- Horror Inc. Issues Cease and Desist for ‘Friday The 13th: The Game – Resurrected’ Fan Mod Bloody Disgusting
- Friday the 13th’s New Game Is Canceled Because of Cease & Desist Order 80.lv
- Friday the 13th: Resurrected Canceled Following Copyright Infringement Claim IGN
- Friday the 13: The Game has been killed one more time: Fan-made ‘Resurrection’ project derailed by lawyers over ‘cavalier disregard of copyright law’ Yahoo! Voices
- Friday the 13th isn’t coming back after all, as ambitious fan remake gets canceled due to cease and desist order PCGamesN
Tag Archives: Resurrected
Friday the 13th: Resurrected Canceled Following Copyright Infringement Claim – IGN
- Friday the 13th: Resurrected Canceled Following Copyright Infringement Claim IGN
- Friday the 13th isn’t coming back after all, as ambitious fan remake gets canceled due to cease and desist order PCGamesN
- Friday the 13th: The Game – Resurrected Gets Killed Following Copyright Infringement Claim ComicBook.com
- Horror Inc. Issues Cease and Desist for ‘Friday The 13th: The Game – Resurrected’ Fan Mod Bloody Disgusting
- Friday the 13: The Game has been killed one more time: Fan-made ‘Resurrection’ project derailed by lawyers over ‘cavalier disregard of copyright law’ PC Gamer
Microsoft’s Iconic Xbox 360 Controller Is Being Resurrected
To commemorate the 17th anniversary of the release of the Xbox 360, video game peripheral maker, Hyperkin has officially announced today that it is resurrecting the iconic video game controller.
As noted in a press release, the Hyperkin Xenon is an officially licensed, wired gaming controller replicating the iconic controller that served as the primary gamepad for Microsoft’s second home gaming console. The device is named after the codename used for the Xbox 360 ahead of its official unveiling at E3 2005.
The Xenon will be compatible with the Xbox Series X/S and Windows 10 and 11 devices. As you can see from the images below, the Hyperkin Xenon is a slightly modernized take on the Xbox 360 controller. The most notable changes are the dedicated Menu, View, and Share buttons commonly found on the latest iteration of the Xbox Series X/S controllers. Xbox
This is not the first time Hyperkin has brought back an Xbox controller from the dead. In 2018, the company released a replica of Duke, the first controller for the original Xbox known for its oversized design. And then, in 2021, to celebrate the release date for the original Xbox and Halo: Combat Evolve, Hyperkin released the Xbox 20th anniversary and Halo 20th anniversary Cortana edition variants of the Duke controller.
The Hyperkin Xenon will be available in four colors: black, white, pink, and red. No release date or price has been announced yet, sadly. However, Hyperkin is expected to release the Xenon controller sometime early next year.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
The NYPD has resurrected its controversial anti-crime unit. Success will be determined by avoiding mistakes of the past
The unit and other similarly composed units have been marked by allegations of aggressive tactics and police brutality. High-profile shootings by plainclothes officers undermined the legitimacy and perception of both the unit and the notion of plainclothes policing in New York. But Adams, who made public safety a key part of his campaign for mayor and touted his history as an NYPD captain as evidence he’s uniquely suited for tackling crime, said better training and oversight will help the city keep the unit’s troubled lineage in its past.
“In doing this, we will avoid mistakes of the past,” Adams said at a press conference announcing a multi-layered plan for fighting crime that also includes investing in community violence prevention and intervention programs. “These officers will be identifiable as NYPD, they will have body cameras, and they will have enhanced training and oversight.”
New York City is not unique: Cities across the country have units of plainclothes officers assigned to high-risk policing efforts, and though their assignments vary by city, they’re similar in many ways. They’re usually identifiable, unlike undercovers. They’re typically in unmarked cars and not responsible for answering 911 calls, are assigned hours and locations depending on crime concerns, and their mandate is guns or other felony enforcement. And in other cities, they’re also associated with aggressive policing.
“I can’t imagine not having a group of officers, deputies, detectives that I can pull and use to prevent and combat a problem they may be having in a certain area,” said Florida’s Orange County Sheriff John W. Mina, who also served as Chief of the Orlando Police Department.
