According to reports, Blizzard Entertainment sent cease-and-desist orders were sent to creators who build mods based on Diablo II: Resurrected's recent alpha. Blizzard hosted a closed technical alpha for the Diablo II remaster in early April, allowing only a select number of players to try out the title's first two Acts.
Many members of the modding community got their hands on the alpha build despite not receiving an invite. Some modders gained access thanks to a Belgian programmer named Ferib Hellscream, who managed to invite himself into the technical alpha by bypassing Diablo II's anti-cheat parameters. Upon successfully manipulating the system, Ferib shared his tool, D2ROffline, with friends and other modders. Trouble arose when someone leaked the tool, opening the door to people charging money for access. To combat this, Ferib open-sourced his work; naturally, more players and modders poured in. Blizzard has now made a few moves of its own.
Speaking with Kotaku, Ferib and another modder said they received cease-and-desist letters from Blizzard, effectively putting the kibosh on their Diablo II: Resurrected mods. One person who goes by Shalzuth claimed a private investigator delivered their warning. In compliance with Blizzard's request, both creators deleted Diablo II: Resurrected projects from their respective websites. Ferib additionally removed YouTube videos related to his work; meanwhile, Shalzuth shuttered his Diablo II-centric Discord server. When reached for comment, a Blizzard spokesperson shared the following statement with Kotaku.
“We acknowledge that a big part of Diablo II’s longevity is the modding community and we appreciate their enthusiasm for the game. Classic Diablo II and its mods will continue to exist and we’re going to do our best to continue to support the mods for Diablo II: Resurrected as well. That said, some mods are atypical and pose security threats to our games. Security has always been a top priority for us and programs that could pose major security issues will not be tolerated."
Blizzard's response to the ordeal is expected and understandable given the circumstances. After all, some of these mods were based on a hacked version of Diablo II: Resurrected's alpha build. At the very least, it seems as though Blizzard plans on fully supporting the modding community whenever the full game actually goes live later in the year.
Diablo: Immortal is expect to enter the picture sometime soon, as well. While the free-to-play mobile title still lacks a launch date, Blizzard Entertainment recently confirmed that development remains on track. Thus, players can dive into the experience on an unspecified date this year.
Diablo II: Resurrected comes to Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S later in 2021.
Source: Kotaku