Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 4, fourth instalment in the franchise, will not have an offline mode. The news was confirmed by Angela Del Priore, the game’s lead designer, during a panel session at BlizzCon 2019 last weekend.
According to Del Priore, the game will require a constant connection to the internet across all versions of the game and that Blizzard has no intention to “support and offline mode”. The news is a bit of a mixed bag, depending on who you speak to; gamers who played Diablo 3 on PC are unlikely fazed by Blizzard’s connectivity choice.
In fact, the only people who might be affected by this are the ones who played the game on the PlayStation 4 (PS4) or Xbox One consoles. For context, the console version of Diablo 3 didn’t require a constant online connection and allowed co-op gameplay on a single console.
That aside, Del Priore also said that nothing in Diablo 4 will require the player to form a group, but the latter option is still there. Playing solo and dungeon crawlings – a core, if not an integral part of the Diablo franchise – will be private, as are campaign quest areas.
From one particular gameplay video, it seems that Diablo 4 will also have its own set of World events happening in random areas. Much like Blizzard’s other well-known title, World of Warcraft.
Diablo 4 was one of the first titles Blizzard had announced at the start of BlizzCon 2019, but lacked an official release date. Based on the official trailer, the latest trailer will have players ultimately going up against Lilith, one of the founders of Sanctuary, and mother of the Nephalem.
