We can all remember Blizzard's announcement at the last E3 when they suddenly showed up at Sony's Press Conference. Diablo 3 is now coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sometime this month and in 2014 it will be making its way to the PlayStation 4. While this normally is enough surprise for PC fans of Blizzard and Diablo 3, the news has turned a bit sour lately with some disappointing announcements.

Diablo 3 received a great deal of controversy from fans due to its always-online DRM, fans have been able to prove since launch that this is not actually a requirement but is only there as a DRM and has no actual features attached to it or relying on it being there. Now it seems fans will have even more to be angry about as the console versions will not have any form of always-online requirements, worse yet, they will even have a dedicated offline mode (meaning local co-op)!

But I will stop putting words in Blizzard's mouth, instead I will let Blizzard's very own Game Director, Josh Mosqueira do the talking:

"I got to see it from all angles, especially having worked on console. Diablo plays best when you're playing with other people. Because not a lot of people connect their consoles to the internet, that's where the whole idea of having to get four people on the same couch playing together. That's how we get that social aspect. But on PC, we really want players to feel they're part of the bigger Blizzard and Diablo community. It's a choice of platform and opportunity for our players to benefit from. There's a more secure item trading environment, but also a more social environment."

"Always online is not going anywhere."

Funny enough, following the announcement of the console version, a portion of fans instantly demanded an always-online requirement for Diablo 3 console edition as well in order to prevent cheating.

Now of course there are plenty of ways for them to go about this issue, they could follow in the footsteps of other titles and thereby offer separate online and offline modes such as Dungeon Defenders. This feature could easily be included on both consoles and PC and would satisfy all players then, offering those who like the security the always-online offers, while those who like the flexibility of offline play.

What is strange though is from the statement of Blizzard you'd get the feeling that only 1 percent of console players connect their console to the internet... This is very odd as on PCs many people play over Wi-Fi or on a laptop and thus might not have any internet either then! Yet for consoles they are willing to forgo the always-online and on PC they refuse to remove it... very strange Blizzard...

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