“Here we just had a series of shootings in an area that has been a challenge for years but we were able to divert resources because they’re not tied to just answering calls. And it works. It works. They make a lot of good cases, a lot of good arrests. Put a lot of bad people away to help solve the issue.”
Plainclothes officers have a checkered history
Critics are quick to point to a checkered history of plainclothes officers in New York — including the three high-profile deaths of Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell and Eric Garner — and a reputation for aggressive policing and abuse of power.
The biggest problem with the anti-crime unit was the civilian complaints they racked up, said Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD detective sergeant and current professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“You’re going after people who’ve committed violent crimes, and firearms, you’re going to get that reaction because you’re not going to be right every time you jump out of the car,” Giacalone said. “That’s just the cost of doing business … If you’re involved in active policing, you’re going to get (complaints).”
Data provided by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the watchdog agency charged with oversight of the NYPD, show the unit garnered lots of complaints over the years. They had 430 complaints in 2019 and 428 in 2018, though the vast majority of those allegations were not proven, the data shows. Officials with CCRB have also said in the past that plainclothes officers were much harder to identify because they were sometimes not wearing badges or name tags and that would lead to unsubstantiated claims.
CCRB Executive Director Darius Charney, whose agency investigates racial profiling and biased policing allegations, said there must be real oversight for the unit to avoid problems that dogged this unit in the past.
“Unfortunately, in the past, the history shows us that these plainclothes officers were really some of the worst offenders when it came to abusive and discriminatory policing,” Charney said. “And I think a lot of that had to do with not only how they were trained or what incentives they were given, but also there was just really a lack of oversight and accountability for officers who did break the law or violate people’s rights.”
Cops selected will be ‘best fit for the unit’
Adams’ resurrection of this unit is part of his strategy to combat gun violence, which he announced earlier than planned after three weeks of high-profile incidents that was punctuated by the deadly shooting of two NYPD officers answering a domestic disturbance call last week. In all, five New York City Police officers have been shot in the first three weeks of the year.
The mayor’s plan calls for the new teams to be deployed to 30 of the city’s 77 precincts and housing units that are responsible for 80% of violence in the city.
The NYPD is vetting candidates for the teams now, Adams said.
“We’re going to make sure the 400 plus people that are in the pipeline to go into our new unit . . . that they’re the best fit for the unit,” Adams said.
“We must make sure we don’t continue to put dangerous people back on the street and continue the flow of guns in our cities,” Adams said during a speech, following the shooting of the two officers. “I’m going to get my cops to do their job. I need the rest of the country that are in positions of authority to do their job.”
Mina said that when he supervised teams in Orlando, he sought officers who could work with minimal supervision and showed they were productive with self-initiated activity.
“They’ve already put together cases, shown an aptitude for writing search warrants. Finding people with guns. Or recruiting (confidential informants),” he said.
Elite team was involved in the death of Diallo
The NYPD’s anti-crime unit existed for decades, and was staffed and directed at the precinct level, meant to respond to concerns within those boundaries and staffed by police officers familiar with the people and places in the precinct.
Promotion to NYPD’s detective squads typically ran through the anti-crime unit, though that’s not always the case in other cities. Promising or ambitious young officers with a few years working uniformed patrol — or those with older relatives or political connections on the job — would ask into NYPD anti-crime and work there for a couple years before doing 18 months or two years of detective work and earning a detective shield, Giacalone said
Once NYPD officers were selected for the anti-crime units, they were sent to training and worked their new assignment in plainclothes. They were expected to go after guns and people carrying them (referred to as “the gun police” by some residents), so they carried less equipment on their belts than uniformed officers and weren’t required to wear a uniform because of the expectation of getting into foot chases, Giacalone said.
While the NYPD had its precinct-level anti-crime units, the department also staffed a more elite “street crime” unit whose main focus was getting guns. They were also plainclothes and in unmarked cars. In 1999, four officers from that unit fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo as he stood in the vestibule of his Bronx home.
Diallo was struck 19 times and was killed. The officers, who were later acquitted of murder charges, said they confused his wallet for a gun. The entire unit was eventually disbanded in response to Diallo’s death, and the work they did became the responsibility of the anti-crime units which long operated at the precinct, borough and city levels.
