Enlarge (credit: Blizzard / Aurich)

Two years ago, Blizzard announced its intention to release a series of remastered classic games, and so far, the company is making good on that promise. StarCraft Remastered launched as a solid, faithful recreation in August 2017, while Blizzard is still currently working on World of WarCraft Classic and WarCraft III: Reforged.

That leaves one classic-minded Blizzard fanbase in the cold: the Diablo fans. These are the fans who, to some measure, let Blizzard have it after seeing the unveil of smartphone-only “freemium” game Diablo Immortal in place of any “Diablo IV” news at BlizzCon 2018. Which is to say: the word “Diablo” is a touchy one as of late.

Which brings us to today’s seriously surprising news: Blizzard has just put Diablo 1 on sale digitally, a first for that 1996 game, with no prior announcement. It’s not a remaster, per se, but it does come with some quality-of-life updates and is Blizzard’s first DRM-free game launch in years.