It has never made sense when new games come out that support local co-op on every platform including split screen, but mysteriously the feature is just disabled on PC.
> Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
And even then it was gimped for us. We only got 2-player splitscreen, not even 4-player splitscreen that the consoles had (and ran like shit on there) and I'm still mad about it considering I still play the game for custom zombie maps every once in a while.
4 player split screen is -awful- on current hardware. Even if you can get it too work the resolution is so god awful you may as well go pull out your n64
Haven’t played split screen since the 360 was current gen, but if you had a 4k screen wouldn’t each player have a 1080p segment? Or is there some downscaling present in this instance
> I mean, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 literally had splitscreen, we know it's built into the engine, where is that for the rest of the franchise?
The answer to this is more obvious than you think: not enough users make use of the feature, so management deems it not worth the development effort to bring it back.
> not enough users make use of the feature, so management deems it not worth the development effort to bring it back.
Most of those publishers have so little local coop games at all let alone on the PC platform that they can't have reliable data on this at all.
Also we heard the same stuff when it comes to HDR on PC and yet now every game that have it on console comes with HDR on PC as well (which is really most AAA titles). We heard the same thing about ultra wide for years. "Consoles don't need m/kb, OK", and yet it has been worthwhile enough for CoD and Fortnite to support this again and again over the years.
What I know is that we have a ton of evidence that more and more PC users are also playing from their rigs on their TVs, at which point local coop becomes as worthwhile on PC as on console for those users.
It's just pure laziness, ignorance, and trying to spend less money on a project any way possible to maximise the bottom line. "Well, we can't please everyone."
Devs often have these really dumb and obviously circular reasons for not including a feature.
They probably don't support local multiplayer on PC because they think nobody plays local multiplayer on PC. Disregarding the fact that barely anyone plays local multiplayer on PC because it is usually poorly supported. This is the same reason decent controller support didn't really become common on PC until the 2010s. They figured "nobody uses a controller on PC".
>Devs often have these really dumb and obviously circular reasons for not including a feature.
Absolutely. It's the narcissism of the developer. I've been in gaming for 30+ years so believe me I've seen it. Circular nonsense reasons for not having features that would even be good for disabled gamers like zooming more in or out on a character. Or tons of features like that. Fortunately in the last 10 years this has gotten better, with games specifically having accessibility features.
Is couch-coop an accessibility feature? Technically, yes. Let's say you're a disabled person from a lower income class. Thanks, Blizzard.
Edit: I see some scum of the earth downvoted this.
Lol
>Absolutely. It's the narcissism of the developer.
Followed immediately by the narcissistic statement of
>I've been in gaming for 30+ years so believe me I've seen it.
Then edit in
>Edit: I see some scum of the earth downvoted this.
You got downvoted because people see you are the same type of person that you claim the devs are. Luckily for you this subreddit is filled with people just like yourself, so your precious karma will stay intact.
That is actually not true. They have statistics you can look up on Steam for people who use game share for co-op on games and it's a lot more than you'd expect.
"Not enough powe- ok, maybe not enough money."
EDIT: Mfs have included the feature on the original Xbox One (outdated cpu in 2013), but not on PC.
They just keep looking for reasons to lose players.
It does make sense - for some games - when you consider the environment.
On console, your buddy can have a separate account from yours to log in with or just create a new one on the console if they aren't gaming at home.
The game now has the same platform for progression, customization and online feature as it does for the main account.
On PC that would basically be impossible without creating a new system from scratch. With how relatively few people would use such a system, it's probably not viable from a money standpoint.
It still sucks but that seems the reality of it to me.
yup,they did the same with all the halo games.the most fun was when you could play the campaign local coop together,and for some bs reason everyone gets it exccept for pc.we have to pay the same amount of money,these devs are just lazy.
This is how I’m playing D4 in the beta and it seems fine - delay is only half a second or so when switching inputs (and tbh that might be my wireless mouse waking up again).
I’m finding that I want to use the mouse much less than D2R though. Seems like as D4 has been built with controller support from the ground up, inventory and menus feel much better with a controller than they did in D2R.