‘Supervision is a good thing’
Controversy over the years, including drug and money related corruption scandals, led to changes and tighter supervision within plainclothes units. This happened as views on policing continued to evolve across the country and cities started seeing an influx of drugs, drug money, and street violence and police corruption related to both.
After the Diallo shooting, the NYPD’s anti-crime unit’s focus remained on guns and violence. Then, in June 2020, then NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced that he disbanded all levels of the anti-crime unit, sending roughly 200 members to the detective bureau and spreading others out to different units.
The move to disband the unit followed protests, in New York and across the country, over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Other cities, in the wake of protests, reexamined their staffing and the utility of proactive policing. But the move in New York was reversed within about two months, as shootings in New York City spiked following the protests. The teams returned as Public Safety Teams, working unmarked cars but in full uniform, city officials have said.
The NYPD’s teams were typically composed of three officers and a sergeant working shifts that extend into the evening or overnight. In other parts of policing, in other cities and in patrol, sergeants will typically oversee a larger number of officers, from six to 10. Part of the reason for greater supervision, Giacalone said, was to prevent corruption.
Mina, who worked in and supervised a similar unit in the Orlando Police Department and whose department now has a similar unit, said that more supervision in high-risk situations was beneficial for everyone.
“If it’s always wanted people you’re going after, or people known to carry guns, you’re going to want the span of control to be tighter so you can manage and supervise what’s going on,” Mina said. “Making sure you’re safe, the public’s safe, and making sure the bad guy is safe and situations can be peacefully resolved. Supervision is a good thing.”
Two points of contention — the lack of a uniform and the unmarked vehicles — came to represent, to critics, bad policing and unwarranted aggression. The officers in the new unit won’t wear uniforms but will wear jackets with police insignia, a slight departure from the past where officers were required to wear the shield identifying themselves as officers outside their outermost layer of clothing.
“In many communities, that is a sign that you’re about to be attacked,” Adams said about plainclothes cops jumping out of their car. “That has created a lot of hostility. We are going to make sure that the version of plainclothes officers will have modified police attire so that they are quickly identified as police officers.
‘Real accountability’ is necessary
According to experts, for the most part, unmarked cars and officers in baseball caps and oversized shirts weren’t fooling anyone, but it’s a common defense for someone who runs from the police that they didn’t know the person chasing them was an officer. And the reason for a lighter duty belt was for it to be easier to give chase.
“Defense attorneys are gonna do what they do … What are they going to say, (their client) knew he was the police and ran? You could be wearing a clown outfit and (the defense attorney) would say (their client) didn’t know it was a clown,” Giacalone said.
Mina said unmarked cars, especially at night, can buy an officer a few seconds of advantage. Being able to get a little closer, or evading detection for even a couple more seconds, is sometimes all an officer needs to capture someone evading custody.
“If you’re standing there (selling drugs), you’re not going to throw dope or run every time you see a car that’s not marked. They’re looking, don’t get me wrong. And in some cases, we catch ’em sleeping, not paying attention. But it buys you a few more seconds,” he said. “The idea is they get just a little bit closer than a marked unit, and sometimes even a second or two is helpful … you’re not fooling anyone but it will get you a little closer and buy you a second or two of hesitation.”
The units also came to be associated with NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy. Stop-and-frisk, where police stopped and searched those they considered suspicious, had been used to deter crime, law enforcement officials have said in the past in defense of the tactic. But it has also resulted in a slew of lawsuits by residents complaining of unlawful stops.
In August 2013, a federal judge ruled that stop-and-frisk violated the Constitution and ordered the city to develop remedies, including a federal monitor overseeing the NYPD.
Charney, now with the CCRB, was the plaintiff’s attorney in the landmark stop-and-frisk case that ended the practice in New York. It was the same case where Mayor Adams — then a state senator, testified that he had a sit-down with then New York Gov. David Paterson and the NYPD commissioner at the time, Ray Kelly, regarding a stop-and-frisk bill.
Adams testified that Kelly said the policy targeted Blacks and Hispanics disproportionately, “because he wanted to instill fear in them, every time they leave their home, they could be stopped by police,” according to court records. Kelly denied that assertion.
“I think this time around, we really need to learn from the lessons of the past and make sure that there is going to be real accountability and oversight for these officers. And frankly, any officers in the police department,” Charney said.
