Planned obsolescence is a resource that software companies resort to very often to sell new products, but on certain occasions, their previous work is so good that it deserves some kind of extended support. That is exactly what is happening with Diablo II. This fabulous classic from Blizzard has just received a patch that brings it to version 1.14a, whose main function is to improve the game's compatibility with modern operating systems.
The story tells us that on the next June 29, Diablo II will turn 16 years old, and believe it or not, it still retains a significant fan base. I think at this point we can safely say that the third installment of the saga did not meet expectations, and at the same time it established a wide gap between its players and the specialized press. Because of this, it's not crazy to imagine thousands of users dusting off their old Diablo II discs and reliving its story from start to finish. The only problem is that these last 16 years weigh heavily on the technical side, and it has become complicated to run the game on the new versions of Windows and OS X. Fortunately, that is about to change.
Patch details
Blizzard confirmed through a brief post on the official Battle.net forum that Diablo II has a new patch, which raises its version number to 1.14a. This patch does not incorporate content, but rather focuses on fixing bugs caused by current operating systems. Another detail to keep in mind is that the patch includes a new installer for OS X, so Blizzard jokingly suggests that users will be able to "finally" retire their PowerPC Macs. The message also reports optimizations for anti-cheat and anti-hacking systems (the game supports LAN games and Battle.net connection), but they acknowledge that they still have work ahead, and there are several forum posts that recommend "waiting", since the new patch breaks several third-party fixes from the last decade and a half.
The journey continues
Finally, the announcement speaks of "the beginning of a journey", which makes us think of more patches for Diablo II, but also for the beloved StarCraft, which suffers multiple compatibility issues and video corruption on systems with Windows 7 or higher, and the unforgettable WarCraft III. This theory is backed by a new job listing from Blizzard that seeks a "senior software engineer for classic games". We will be waiting.
