Daily Briefing: Monday 20th September

Blizzard don't want players to buy Diablo II Resurrected...sort of

The much-anticipated remaster will be the first release to come out of Blizzard since the California Department of Fair Housing and Employment's lawsuit was filed back in July of this year. Though the situation is somewhat complicated by the fact the game is being developed by Vicarious Visions, the New York-based developer who weren't actually implicated in the lawsuit. This puts the game in a bit of iffy position in terms of consumer relations, but Vicarious Visions want players to "do what they feel is right."

• Speaking in a new interview with Axios, Vicarious Visions design director Rob Gallerani said that the allegations against Blizzard have prompted his studio to review its own processes and ask some questions of staff to improve workplace culture. Gallerani said he wanted to support his colleagues and, while the internal review returned a lot of positives, the studio want to keep asking.

Battlefield 2042 dev urges fans to "have faith" following delay

Battlefield 2042's recent, almost eleventh-hour, delay was a bit of a surprise given that this year's entry is supposed to be a triumphant return to form destined to beat Call of Duty at its own game. A lot of fans are a little concerned by the news, but principal software engineer Jim Hejl has reassured them that Battlefield 2042 just needs "a little longer on spin cycle."

• Hejl took to Twitter to fire out a few other reassurances, including a firm statement that Battlefield 2042 is "not a project in trouble." News of the delay was surprising given how close to release we were, as well as how many delays the actual reveal of the game went through. The belief was seemingly that nothing would stop the game now that it's out in the open. At any rate, Hejl concluded his tweet by imploring fans to "have faith fam."

Splitgate is apparently only "25% complete"

That's according to 1047 Games co-founder and CEO Ian Proulx who, speaking in new interview with Techcrunch, outlined that the "the scope of what we can do now is through the roof" following the studio's recent successful round of founding. Splitgate initially launched in early access back in 2019 when 1047 Games were a relatively small team hamstrung by lack of resources. Now, after raising an impressive $120m in around three months, Proulx says that "everything is on the table."

• This funding is, as you'd expect, super important. Proulx says it'll allow 1047 Games to focus on making the game they want to make. He also emphasised that the team aren't about to stop listening to the game's dedicated community, telling fans "we read everything, we're listening - keep the feedback coming." Proulx says the team are still "operating like the small indie team that had to stay close to our community...but now we just have a ridiculous amount of money." Fancy.