Giacalone said Adams’ first test will come with the unit’s first high-profile use of force.
“When something goes bad, and always something will happen … whether a situation goes sideways, or there’s a questionable shooting, going after people with guns and violent crimes, things will happen. Does Adams have the stomach to deal with what comes next? That’s the whole thing.”
CNN’s Brynn Gingras contributed to this report.
Blizzard Reveals Source Of Diablo II: Resurrected Server Issues
Diablo 2: Resurrected launched, it’s authentic as all hell—but then the D2 servers took an instant trip to the Seventh Circle. For the last week, players have faced constant login issues and outages. And by the sounds of things, the poor server engineers must be absolutely hating life.
First up: any time a developer posts a blog that surpasses 2,000 words, you know the shit has really hit the fan. It’s a massive explainer on all the issues facing Diablo 2: Resurrected players lately, and it’s so extensive because the problems aren’t caused by a single issue but a mix, ranging from an inability to deal with the game’s popularity, its architecture, and even down to the fact that players are just way more efficient at smashing Diablo into the dust in 2021.
The first major problem outlined by the team is how players’ characters and data are stored. If you’ve played any Activision or Blizzard multiplayer game over the last few decades, you’ll know that you generally login to a set of servers as close to your location as humanly possible. It’s not an individual server per se, but a cluster of servers that service an entire region.
Anyway, these servers all have their own regional databases that store the data of the characters that play on them. This is needed because there’s too many people playing Diablo 2 to just continually upload everyone’s data to a single, central point.
“Most of your in-game actions are performed against this regional database because it’s faster, and your character is ‘locked’ there to maintain the individual character record integrity. The global database also has a back-up in case the main fails,” Blizzard wrote.
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These regional databases periodically send information back to the central database, so that way Blizzard has a singular record (with backups) of your thicc Level 88 Barbarians, Necromancers and so on. Which sounds all well and good—until that central database gets overloaded and the whole system, much like the engineers working on it, needs a nap.
“On Saturday morning Pacific time, we suffered a global outage due to a sudden, significant surge in traffic. This was a new threshold that our servers had not experienced at all, not even at launch,” Blizzard explained.
This was exacerbated by an update we had rolled out the previous day intended to enhance performance around game creation–these two factors combined overloaded our global database, causing it to time out. We decided to roll back that Friday update we’d previously deployed, hoping that would ease the load on the servers leading into Sunday while also giving us the space to investigate deeper into the root cause.
On Sunday, though, it became clear what we’d done on Saturday wasn’t enough–we saw an even higher increase in traffic, causing us to hit another outage. Our game servers were observing the disconnect from the database and immediately attempted to reconnect, repeatedly, which meant the database never had time to catch up on the work we had completed because it was too busy handling a continuous stream of connection attempts by game servers. During this time, we also saw we could make configuration improvements to our database event logging, which is necessary to restore a healthy state in case of database failure, so we completed those, and undertook further root cause analysis.
Not exactly the recipe for a fun weekend, that. It also explains why players were having so many issues with progress, too. You’d pick your character, start a game, play for a while, but the regional server couldn’t communicate with the central database after an outage. So it couldn’t tell Diablo 2’s source of “ground truth” about the new gear and XP you’d gained, resulting in frustrated players losing some of the progress they’d made.
The problems only got worse from there. The Diablo 2 servers came back online, but they did so during a period when most players were online—so even though the servers rebounded quickly, they crashed almost straight away as soon as hundreds of thousands of Diablo 2 instances fired up.
And if the weekend was bad, what followed on Monday and Tuesday wasn’t any better:
This leads us into Monday, October 11, when we made the switch between the global databases. This led to another outage, when our backup database was erroneously continuing to run its backup process, meaning that it spent most of its time trying to copy from the other database when it should’ve been servicing requests from servers. During this time, we discovered further issues, and we made further improvements–we found a since-deprecated-but-taxing query we could eliminate entirely from the database, we optimised eligibility checks for players when they join a game, further alleviating the load, and we have further performance improvements in testing as we speak. We also believe we fixed the database-reconnect storms we were seeing, because we didn’t see it occur on Tuesday.
This is the point where I keep hearing my brother’s advice in my head: “Never get into networking.”
