So they'd either have to significantly change the way players log in to the game or allow 'guests' to create characters on others' accounts. This would mean having to log in two separate accounts on the same PC, which is something online games REALLY don't like, due to account sharing issues, and we know Blizzard have a firm stance against that.

The other big issue presented by additional players playing on the same PC is the fact that Blizzard would probably insist on them having their own accounts, with the argument being 'so they can play their own characters and retain their progress', but in reality not wanting to lose sales (which is a valid concern). With RPGs in particular, the added complexity of inventory screens, skill trees and a whole lot of stats to be read complicates matters, as screen real estate becomes problematic and hard to come by. Not many games actually support it, as the multiplayer aspect is much more online-focused, with co-operative experiences being crafted based on each player having their own screen. So let's take a look at the arguments for and against 'couch' co-op coming to PC.įirst and foremost, local co-op isn't really a PC thing. Now, nowhere in the update does it actually state that local/single machine co-op won't be coming to PC, but as the couch co-op term is associated specifically with consoles only, there's been some debate on this in the community.Ĭo-op in and of itself is obviously not a console only thing, as PC games (and Blizzard games specifically) have had a co-op focus for a long time now, especially with Diablo and WoW, with Diablo 3 even seemingly favoring the multiplayer aspect, based on drop chances, ease of farming etc (we actually even got comments from the devs on this for Diablo 4 already, as the intention is for solo play to be as rewarding in group play). The actual title of the co-op section of the update is ' Couch Co-Op UI'. One big question has come out of it, however, as the update talks about both the (long awaited/asked for) addition of controller support for PC and specifics for the local co-op UI layout - but completely fails to mention whether the latter is also referring to the PC or if it's console only. The February 2020 update for Diablo 4 covered a lot of ground, mainly focusing on players' interaction with the game itself, from the way we control it to the way we get to see our skills etc, aka the UI.

Diablo 3 ps4 4 player co op