https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/06/19/warcraft-iii-diablo-2-getting-remastered-according-job-listing/

I'd rather we get a Warcraft II remaster first, but III is awesome too. Really, I'll be happy to see anything happen with the franchise that isn't yet another WoW expansion or that Magic The Gathering for Dummies thing.

Meanwhile, Diablo 1 and Warcraft 2 are collecting more and more dust...

Hmm... I wonder if this means Blizzard is planning on retiring its legacy battle.net service? Multiplayer Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2 remain quite popular to this day, so it would make sense that they would get prioritization for a "remaster" efore a shutdown of the original service. Warcraft 2 wouldn't need this since it's primarily played on third party services, which Blizzard tacitly endorses. Not sure what this would mean for Starcraft 1, though.

It will be interesting what Blizzard does with respect to cheating in Diablo 2. The current drop rates are basically balanced around the presumption that duplicate items, particularly high runes, are everywhere. If they fix the bugs that allow this duplication, it will require a complete overhaul of the item drop rates.

Wow that's great news. I've been waiting to play Warcraft III in proper widescreen for years!

Pretty much this.
WC 3 was okay but nothing to write home about.

WC 2 and D2 on the other hand, classics.

Diablo II is the one I don't much care for personally. I know it's a heresy and all, but I was never too crazy about it. I loved the first one, but I never even finished the sequel. I don't hate it, in fact I always felt great about it at the start, but by the time I begin Act III I'm always pretty much bored of the whole thing.

Awesome, I've actually never played a Warcraft game before.

Is this with added maket place micro transactions?

WC3 is very divisive. You get opinions ranging all across the spectrum from "it was terrible" to "one of the best games ever made". I think part of the problem was that it completely changed the formula of the previous games, so people expecting a successor to Warcraft 2 were disappointed when they got a game that completely reinvented the RTS formula. Personally I think Warcraft 3 was brilliant, and there's no contest that it's my favorite of the series. Each of the Warcraft games is very different, very much their own beasts. I'd actually say Warcraft 3 is probably the most "must-play" of the series. Warcraft 2 is still a great game, but there are plenty of other 90's RTS games that nail much of the same gameplay it does. Warcraft 3 is really a unique experience, nothing else quite like it (which is surprising, since everyone was trying to clone it for a good decade afterwards... and completely missing the point of what made the hero system work well in WC3...)

There are unofficial Warcraft 2 online communities that distribute the game. They're not officially sanctioned so I won't link to them, but Blizzard is pretty quick on the lawyer button when they want something removed so the fact that these sites are being left alone is a tacit endorsement in my view. It's Blizzard, so who knows. They've swung wildly on these sorts of issues. They were releasing online-only DRM on their new games at the same time as they were re-releasing their classic games with DRM-free installers. As a result, it's hard to tell where they stand on any issue.

It's criminal that Diablo (1) gets ignored by Blizzard, it's one of their best.
It never came with a serial key (like Diablo 2) so it can't be added to a Battle.net account either.
Still the very least they could do is:

> Offer it as a digital download though the Battle.net store/account system as is - with some basic DirectDraw fixes.

> Go one better and offer it for free (as they have with Blackthorne + The Lost Vikings)

> Or fully remaster it along with Diablo 2. It'd look fantastic in HD with 3D effects/glide/etc.

It's a little bit embarrassing that they're taken to remastering 20 year old games since their new ones haven't had anywhere near the same impact. They've just lazily knocked out WoW expansions for years.

I think they're only doing this after seeing the success of other remastered games rather than out of respect or for posterity.

As for Warcraft 2, I played it recently with Wargus.

I prefer it's style over cartoony Warcraft 3 but I don't think the rather basic gameplay really stands up anymore =\
It's really aged like the early Command & Conquer games.

As long, as they don't meddle with the player's ability to mod or "edit" what they want for single-player in the original Diablo 2 (I presume the remaster will be the equivalent to a separate game). There are reasons why the cheats were highly coveted in Diablo 2. Issues which were actually corrected in Diablo 3. I think if they maintain similar algorithms, and include in the same large ranges of difficulty, it should satisfy most players. To be honest, Warcraft 3 still looks pretty good even to this day. The only thing it actually needs, is the GOG overhaul of getting it to run on modern systems and widescreens. A complete remaster doesn't seem fully needed, but that's just my opinion.

True, but a friend who borrowed my copy of Warcraft III and Frozen Throne years ago lost them, so if I wanted to play it I'd have to buy a new copy anyway, so why not a remaster with improved graphics. Unless the remaster actually looks worse - it happens.

Act 3 has the best companions in the game. Ice elemental knights that can freeze enemies. In the LoD expansion, you can keep your companions between Acts, and that made for some pretty broken late game with a companion that levels with you and can freeze everything around him.

As long as Diablo 2 does not have microtransactions or always online DRM like Blizzard's other newer games. I would love to play it in widescreen though..