Somehow, Diablo 2 hadn’t had enough. The game enjoyed its best-ever highs for concurrent players on the Wednesday Australian time—after almost a week of constant login issues and crashes. Blizzard says there were “a few hundreds of thousands of players in one region alone”—which could either be a lot or relatively standard, depending on how Blizzard’s servers define regions. (A few hundred thousand would be hugely impressive for, say, Australia. For a “region” like the United States, not so much, but if that region was a small part of the United States, then maybe it would be. The blog post doesn’t specify here.)
According to the devs, one of the biggest problems causing all of this is how the original Diablo 2 handles core pieces of player behavior. While Vicarious Visions updated the original D2 code where they could, a large part of the project was keeping what code worked.
Which was fine, up until the point where it no longer started to scale.
Diablo 2 has a particular way in which it pulls data from the central database to make sure players can do the things they want to do. Joining a game? That’s calling back to the central database. Want to switch characters? That’s another check to central command to make sure you get the character you asked for, in the spot where you left it, with all the gear you’d worked for.
Diablo 2, according to the team, was designed to be centralized. The downside of that means that only a single instance of this particular service can be run at any one time, so they can’t offload some of the weight to regional servers.
“Importantly, this service is a singleton, which means we can only run one instance of it in order to ensure all players are seeing the most up-to-date and correct game list at all times,” the devs wrote. “We did optimize this service in many ways to conform to more modern technology, but as we previously mentioned, a lot of our issues stem from game creation.”
For now, there’s a range of short-term solutions and roadmaps to rewrite Diablo 2‘s architecture so it can better scale for modern demand. The service that just provides a list of games to players, for instance, is being broken out into a service of its own.
The devs will also be introducing a login queue, ala World of Warcraft, to prevent situations where the servers get overloaded when hundreds of thousands of game instances are launched all at once:
To address this, we have people working on a login queue, much like you may have experienced in World of Warcraft. This will keep the population at the safe level we have at the time, so we can monitor where the system is straining and address it before it brings the game down completely. Each time we fix a strain, we’ll be able to increase the population caps. This login queue has already been partially implemented on the backend (right now, it looks like a failed authentication in the client) and should be fully deployed in the coming days on PC, with console to follow after.
Players will also be rate limited, but only in instances where games are being created, closed and recreated in short spaces of time, which is mostly instances where players are farming areas like Shenk & Eldritch or Pindleskin. “When this occurs, the error message will say there is an issue communicating with game servers: this is not an indicator that game servers are down in this particular instance, it just means you have been rate limited to reduce load temporarily on the database, in the interest of keeping the game running,” Blizzard advised.
It all sounds like an absolute nightmare, to be honest, and I feel for the engineers who have what looks like months of retroactive fixes in front of them. There’s a school of internet thought that says, well, Blizzard should have seen this coming and planned for it. But that’s also fundamentally part of the risk you take with remasters. These games were written back in an age where information and multiplayer services didn’t have the popularity or ease of access that we have today, and it’s difficult to know whether a lot of that old infrastructure scales the way we think it might. Sometimes it does — right up until the point where it all collapses in a flaming heap.
This article originally appeared on Kotaku Australia.
Diablo 2 Resurrected Down Reports Surface for the Third Straight Day This October 11
If you’re trying to play Diablo 2 Resurrected but can’t connect, don’t fret, it’s not you, but rather, the game is experiencing issues once again. Diablo 2 Resurrected down reports are surfacing once again, which makes this the third day in a row that the action-RPG has experienced server issues!
Diablo 2 Resurrected Down Reports – October 11:
Multiple reports on the game’s subreddit have surfaced with players from all platforms confirming the server outage:
i just want to play. from Diablo
Is this an out of season april fools joke? from Diablo
Servers Offline Again v2 from Diablo
For now, Blizzard’s official customer service account has not acknowledged the downtime, which isn’t surprising given the time. That said, the studio acknowledged yesterday’s downtime an hour or two after the servers were out.
Same as always, we’ll be updating the post with Blizzard’s updates up top, so make sure to refresh the post from time to time. Chime in down in the comments on whether the game’s servers are working for you! Share which platform you’re on, as well as region, so other players will know whether there are countries where the game’s online component can be played.
