Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 4 will not have an offline mode, and will require a constant Internet connection. Blizzard claimed that the game features a shared open world, and that it will be always-online.
Of course this shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, we’ve seen lately a trend with Activision’s triple-A games requiring a constant Internet connection. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, for instance, does not let you play the game – even its single-player campaign – in offline mode. The game constantly requires an Internet connection via Battlenet, and Diablo 4 will be a similar case.
Diablo 4 promises to deliver visceral combat, gruesome and varied monsters. It will also pack an epic hunt for legendary loot, as well as endless playability and progression. Players will find a lifetime’s worth of adventure scattered across a land rooted in unique ecologies and inhabited by dangerous new foes. They’ll delve into randomized dungeons packed with unpredictable adversaries and unimaginable treasures.
Now while the game will be always-online, it will support both solo and coordinated party play. The game will also provide opportunities for groups of players to encounter each other in the same shared world.
There is currently no ETA on when the game will come out, though Blizzard stated that it won’t release anytime soon!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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soon the games will have an expiry date, just corporations being corporations,god forbid you get to own something!
Corporations only go as far as the customer base allows them. Turn your ire where it belongs. To the morons that enable this garbage.
sadly there’s too many of them, more morons than sane ones. So this practice will never stop, only get worse
Since the seventh generation (because this is a practice implemented by console developers that they exported to PC) practically all games have expiration date. once the servers are turned off, you wont be able to download the 657558754394 patches needed to have a “proper” gaming experience.
Yeah, patches existed long before on PC, but before games were launched as complete games, and patches only corrected the few bugs that weren’t seen during betatesting phase
Now, when a game launchs is just a $70 beta that still need a lot of work by the developer team…
“because this is a practice implemented by console developers that they exported to PC”
Bullshit, this whole ordeal started with MMO junkies and fanboys not demanding tools to host their own servers while being charged a monthly fee to play their game.
This crap was popularized on PC from the get go and Blizzard and their retarded blind and brand loyal fans were the pioneers.
Do you guys not have
phonesinternet?i saw that one coming
That’s what she said!
forbid you get to own something
Steam.
Then don’t buy a corporate game? Oh you don’t have the will power? Then by all means blame a corporation who has learned to monetize your weakness.
All the more reason not to buy it. Live service is cancer
Really need a more appropriate name than, “live service”. There is no “service” being provided. It deserves a name that better embodies the stigma associated with it.
Maybe something more like, “Draconian Gatekeeper”, or something along those lines. Doesn’t have that ring to it, but it’s certainly far more fitting and accurate.
Grim Dawn owns and it’s not a Live Service plus it’s expansions are legit and I play it almost everyday. You can get the base game right now on GOG for like $9 CND and it will last you for years with all it’s content, skill tress, classes, talent trees, crafting etc.
Both Ashes of Malmouth and Forgotten Gods are amazing expansions, best part Grim Dawns is DRM free, offline, SP or MP online and really how every ARPG should be modelled after.
I also have Wolcen, it is not out of Beta yet but I feel it will be solid and you can 100% play it in an offline mode too. The graphics and gameplay are already better than Diablo 3. Basically We have options but as a huge Diablo fan it feels Bad Man to see them carry out this ridiculous Live service practice. Grim Dawn 100% proves you can do an incredible ARPG independently, DRM free, with traditional expansions, SP + offline mode and optional MP.
I admit Diablo 4 looks amazing but the Live Service stuff negates anything that is positive 🙁 . Why can’t they add a real offline mode after a years time to customers, imagine that?
Because money and teh piwates.
Sure I get that and it would seem that way, but do you really think if Grim Dawn was always online they would of made way more money and the piwates would of converted to legit customers? If yes, why?
I would bet money there is no way that would be the case, to Me it is just the executives perception that have not insight to a piwates mind and ways or how negative DRM and always online really is.
Also with big companies and IPs like Diablo and Blizzard it’s hard to separate that mob mentality that will buy it no matter what and don’t care because of it’s brand power and reputation just like any popular product. Your numbers are going to be skewed and it will be an unrealistic use case then comparing the same situation with a indie title like Grim Dawn.
Anyways I am sure every AAA company thinks exactly this way in regards to what you just said and that is why they do it for sure.