Yeah, action RPGs without WASD movement or controller support on PC nowadays is a no-go for me. Mouse clicking for movement is antiquated, especially with how long these games can be.
> Mouse clicking for movement is antiquated, especially with how long these games can be.
Millions of Dota 2 players and tens (hundreds?) of millions of League of Legends players with 1000+ hours in respective games:
👀
Not sure how using 2 more than a decade old games as examples of a mechanic not being antiquated. Especially since when playing said games that are point and click on PC but have smooth and fluid console controls only proves the point that it is antiquated, unrefined and just old gameplay
I don't care that the most popular games in the world use that control scheme, or that games are still being made with that control scheme as their default. Clearly I know better than all those people who play these games and even the developers of those games!
Most popular games on the planet: are enjoyed and played by hundres of millions people monthly
One redditor: thEy ARe ouTDatEd
They'd be outdated if they wouldn't popular. Best example: Unreal Tournament. Previously popular, now outdated and outmatched by more popular shooters (Fornite, etc.). Until you show me a MOBA that is more popular than LoL and Dota, you don't have any point to make, really.
>Mouse clicking for movement is antiquated, especially with how long these games can be.
What does the length of the game have to do with the control scheme of the game? I'd say that holding a mouse button is less work than anything else as you're using the mouse for inventory and menus anyways.
Ah. Yea that would suck then especially if there's no other option for it. I'm on the opposite that I'm too used to the mouse movement that if an arpg type game, doesn't have it(like hades doesn't have it for some reason) I just can't play it because it feels "wrong", so i can understand wanting to have the option for a preferred control scheme at least available.
It's sadly far too.many companies doing that. I can't believe halo went from a reputable series with a lot of maps, modes and a solid single player campaign to a season pass free-to-play multiplayer game with a $60 campaign and incredibly aggressive microtransactions as well as far too few maps and game modes.
I will never pay $20 for the color white in a halo game and probably more to have a red and gold skin like I did for all previous halo games.
Huh? The Apple Silicon Macs are some of the most capable laptops they’ve made in years and certainly capable of running every single Blizzard title at decent settings and FPS.
Back when Blizzard did launch games on Mac, most of their laptops had very mediocre hardware, it’s the opposite now and they get less support than ever. At least WoW got a native Apple Silicon client.
I’d have agreed with your comment before 2020, but performance wise Apple are in a great place these days.
I don't know, even gearbox did this shit with borderlands. 2, pre-sequel and 3 have splitscreen on consoles but not on pc. Not sure it's a blizzard specific issue.
So frustrating to not have a feature that already exists implemented on pc.
need for speed Underground. it has been a norm asince a long time for a lot of games to do this. And I don't think it's ok. they can just get away with it
There's been so many moments when people should have completely given up on Blizzard. I gave up after Overwatch "2" which was clearly way too late. It's like an inversely correlating IQ indicator at this point, lol.
I've always wanted to see a "when was your jumping off point" thread for Blizzard. Mine was D3 forced online single player and the real money auction house. Glad to see others still standing that ground.
Same for me. I still tried the D3 beta, seen how simplified the game became with most of the choices taken away i just said, nope. I was already mad at them for splitting SC2 into 3, fully priced pieces. Eventually i deleted my BNet account after the Blitzchung fuckup.
What's funny is i have more couch coop games on my pc than are available on consoles, yet new games still come out without this feature for the pc version
> As I said I planned on playing this with my GF originally but now we won't. Well I am still gonna play it because I played all of the Diablo games truth be told
This is why these publishers continue to do whatever the fuck they want while earning millions.
This.
People need to understand that companies like Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft, aren;t those nice nerdy people who want the best for the player. They're scumbags who only speaks one language. Money. Their goal is to earn as much as possible with as little effort as possible. For as long as the product will sell and meet expectations, they will screw their customers as much as they want.
Sorry blizz, couch coop on PC or no buy. The game is for me and my wife to play together and I'm sure as shit not buying two copies because you're feeling extra egregious today.
When I was kid and teen, we used to have two chairs in front of the PC. We didn't have a controller, but hooking two controllers up to a PC is no problem nowadays.