Resurrected is Blizzard’s Latest Launch Disaster, Some Issue Workarounds Offered
Update: Blizzard has issued a patch for Diablo II: Resurrected (ver. 9.24) which promises to fix some issues. The actual effectiveness of the patch remains to be seen.
General
- Fixed saves for offline characters that shared the same names as their online characters
- Fixed an issue preventing players from creating a game in their region after they joined a game in a different region
- Fixed an issue that caused the in-game cinematics to stagger or stall
Stability and performance
- Fixed a bug that could cause players to crash upon launching the game who were using controllers (for PC)
- Fixed a bug that could cause players to crash upon launching the game because of an audio issue
Original story: Tell me if you’ve heard this one before – Blizzard had launched a new remaster of one of their classic games and yet server issues and other problems have rendered the game nearly unplayable. Diablo II: Resurrected arrived yesterday, and players have been beset with issues, ranging from being locked out of the game, to characters losing progress or disappearing altogether, particularly if you’re playing offline.
Blizzard promises they’re working on the server issues and manually unlocking characters, but no actual patch has been offered yet, and players continue to report widespread issues. In a post on the Blizzard forums, the studio promises they’re working on an array of issues.
Some players have reported offline characters disappearing or losing progress, and we believe we have identified the issue. We intend to release a permanent fix for this today for PC and for consoles shortly thereafter.
Furthermore, our team is working to resolve the issue of character lockouts. Many of these characters are already in the process of being unlocked. We anticipate this process will take a few hours to complete.
For players unable to create or join game lobbies, we’ve been evaluating activities that have prevented them from being able to play in those sessions. We’re actively working to find a solution to these issues. Additionally, our team has been monitoring players’ uptime across the globe. We’ve been reviewing crash reports across all platforms as we work to make Diablo II: Resurrected as stable as possible. On top of this, we’re exploring the AVX issue, preventing players from launching the game. As we progress, we’ll provide an update if we receive a development on this front.
While we wait for an actual update for the issue of disappearing characters, Blizzard suggests using different names for online and offline characters…
We’ve been working on players’ reports of offline characters disappearing or losing progress after creation. We identified the issue and are implementing a fix to prevent this from happening again. For the time being, we advise you not to use the same name for your offline characters and online characters, since that is related to this bug.
Diablo II: Resurrected seemed like it could provide a small glint of light after weeks of very gloomy PR for Blizzard. The fact that they’ve dropped the ball on yet another retro release, following the disaster that was Warcraft III: Reforged, is kind of astonishing. Did they not realize they needed to get this thing right?
California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has filed suit against Activision Blizzard, alleging widespread gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment at the Call of Duty publisher. You can get more detail on that unfolding story here.
Diablo II: Resurrected is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Switch. Good luck trying to actually play it!
Diablo 2: Resurrected is Suffering From Familiar Server Problems
Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.
Another launch for an online game, another launch with day one server issues. It’s rare today that a game with online connectivity launches without server issues, and unfortunately for Paladins, Necromancers, Barbarians, and other players around the globe, Diablo 2: Resurrected is not without its own problems.
Players are reporting server issues that prevent them from even playing the game, and these same issues are preventing players from seeing existing characters or creating new ones, too. Earlier today, Blizzard announced that it was taking the game offline for unscheduled maintenance in an attempt to fix the issues.
Offline play should remain available for all players who have already authenticated.
— Blizzard CS – The Americas (@BlizzardCS) September 23, 2021
However, it didn’t seem to work as many on the game’s Subreddit and on Twitter are still experiencing the issues. Over on the Diablo 2: Resurrected subreddit, the front page reveals multiple posts of a screen that reads, “an issue occurred while communicating with the game servers,” and that those players should “check that [they] are connected to the internet and try again.”
Over on Twitter, players are reporting similar things, theorizing that the new Battle.net is worse than the old Battle.net.
So funny @diablo is having server issues. Thought we were supposed to be using new age battle net but maybe old battle net was more stable? @Blizzard_Ent
— chris (@PfoChris) September 23, 2021
Blizzard tweeted again about an hour after the unscheduled maintenance that it is “continuing to work on problems affecting characters and game creation.” A quick scroll through the replies to that tweet showcase the frustration of players who can’t get in.
pic.twitter.com/Z3lZiQ2l5h
— Ryan (@broken_rhino) September 23, 2021
after the 10:00 maint, i created a game just fine, then I left it to join another and since then my character/account have been locked and unable to play. Hoping for a resolution soon!
