n/a

The rights probably went to Activision, as they bought all Sierra stuff as far as I know. There could be some rights complications, I remember hearing some rumors about that a few years ago, but I have no idea where they would come from.

If I am not wrong, Blizzard is Activision, or Activision-Blizzard, or something like that, and If they were very interested in launch Hellfire they could, I guess. Sierra was Activision, as well.

If it is not like this, the situation is an absurd legal madness... :)

In any case I disliked hellfire a lot and Diablo is fine without it.

Remember, "Hellfire" was a STAND-ALONE "EXPANSION." While it does a disk-check for your Diablo CD (in the original form) it actually installed into an entirely separate directory (often a child directory of your Diable one, but this was NOT REQUIRED).

Think of it as a separate game which is a massive modification of the original game, and uses the same "disk check" copy protection.

GoG COULD (potentialy) sell "Hellfire," but not as a "DLC." It would need to be sold as a separate game purchase (and yes, I'd buy it).

Can't hurt to vote for it though:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/diablo_hellfire_1

heh the scarcity of hellfire is why its so expensive now, its more expensive than diablo

GREAT POST. I want people to see this post so they can vote for the release of the Hellfire Expansion:)

Hellfire was great. I think it was treated as an "afterthought" by some mostly because of the lack of multiplayer.

However its way too easy to get the best equipment in Hellfire. If I remember correctly all you need to do is stuff your inventory with high value items to make the vendors offer the best magic items.

Blizzard hated this expansion from what I remember. There was a big blowup about it back in the day. Perhaps one of Blizzards stipulations is that Hellfire never gets added here. But who knows.

The old Blizzard and now defunct Blizzard North were part of Vivendi Games, which was a division of Vivendi S.A.
Sierra was also from Vivendi. Vivendi bought Activision, then merged Activision with it's own Vivendi Games into the new company Activision-Blizzard. Developer Blizzard North was dissolved during that proces and some of the old Blizzard North employees created Runic games. Sierra also ceased to exist. The company Blizzard and also Activision are now part of Activision-Blizzard. All the titles of Blizzard, Activision, but also Sierra do now belong to Activision-Blizzard. Vivendi S.A. owns 52% in the new company.

Can't hurt to vote if you want Hellfire here: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games

Yeah I voted on it. But I kind of have doubts we'll get it. It would depend on how Blizzard feels about it all these years later.

I'm sure there would be a way to play vanilla and/or Hellfire addition.

Hellfire had always been standalone. It is installed in a separate folder, even. Your worries are pointless. It affects base Diablo game in zero ways.