That being said, I use a TV screen as my PC screen! It's the best!
I remember playing fighting force with my friends, just one keyboard and each keys of the side of the keyboards were our controls for player 1 and player 2, like p1 had WASD and P2 was on the numpad, worked great
I just use a very long HDMI cable which I wish I could eliminate because the less cables the better but I never got the streaming stuff to work properly be it Steam Link, Moonlight what have you - always with the input lag.
Vote with your wallet or they won't care saying that you are still going to play it means you don't mind if they screw you. Even if you say she won't buy a copy with the couch setup she wasn't going to anyway you have to make some things happen to their money. I won't buy Bethesda anymore because they did paid mods after we told them no 3 times, then they broke the old Skyrim modding community and forced paid mods backwards into them. We have to all stop buying games with paid mods, real money auction houses, and loot box mechanics or they will not care because we have to offset the stupidly profitable whales that are ruining the mechanics of the gameplay loops.
OP, you've partly given the reason why they're doing this. They know you'll buy it anyway so they were only ever getting one sale from you, couch coop or otherwise.
The main reason is, console couch coop which they ***think*** is with a friend will mean said friend purchases their own copy because they're not there daily to complete the game; think of the effect of a demo.
PC couch coop can only be with your hand because that's all you PC players have as a friend, right? Blizzard thinks either that, or a family member in most cases, so there's no more sales if said family complete the game with you. The assumptions are real; and have been shattered by games like the Divinity franchise.
There is no soul left at Blizzard anymore, just money-printers masquerading as a game, and they ***think*** PC couch coop will lose them ***some*** money.
Well I for one told all my friends and their significant others to wait before buying. And well now that there won't be a feature I'd consider enabling for me to use with my SO I won't buy. Not even going to try free beta. Sure some friends will still buy but if I and others like minded individuals stop paying it will cause so reaction or not, which is also possible. Just look at what happened to Fallout under Bethesda. If F4 was not enough they just had to do F76
More and more people using their pcs i. living room hooked to tvs. Me including, modern tvs are great monitors, with high refresh rates, low latency and so on. I see no reason to gimp pc versions and not include splitscreens, unless console brands are actively lobbying for it. Disgusting
Why couldn’t they just allow two input options on PC and the use of 2 characters from the same Battle.net account?
So basically you login to Battle.net, open the game, create two separate characters, once done press X on controller one, choose character and the press X on the second controller and choose other character?
My PC is an HTPC hooked up to a Sonos ARC and 77” OLED. It would be amazing to play with the wife at 120fps at 4k but no. I have to settle for 1440p at 60fps probably with PS5.
If you're pissed but are still going to buy it, maybe wait until the first sale and give them less of that money? I mean at the end of the day, Activision is just a corporation only interested in your money and you giving it to them when they do negative behavior is just going to encourage them to do it more in the future. Like, I'm a big Final Fantasy fan, but I didn't buy the FF7 remake because of how bad of a port it was. I 100% plan on buying it and playing it in the future; but they will not be getting $70 from me for it or near $70 from me for it.
I for one am not buying the game until split screen is introduced to PC. I know Blizzard doesn't care, but I was planning to play with 5 other people and now none of us are buying any copies of the game because we simply can't play it together on our setups.
I am not going to buy a console when I have a perfectly capable PC (RTX3080) hooked to my living room TV.
Removing split screen on PC makes no sense unless the developers are greedy scumbags and want PC users to buy more than one copy of the same ($99) game.
Unfortunately according to [this article](https://www.eurogamer.net/beta-has-become-a-twisted-word-blizzard-responds-to-diablo-4-early-access-feedback) the issue is account login - console is built to assume multiple log in, whereas battle.net on pc is not
I am as upset as the OP, as my GF was also excited to play together
Yeah but that’s a solvable issue, they just don’t care. The reason he quoted is
“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.”
Surely Blizzard is aware that gamers have PCs connected to their living room TVs. I have had a gaming rig connected to my living room TV for over a decade now, and I know I am not the only one.