Blizzard is lost. Support studios that are worth it. Won’t even lose my breath on them.
right but the online part of grim dawn is very lacking and full of cheaters. the game is more about the single player or offline part which is of course great but not what diablo or path of exile aim for. normally if you want to avoid cheating the most safest way is to not let the players play offline since that will grant them access to the inner workings of the game
I always see these sort of comments to justify always online MP plus Live Services and I get what your saying but there is a pretty easy solution don’t play MP with randoms and there is no issue.
Also if you have no friends it’s not hard to find new friends that are legit and not cheaters on forums etc. To Me at least it makes no sense why we would want to ruin a game just because you run into some randoms that cheat. Put it this way Apex and PUBG both have cheaters in game and they are both always online titles so it’s sort of a pointless argument.
If I play MP I never play with randoms for it is always a terrible experience in any MP game regardless if they are cheating or not.
obviously thats a valid way to play, me personally i play path of exile on a mode that doesnt even let you trade (solo self found). but most people (90%+) do play with others, they party they trade they do the races on each league etc etc. cheaters would completely ruin that way to play and thats what most people do play (for better or worse) so yea
not sure how having the sound files, textures and effects will help you with that. i mean youre missing terrain generators, the AI, the boss battles, the drop rates, skill behaviors, calculations, etc etc. youre missing everything except for how the game sounds and looks like
youre assuming most games are like that one though and that one is a FPS which is way more simple to code and its just wildly different from an RPG/MMO. also the data the client could send is just the keystrokes and stuff like that.
and its not only blizzard that says having the full game offline is a security risk.
are you kidding? private wow servers took years to get any semblance of a functioning game. i remember raids being non functional at all for years because they had no AI lol. not sure if that changed afterwards but that was the case when i was interested in them (around wotlk)
also path of exile did the same thing and lo and behold the game doesnt have cheaters nor maphacks and the such.
Well said.
Classic blizzard…
Shocking.
Ah yes, I love my games to have expiration dates, like my milk. What a great time to be a “gamer”.
Bend over and pucker up, folks. It’s gonna get rough from here on out.
This way they can spam your screen every minutes with their flash sales. all in all the gameplay was below mediocre, it will be broken at launch, and skill system is just as awful as D3, only 4 active skills and 4 passives.
I mean look at Divinity, the entire screen is filled with slots to put whatever you want there, look at Grim Dawn’s Passive and active skills, every build is different and the combination of different builds makes each of them a unique build, compare that to D3 and soon 4’s only 2 “end-game” variant of each, now in an MMO style while everyone looks the same (oh sorry, everyone will look different since they will shove “Cosmetic” microtransactions there) and every class plays the same.
D3 was a console ARPG now this is a console MMOARPG, buh but you are a hater, Yes i wear it like a badge and you none haters just consume and shut up.
Yes, it’s a console / multiplatform game now because D3 sold really well on consoles… and I don’t mind that at all. Their direct control solution on consoles just felt a lot better to play than any of the usual point and click stuff so I’m hoping that they’ll bring that to PC too with D4 and streamline the UI to make mouse and keyboard and controller play balanced.
So you know, maybe if you wanted to play a new game (and by new I mean new in terms of balance and general mechanics too) instead of replaying all those other games you’ve mentioned then you could appreciate stuff like this.
Console UI is console UI, PC should not suffer because consoles/controllers don’t have enough keys. but i’m not talking about only the UI, simplified combat and skills will hurt the experience, thats the problem, consoles can have simplified UI and gameplay but when PC version gets a nerf, it makes it as s**ty as Diablo 3 or 4 or Marvel Heroes (which killed it) or the new Torchlight game.
“Console UI is console UI, PC should not suffer because consoles/controllers don’t have enough keys.”
The game will have PvP (potentially with controller players fighting against mouse + keyboard users) so that’s not a good argument.
“consoles can have simplified UI and gameplay but when PC version gets a nerf, it makes it as s**ty as Diablo 3 or 4 or Marvel Heroes (which killed it) or the new Torchlight game.”
That’s where game design will matter because no, just because the UI has different sensibilities in terms or mechanics or just because some elements of the gameplay are streamlined the game shouldn’t become simpler.