— nroe1337 (@beezycraft) September 23, 2021
Pretty sad when my 37 year old Commodore 64 works better than Blizzard’s 2021 servers.
— ℂ𝟞𝟜 𝕋𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟📺 (@C64Television) September 23, 2021
For what it’s worth, Blizzard has acknowledged the problem, stating that it’s actively working on it. However, with the game out today, it’s obviously not great that players who purchased this new game on launch are not even able to play it as intended.
The server issues Diablo 2: Resurrected players are facing today aren’t all that uncommon across games, though. Square Enix’s Outriders had a large online outage just days after its launch that hampered what might have been an otherwise successful launch. No Man’s Sky players on PC reported server issues as well on launch day, so while these issues aren’t great to deal with, they’re unfortunately not rare.
While waiting for the server issues of Diablo 2: Resurrected to clear up, check out this video showcasing 12 minutes of Assassin gameplay and then watch these 14 minutes of Necromancer gameplay. Read about how Diablo 2: Resurrected can’t have ultrawide screen support because it breaks the original game after that.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
Diablo 2: Resurrected Is Losing A Feature From The Original Game
Diablo 2: Resurrected won’t include a feature seen in the original game–TCP/IP multiplayer. Blizzard cites security risks as the reason for the removal of the feature.
Buried at the bottom of a FAQ related to the game’s open beta, Blizzard explained why the option, which allowed players of the original Diablo 2 to play multiplayer via LAN or other peer-to-peer connections instead of on official Blizzard servers, will no longer be included.
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“TCP/IP support will not be available in the upcoming Beta or the final game,” the blog post states. “After careful deliberation, we will no longer be supporting this option as we identified potential security risks and are committed to safeguarding the player experience.”
In an interview with Eurogamer earlier this year, Diablo franchise head Rod Fergusson emphasized the feature would be included in the final game.
“You can still connect locally through TCP IP if you want to!” Fergusson said. “That was there in D2. It’ll be there in D2R. We’ve really focused on making sure that if there’s something about the core experience you loved, we’re bringing that over. But we do get a lot of benefits from being on a more secure platform.”
Blizzard has emphasized that it seeks to change as few things as possible for Diablo 2: Resurrected. It’s not a remake, but a remaster, looking to improve the game’s visuals and provide slight quality-of-life improvements without changing what players loved about the original. The Diablo 2: Resurrected early access beta begins August 13 for players who preorder the game on any platform (excluding Nintendo Switch), with an open beta starting on August 20.
The Diablo 2: Resurrected beta and upcoming September 23 release come as Activision Blizzard deals with the fallout from a state of California lawsuit accusing the company of fostering a “frat boy” culture of harassment and discrimination against women. The lawsuit, and the response of Activision Blizzard leadership to it, have seen mass employee walkouts and led to the departure of former Blizzard president J. Allen Brack.
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‘Diablo II: Resurrected’ open beta begins on August 20th
In the midst of a that has engulfed the company in turmoil, Blizzard will give Diablo II fans the chance to play the game’s during two separate early access weekends. The first of those will begin on August 13th at 1PM ET. It will be open to those who pre-ordered Diablo II: Resurrected or the Diablo Prime Evil Collection, which includes both the remaster and Diablo 3, on PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and PS4.
Blizzard Entertainment
If you fall into that camp, you’ll have until August 17th at 1PM ET to play through Act I and II of the story as the Amazon, Barbarian, Druid, Paladin or Sorceress. What’s more, this time around, Blizzard will allow you to play with up to seven other players, with support for cross-progression enabled. Just note that during the early access weekend, that feature will only work on platforms where you’ve pre-ordered the game.
One week later, starting on August 20th at 1PM ET, Blizzard will open the beta to anyone who wants to take part. At that point, you’ll have until the 23rd to see the work the studio has done to update its beloved action RPG. Unfortunately, neither beta will be available to check out on the Nintendo Switch. And if you want to see how the Assassin and Necromancer play in the remaster, you will also have to wait until the game’s date.
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