Blizzard ‘stands by’ Diablo 3’s Internet requirement; responds to Reaper of Souls price concerns

A lot went wrong with Diablo 3, but Blizzard Entertainment doesn't believe its Internet connection requirement was one of those mistakes.

"Yes, we stand by it," the game's lead content designer, Kevin Martens, told PC Gamer. "Diablo 3 is a co-op game from the ground up, so having the social stuff be there at your fingertips whenever you want it is integral to the experience."

But as for the troubles at launch, the developer of the action role-playing game feels "bad." It took about eight major patches to Diablo 3 to get everything on track.

"We felt terrible about the connection issue stuff," said Martens. "I know people that sent their families out of town on vacation so that they could sit down and play the game, and they couldn't connect. So that stuff was terrible, and I think we've spent an incredible amount of time ensuring that kind of stuff doesn't happen again. We took that very seriously and certainly feel bad about that."

Martens also responded to concerns that the upcoming expansion, Reaper of Souls, is too pricey (it costs $40 for the standard edition):

"I don't know about pricing as such, but I would say that the Adventure Mode changes the game pretty much completely. … As good as Act V is, once you get into Adventure mode and you see the promise of everything random that Diablo does; that makes replayability the point of the game," he said. "It's not linear anymore so you're experience is different every time you come in."