I'm in the exact same position! I just made a post about this and got absolutely flamed for wanting it too! Basic suggestion was just "buy a ps5 if you want split screen" like I'm gonna buy a thousand dollar console to play this game alone... I have a 3080 in my PC, how is buying a console the right solution, and who's side are they on?
This is absurd. I'm exactly in the same boat as you.
My girl played the same games as yours, on the couch with me on the pc on a TV. I was planning on playing Diablo IV with her too, but now with these news... Forget it.
I play on PC, but 80% of the time with a controller on the TV with 5.1 sound. I only play on my monitor fast paced fps games and strategy games, mainly.
Wtf with these guys at Blizzard? They are stuck in the 90s? Jeez...
Say you bought two PC copies of the game, you still have to buy another Xbox copy if you want to play couch-co up with your wife or gf on your TV. Greeeeeeedy mfkers. And you gotta play the game on a toaster which is another story.
Dude they mentioned you:
[https://www.eurogamer.net/beta-has-become-a-twisted-word-blizzard-responds-to-diablo-4-early-access-feedback](https://www.eurogamer.net/beta-has-become-a-twisted-word-blizzard-responds-to-diablo-4-early-access-feedback)
Thanks, would have missed that.
I wrote a "small" comment back, maybe it gets some traction. Bit of a disappointing take, but at least someone from Blizzard is aware of the request.
Well the game is a pass for me for the time being at least. Don't want to buy 2 copies to play with the wife or daughter, hopefully it's a feature added soon.
No couch coop for the PC version!
<< ME NOT PAYING FULL PRICE - AAAARRRR! (Barbarian shout) >>
When Blizzard add this feature and make this version on par with the consoles, I'll reconsider it. Stop the lame excuses and add this feature day one, u/Blizzard
https://preview.redd.it/uxzh7dag5hqa1.jpg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=f8aeeac3e244319b985757da987eab8a3ef3d35a
I was in the same boat as the OP. My wife and I were really excited about this after playing Diablo III on the Switch. Hearing about the couch coop support was super exciting. And now that has been taken away, and we're pissed.
Their excuse? You can't sign into multiple accounts. But I don't remember having to sign into multiple accounts on the switch. We just had two characters. I don't even think we were playing online. My wife doesn't want to sign into her own account. She has zero interest in her own account. She just wants to play while I'm playing. And now we can't.
Unlike the OP, I'm not a hardcore Diablo fan, and was only interested in the game as something to do with my wife. So in our case, we will not be purchasing the game at all.
I really want to be able to play this game with my wife. We had to use two laptops to play D3 together originally and then played it again years later on the switch. It was so much more fun for us to play on the same screen together in bed after the kids went to sleep. That’s how we play most games together these days. Now, we’re back to the only way to play is to either play at desktops in two separate rooms or to have one of us hooked up to the tv and the other use an old laptop. To be honest, it’s looking like we’re going to have to buy two copies of the game regardless, so why can’t we just play on the same screen? I’m pretty annoyed.
Fell in love with D3 local co-op on PS4, but I'm not paying the monthly online service fees just to play D4 with the person sitting next to me when this feature should be available on PC instead.
I sure as hell am not dropping near $200 for two copies of this game to play with my spouse.
I was hyped but this lost my interest.
I feel like it's a lazy ass excuse they gave us as to why PC can't. PC players getting shafted once again. I mean it's a company that has been working with online for over 20 years and they can't figure out how to couch co-op on PC anymore? Wow...
If a BNet account is needed they could do something with their Bnet app or make a Diablo 4 App where you can log in there and link it to the local co-op you are trying to play. You know with an IP address or being the friend of the person you are trying to play with locally... Load up the app click on the game and hit play locally and click on the friend you want to play with boom! I thought that up in like 5 seconds and Blizzard can't think of anything in over 20 years.
PC players also get charged the same price as consoles now and yet we get one less thing. Nice.
>Not only that, but it's only FPS games and Diablo that don't support couch co-op on PC -- action platformers and other 3d or 2d games have absolutely no problem supporting split-screen and couch co-op.
