Most of you will agree that Co-op, especially Couch Co-op in Diablo IV is quite important. Blizzard Entertainment is aware of it as well and that is why Couch Co-op functionality was also available for the console players during the early access beta. However, as you might already know, Diablo IV won’t feature Couch Co-op or split screen co-op on PC which ofcourse is a disappointing news for most of the fans on PC who wanted to enjoy the couch co-op using their PCs.
Why is There no Couch Co-op in Diablo 4 PC?
Naturally, since all the platforms apart from PC have couch Co-op, PC fans were desperate to know that why the PC players haven’t received this Diablo IV feature? Well, general manager of Diablo 4, Rod Ferguson have an answer for the fans though it might not be as convincing. According to Rod:
It’s a technology question. Trying to do shared-screen co-op on PC is much more challenging when it comes to account management and how you play together.
Upon being asked that how is this different from consoles, he replied:
Well, console is pre-set up for that in terms of the ways you can associate the accounts to it. And it’s been that way… Having split-screen or shared-screen co-op on consoles [has existed] for a long time.
He further explained:
Trying to get two Battle.net accounts signed into the same PC at the same time… It’s a technology problem.
And the notion of two people sitting together at a desk: when you prioritise the problems you have to solve, solving for two people sitting at a desk, playing on the same PC, is lower priority when the majority of couch co-op that’s going to happen is going to be in front of a sixty-five-inch TV.
So it’s always the technical limitations, right? If you ask me, it’s more about priority than technical limitations. If there was more demand of local couch or split screen co-op on PC, developers would have been forced to include them. So if you want to enjoy Diablo 4 co-op with your partner on PC, you will not only need to PCs, but also two Diablo 4 copies as well. Or maybe, instead of buy another PC, you could get a console. But again, getting a new console just to play Diablo IV couch co-op seems like a stretch.
It’s not the first time that PC gamers haven’t received a split-screen or couch co-op for a game. Borderlands series has been another notorious example. Diablo 3 ofcourse, also didn’t had any sort of local co-op. Fans didn’t like the notion that the subsequent console releases of Diablo 3 had couch co-op for them even for the Nintendo Switch. There were hopes that Diablo IV will address this issue but again, it seems like the issue wasn’t on the priority list of Activision Blizzard to address.
For the time being, the game is also not planned for Xbox Game Pass which could have been a great substitute for PC gamers looking to play Co-op without getting two copies of the game. That could happen in future but for now, online co-op is the only way to play Diablo 4 with your buddies online via PC.