I don’t know if they’ll fail or succeed in that regard because the game seems to be in a very unpolished and very early state at this point. According to Blizzard it’s at least 2 years until release so we know nothing about how it will play.
That’s partially why I don’t understand why you’re hating on it this much honestly: it’s not done yet, it looks like a pre-alpha so who cares? I’m not a hack n slash vet because in general the genre always bored me to death (and I pretty much hate Blizzard) so I certainly don’t have much on the line here but all I can say is that the closer camera and the general art style has my attention. It looks like Blizzard is making games for adults again so let’s give ’em a bit of a break here, okay?
>The game will have PvP so that’s not a good argument.
PvP don’t have to be a crossplay thing, you know ? it can have it’s own PC features and have PC PvP at the same time. Diablo 3 didn’t have one, when they released it for console, the PvP that was promissed was long canceled and the UI was still a dog s**t.
>some elements of the gameplay are streamlined the game shouldn’t become simpler.
Shouldn’t become simpler but it will become simpler, Diablo 3 is still there.
>give ’em a bit of a break here, okay ?
Why ? because they were good boys ? Are they going to allow offline play ? Any mods (any mod in D3 is a bannable offence so) ? don’t you think they get enough breaks already ? amount of shilling specially from “Influencers” was not enough ? should i defend it now because it says pre-alpha ?
“PvP don’t have to be a crossplay thing, you know ?”
For Activision it has to be crossplay now for some reason.
“Shouldn’t become simpler but it will become simpler, Diablo 3 is still there.”
I dunno, man, to me Diablo was always dead simple and I actually don’t think that D3 was simpler than D2, it just offered less variety (which is insane because there wasn’t much variety to begin with). Hopefully that won’t be the case here and when it comes to that I really don’t care how many items you can hotkey (let’s be real here, in the old games most of those hotkeys were your potions anyway so if those get grouped together you didn’t lose anything).
What I care about is gameplay variety, the synergy of different mechanics etc. and that’s where Diablo and the hack n slash genre should go in my opinion. I get bored of most of these games simply because they don’t offer much mechanical depth so I hope D4 will be more of an action game where skill matters a bit more instead of just your build.
Pretty much as expected seeing as 3 was the same. Will still sell in the millions though regardless of all the whiners on here.
Well this is lame, I actually liked the trailer. I’m curious how a shared open world incorporates into SP
The last one was basically always online. Hell, most of Blizz’s games these days require the game be online, as well as the client.
Either way, I’m not likely to buy it, until they change their damn tune.
They won’t as long as Blizzdrones will buy their games. Average Joe counts too.
This is the end of an era, Most of coming games are going to be only online and sadly they have customers for that.
always online = less piracy!
always online is not good for single player games, and Piracy is not hurting the industry but it’s the opposite, so much pirates buy the games when they find it’s worth buying.
True!!! Need for speed 2015 couldnt even pause the game. Online single player was annoying aF
Also less customers and less games.
not really. most AAA games? sure. but AAA are expensive and the safest for them is to release few products with many updates and microtransactions.
me personally i stick mostly to SP games and diablo was never that except maybe for diablo 1
heh, Im lucky cos Im Diablo immune from start
Great stuff, it’s an online experience.
Bad news for pirates.
And here I wanted to purchase D4. Guess I won’t.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/23438c6a4788786c86da600489e00c9f033dd3afcd03467d931cd50c9de6f60d.png
They’ll still buy it in droves, just like Diablo 3, even after all they and Activision have done.
diablo 3 was a big thing because of the legacy of diablo 2. i think people will be more skeptical of diablo 4 and will wait at least to hear from reviewers and the such (hopefully)
I can agree to that, I got d3 on the back of d2 being so GD amazing. Now i know better and wont be burned again.
Being hopeful for Blizzard fans is like being hopeful for EA or any of their properties.
Diablo 3 server debacle part 2.
Never like Diablo games since 1. So,no loss for me..
Let me correct that. Always online for PC ! meanwhile on console its facking offline.
trash
Blizzard be like
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ac3ca94e70cdaf10b8c52a71cb48c1b3bd44ef096472f9cad08460f554b0dc1.png