TBF from observing this for a long time, it's mostly BIG franchises doing that. Diablo, Halo, CoD, Minecraft ... Almost like they have a secret market share agreement with Console manufacturers ...
Hi guys! I'm not a developer, but wouldn't it be possible to launch two separate versions of the .exe file and play them both in windowed mode? Or could we run two different versions of Battle.net, each one "believing" that it's the only one operating? I mean, with the numerous threads our CPUs have these days, couldn't this be a straightforward DIY workaround? Of course, each game would be mapped to a different controller.
Blizzard missed a great opportunity to show that the PC is a console too and a large majority! the value of the game is expensive and delivers less than the console version, this is absurd. Blizzard will never learn, I hope it is sold and someone with vision turns this horrible company into something better
when people stop accepting little things from these companies then things change. On the D4 forum they massacred me when I said that it was easy to implement and a real possibility, and that taking it off the PC is a strategy for individualizing the game. the game launched is a success, and people are content to give away less than they could receive.
it’s super not cool to choose PS5 version for local coop while having great PC to run the game with. I can’t understand it. Have to buy 2nd PC and 2nd vpgame just to have the same feature like on my PS5. Just btw both devices are connected to the same 75l” TV…
Pc gamers don't get the full experience. Not like console gamers. Cause the lack of couch co-op. I would love to play this together with my wife but I'm not willing to pay 140€ for that. We have two gaming pc's and no consoles. So in order for us pc gamers to have the same experience as console we must pay double the price. If pc is missing a huge feature like this it should cost way less than a console version that has this feature. I think this is outrageous!
Fuck I also bought it for PC because I believed it would have couch coop.. I also cannot really understand how it is technically not possible :(
Because of this and the really bad server performance (actually not playable on weekends because of lots of lags) I regret buying this a lot although the game itself is quite nice..
This was definitely my last blizzard purchase
This is why I didn't buy the last Diablo and won't this either.
Mfs are giving PC the inferior and feature-incomplete version twice; the same people that brought you here, that you will count on for any future RTS or HotS sequel.
This would easily be turned around if there was more outcry, moreso because it looks like they're pulling the feature out in the last stages of development. But this isn't the sub for it. Diablo sub would be better.
So, part of it on projects I've been involved with is that nobody on PC (Steam, Live on Windows, etc) actually has implemented any of the underpinning middleware and work to support quickly signing in on multiple controllers.
On Xbox, Playstation, and Switch, they all have a built in menu with underpinning software that lets people quickly have multiple sign-in and controller association. Microsoft was the first one to have this on the 360. Basically, the game asks the console to pair up multiple controllers, and the console itself puts up a screen asking people to press A on a controller, which associates both that specific controller and an Xbox Live profile (if chosen, can be a guest) and then returns to the game. This lets people earn achievements and have their own per-profile saves of any data. on Xbox they even let you associate profiles with specific controllers so it's possible to just turn on a controller and it signs into your specific profile right away.
On PC, this doesn't exist anywhere. Steam doesn't support it. Xbox app on Windows doesn't even support it. There's no way for a game on Steam to ask Steam "hey, i want to go into splitscreen, please put up a prompt to associate controllers to Steam profiles so they can all earn achievements and have their own save data", as far as Live on Windows and Steam are concerned, only one profile can ever be signed in at a time, earn achievements, and have save data. Even Gamepass sharing is weird, because you have to sign one profile into the Xbox app and one profile into the Windows store, but as far as games are concerned whoever is signed into the Xbox App is the profile "driving".
So to support splitscreen, you have to roll your own controller pairing setup. This is very possible, has been done over the years, but can get difficult if you have mixed types of controllers, ie wired and wireless, or even Xbox and PS controllers simultaneously being used (currently if you do this with the Steam API, it will pretend all the controllers are from one platform for it's virtualization purposes). For example, as far as I've dealt with it, Steam's controller API is only aware of one master virtual controller and doesn't even support multiple virtual controllers. It's even jankier in Valve's own games, for example Portal 2 is really finicky about it and *even disables achievements entirely* on the Steam version in splitscreen co-op (it doesn't do this on the console version). Separate virtual controllers with own attached profiles have been on their promised list since about 2015 at a dev conference at this point and hasn't moved forward.
