There has been an outcry of frustration since it was revealed earlier this week that Diablo III requires an active Internet connection in order to play. The news came on the heels of Ubisoft announcing the same thing for Driver: San Francisco, bringing back a DRM policy it had used with past PC games like Assassin’s Creed II and Splinter Cell: Conviction.
There is at least one key difference between the two, at least from Blizzard’s point of view: Diablo isn’t doing it to keep pirates away. And it doesn’t see this as a punishment to those who want to play solo.
Blizzard’s online technologies VP Robert Bridenbecker admitted to MTV Multiplayer that he was “actually kind of surprised in terms of there even being a question in today’s age around online play and the requirement around that.” As he sees it, that’s the direction the industry is going, and there are many benefits that come along with it.
