entertainment and Vicarious Visions, the former Activision-Blizzard subsidiary that was recently folded into Blizzard proper, have announced Diablo 2 Resurrected, the long-rumored remaster of the 2000 action-RPG classic. It’s due out in 2021 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch

Resurrected will include all of the content from the Lord of Destruction expansion pack, including the Assassin and Druid player classes. The announcement was the climactic moment of BlizzCon 2021, aka “Blizzconline,” Blizzard’s virtual celebration of its company’s games and community after the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of last year’s event.

“It’s a great time to bring back Diablo 2,” Diablo franchise executive producer Rod Fergusson told IGN, referencing last year’s 20th anniversary of Diablo 2 and this year’s 30th anniversary of Blizzard itself. And, he was clear, “it’s a remaster, not a remake. We wanted the game.” Diablo 2 Resurrected has a modern 3D layer on top that features particle-based rendering, dynamic lighting, and, where appropriate, upgraded visuals and sound. On PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, the remaster will run at 4K and 60fps. PC will also support ultra-wide monitors and gamepads. On the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 families of consoles along with the Nintendo Switch, it will run at lower resolutions. Cross-progression will be supported on any platforms that choose to enable it, according to Blizzard.

Underneath, though, is the original game, at 800×600 resolution. And like Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and LucasArts’ Special Editions of Monkey Island 1 and 2, you can press a button to switch back and forth between the original game and the remastered version. Cinematics, however, can’t simply be up-rezzed. Blizzard and Vicarious Visions are “fully remaking every minute” of Diablo 2’s cinematics, which amounts to roughly 27 minutes of pre-rendered video.

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“It’s like video game archaeology, learning how these things work,” said Vicarious Visions design director Robert Gallerani. “Because we’re using that old system to drive things forward, we keep everything the same. Since it’s not a remake, we don’t have to rebuild [anything]. It’s basically like we’re changing the oil, making sure it runs smoothly, but we’re not rebuilding everything. We are literally combing every single piece of code.” And, he noted with a smile, “when we do fix a bug we have to be very careful because everything is interconnected.”

What he means by that, Fergusson explained, is that the Diablo 2 Resurrected team is “embracing the quirks.” That means some of the now-antiquated (read: goofy by modern standards) animations are still there. But some quality-of-life additions have been made. Some are just baked in, such as new ambient noises like wind rustling the leaves in trees and a shared stash so that you no longer have to make a mule character. Others will be opt-in, such as auto-pickup for gold and loot drops for those that don’t want to have to click on every single piece of loot on the ground.

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On PS5 and Xbox Series X, the team is “taking advantage of what’s there” on the new consoles, such as the aforementioned higher framerates and resolution as well as the faster loading times the SSD drives afford. Blizzard is looking at adding things like raytracing effects, but Fergusson was clear about not promising anything and suggested that if any specific next-gen upgrades are added, they’ll come along after the game’s release later in 2021.

Finally, with regard to multiplayer, couch co-op hasn’t been added – Fergusson called it “a bridge too far” for this faithful remaster effort – but all of Diablo 2’s original eight-player online functionality is still here. And you’ll now have the option to store characters on Battle.net for dedicated-server play. “It’s more secure” when it comes to bots, item duping, and other cheating-related issues that ran rampant in Diablo 2 back in the day, Gallerani said.

A technical alpha test is planned for the near future on PC only. Sign-ups will happen on the official Diablo website, and testers will be randomly chosen – not unlike how it went with the original Diablo 2 beta back in early 2000.

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

During BlizzConline 2021, Blizzard debuted a new trailer for Diablo IV. The trailer reveals the Rogue class, which will be included in the upcoming action-RPG at launch. In the new trailer, you can see the Rogue joining the other three available starting classes–Barbarian, Sorceress, and Druid–around a campfire. Just a group of adventurers being homies.

Like the other three, the Rogue class has been included in the Diablo franchise before. However, unlike the other three classes, the Rogue is one of the original character classes, existing alongside Warrior and Sorcerer in 1997’s Diablo. The Rogue hasn’t been seen since–it wasn’t included in Diablo II or Diablo III. The fifth class in Diablo IV has yet to be revealed.

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The Rogue is a dexterity-based character class, with a versatile skill tree that allows you to master both melee and ranged attacks, as well as abilities that let you set traps or use shadow magic. So it sounds less like the original Rogue class and more like Diablo III’s Demon Hunter class, which is really just a loose combination of Diablo II’s Amazon and Assassin classes.

We still don’t know too much about Diablo IV, though Blizzard may reveal more information about the game during BlizzConline 2021.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the Rogue class will be one of the five playable characters in Diablo 4, joining the Barbarian, Sorceress, and Druid, who were all revealed when Diablo 4 was first announced at Blizzcon 2019.

