Is Anyone Offline These Days?
BlizzCon 2019 opened on Friday and announced Diablo 4 to the rejoice of fans all over. It’s been several years since the last installment and we are ready for a new journey from this dungeon crawler RPG. During a panel at BlizzCon, people got to ask about some of the technical aspects and an interesting detail arose. Diablo 4 lead desinger Angela Del Priore was asked if players could play on their own and offline. She said that you can play solo but must play Diablo 4 online.
“We are not going to support an offline mode, but as I said before, nothing in DIablo 4 is going to require partying up. You can play solo and dungeons are private. Campaign quest areas will [also] remain private.” That was the extent to her answer. The requirement to have an online connection to play a game is sometimes met with hostility, but nowadays, who is really offline? Sure, there are still people who do not have an internet connection at home, but Diablo fans and almost all gamers definitely do. While Blizzard would not want to exclude anyone from playing their games, an internet connection is common enough that many games prompt a update to be downloaded even at launch.
When looking back at Diablo 3’s launch, there was no offline mode on the PC version. Xbox One and PS4 versions could be played offline however, Diablo 4 on all platforms will require you to play online. Blizzard may fill us in on a particular reason for this un-feature, but it may just a way of keeping an eye on how the game is being played. Diablo 4 has no release date as of yet, but it will be launching on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
Does requiring an internet connection to play Diablo 4 bother you? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: GameSpot