One of the biggest issues that gamers initially had with Diablo 3 was that the game launched as an always-on title, preventing players from playing offline in single-player due to the Real-Money Auction House integration. Home consoles were given the option to play Diablo 3 offline following the removal of the RMAH, but it looks like Diablo 4 will pick up the tradition of forcing players to stay online to play the game.

Gamespot is reporting that during a panel at BlizzCon 2019, designer Angela Del Priore responded to a question about being able to play offline, and Del Priore stated…

“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. Campain quest areas will [also] remain private.”

This means that if you just want to buy and play the game in your own space, at your own pace, in your own time, you can’t.

The GameSpot crew were obviously excited about it because they only play online-only games like Destiny.

Real gamers, of course, will be left out in the dust.

As noted by GameSpot, Diablo 4 is also in development for PS4 and Xbox One, and we don’t yet know if those versions will also include an offline mode.

If the home console versions get an offline mode but the PC version doesn’t then it means that you won’t even be able to mod the PC version, and the superior version of the game will be on the home consoles.

According to PC Gamer, they spoke with designer Joe Shely, who told them that the reason the game is always-on is because Diablo 4 uses a shared universe…

“There’s a large, seamless, connected, and shared space in the world, going down into dungeons, being able to group with your friends, trading and PvP. We feel that the best way to experience that is in a world that is online,”

Nevertheless, for those of you playing on PC you will be forced to play online. This is because apparently the game’s hub worlds are all connected via a live-service. This also means that if/when Blizzard’s servers go down you won’t be able to access the game.

(Thanks for the news tip monzaemon92)