In an interview with IGN, game director Luis Barriga likened her to a jack of all trades, but noted that she can master certain things should players choose to push their build that way. He likened the Rogue to a “choose your own dexterity class” in that you can mold her how you want to fit your playstyle. You can go old-school Diablo 1-style and double-down on the bow and arrow. However, you can also tailor her to other ranged weapons or also melee weapons. “Players that are looking for range are going to be happy,” Barriga said, “and they’re probably going to be surprised at how the other versions of the Rogue are going to surprise them.”

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Barriga also explained that the Rogue has a specialization system. Not unlike the guild quests in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, if you choose to work with different Rogue groups and do special quests for them, you’ll unlock a unique combat style that suits that group. You can only pick one at a time, however. When asked if the other classes would have a similar specialization system, Barriga said no and explained with a smile that “every class has their own thing that other classes get to be jealous about.”

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Meanwhile, Barriga and art director John Mueller spoke about mounts and noted that players of any character class will have access to them. “We want you to be able to get around in style,” Mueller said, also noting that the mounts are all horses because of Diablo’s gothic medieval roots; the team didn’t want to stray too far into the fantasy Warcraft-style world. You can earn modular pieces of armor to add to your mounts, as well as wearable trophies you get for completing certain pieces of content. “Making your character and your mount match is a pretty compelling aesthetic,” Barriga said. And each class also gets its own unique combat dismount, with the Rogue launching Rain of Arrows, which tends to catch PvP opponents off-guard, according to Barriga.

Meanwhile, on the PvP front, Blizzard says you’ll never get caught off-guard if you’re only looking for a PvE experience. “So for us [the solution] was to create these ‘Fields of Hatred’ that are cursed by Mephisto and have become active again,” Barriga explained. So if you don’t want PvP you’ll be safe, but if you enter the Field of Hatred, the PvP is clearly enabled and the looting rules are different and there are objectives within that. “Once you enter, it’s almost like [Diablo 2] rules,” Barriga said. “It’s really dangerous, particularly when Hardcore [difficulty] comes into it.” PvP, Barriga noted, “is going to be an acquired taste” but “no one should be worried about that” because “it’s purely optional.”

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Finally, Camps are another open-world element in Diablo 4. They are effectively the opposite of PvP. Narratively, they held significance long ago. Diablo 4 happens after the world was decimated, and so some of the Camps have a “post-apocalyptic vibe,” according to Barriga. Camps can be old churches, lighthouses, forests, etc. that have tormented souls and ghosts within them, but if you complete the mini-puzzle there, you’ll have cleansed that area and it flips back to being a small town/safe zone. “It’s another way to gain progression,” Mueller noted, because as you unlock waypoints you can get anywhere, thus giving you a non-gear power advantage over other players. “It’s all in a big open world and you can opt-in to this content as you adventure around.”

Don’t expect Diablo 4 in 2021, but stay tuned to IGN for much more on the latest entry in the legendary action-RPG series as development continues. In the meantime, stay tuned today and tomorrow for more Blizzcon 2021 coverage.

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Blizzard has revealed the first cards of the Hearthstone Core 2021 set at BlizzConline, following an announcement that left the vast majority of cards yet to be revealed. The new Core set will be the base set of cards future expansions throughout this year, and will be swapped for a different set of Core cards in 2022. The first cards shown include some returning mainstays, along with new cards and reimagined versions of classics.

The Core set is a curated selection of 235 cards, and 29 are entirely new. Some foundational parts of class identity, like the Mage’s Fireball and Paladin’s Tirion Fordring, are remaining untouched. Others, like Deathwing the Destroyer, have been updated from their original versions but keep the same essential functionality. And some, like Vanessa VanCleef, are entirely new.

Unlike the traditional way of opening Classic packs to fill out your collection, the Core set will be free for all players. You earn it by leveling up your heroes, and if you’ve already reached the requisite level cap you’ll automatically be granted the entire Core set from the start of the season. Then you’ll have it automatically swapped for the new Core set in 2022. Blizzard says this allows it to curate the cards that will best facilitate its expansions for the coming year.

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The Classic and Basic cards will live on in Wild as one combined “Legacy set,” and also in the new Classic format. That format will allow you to play the game exactly as it appeared in 2014, before the first expansion hit, with all balance changes reverted to their original state. Classic will have its own ladder and matchmaking, just like Standard and Wild.

For more on the upcoming expansion and all of the Year of the Gryphon changes, check out everything we know about Hearthstone’s 2021 plans.