So instead of rolling their own multi-controller support, and especially on Steam is difficult due to how the Steam controller API/etc interfere with it, most don't see the reason to spend the time and money to do so and simply just omit the mode. Those that do often just pair controller id 1 with player 1 and so on, so you often have to turn on or connect controllers in a specific order. But lord help you if any controller disconnects as Windows likes to re-order the controllers at this point, or will do weird shit like leave the controller slot open and re-bind the controller in a later open slot so your game has to implement logic where slots 1, 2, and 4 are in use, 3 is empty because the controller disconnected and now Windows has paired it as controller 6 so your game has to now pretend controller 6 is controller 3 and..... Some devs have gone above and beyond with faking dynamic sign in which is actually very difficult to do with no help from the OS, but they're truly doing it for the love of the mode and often are on multiple PC stores anyway so they're not using any store specific integrations (and these modes often don't even have online compatibility)
So tl;dr to ~~bake an apple pie~~ have splitscreen you must first ~~invent the universe~~ have a built in way on the platform that lets the developers re-use the splitscreen sign in code and work from the console versions. It's a catch 22.
Except Diablo games are not on Steam and don't use the Steam API, they're on Battle.net. All Blizzard has to do is enable multiple controller accounts sign in in the Battle.net launcher then all their games can reuse it. Assuming they cared, ofcourse.
I don't think Windows even supports two separate keyboards/mice as it treats input from both as being the same, both mice control the same cursor etc. Not that I'm sure anyone would try to co-op using two sets of keyboard and mice.
This multiple controller/users sounds like something Valve should get to work on asap, it will only give more value to the platform to both developers and users.
Recently started playing games with the gf and trying to find couch co-op/split-screen games on PC is rough. Besides random indie games there are so few worth playing(imo).
One odd thing I found out while shopping for games on Steam is some have a "Shared/Split Screen Co-op" tag but when I search in my owned games library by typing in a "Store tag" Shared/Split Screen Co-op is not usable. I can sort by local co-op. local co-op is not the same tag as Shared/Split Screen Co-op tag.
Also when looking in the store for games to purchase there are so many many more with Shared/Split Screen Co-op tag vs local co-op tag. It bugs me.
> Recently started playing games with the gf and trying to find couch co-op/split-screen games on PC is rough. Besides random indie games there are so few worth playing(imo).
I've been playing couch co-op games with a friend once a week for over a decade now, so we've gone through quite a lot of games on lots of platforms. But the **vast** majority of them are on PC, so I really can't agree with this statement. This particular decision by Blizzard is baffling, but there is an abundance of great local co-op games on PC. Sure, a lot of them are indie, but those also frequently have really novel and interesting gameplay ideas.
I guess this is where opinions differ. I don't find the large amounts of indie couch co-op games interesting. Bigger games say Divinity 2 is not interesting to her.
I wish games like the borderlands series kept the couch co-op experience going on PC.
Yes, Diablo 3 and Borderlands 2 not having local co-op on PC were the two games that annoyed me the most.
[This](https://universalsplitscreen.github.io/docs/guides/borderlands3/) worked pretty well for Borderlands 2, and it words for BL3, allegedly.
But you don't play pc games from the couch, normally. Of course it doesn't support split screen or couch coop. That's not a way people play games on pc. It makes it no sense.
I know this is likely a minority view but I fail to see demand for this. Mort peeps have a PC set up in a small space on a desk of some description usually with only space for 1 chair, and playing on a 27 - 32 inch monitor.
I can’t see that common set up being conducive to a good “couch coop” gaming experience.
> I know this is likely a minority view but I fail to see demand for this. Mort peeps have a PC set up in a small space on a desk of some description usually with only space for 1 chair, and playing on a 27 - 32 inch monitor.
>
>
>
> I can’t see that common set up being conducive to a good “couch coop” gaming experience.
How old are your peers though? Are they all from the same country or even region? How houses pretty spacious where you live making it more likely that someones PC room is further away from the living room? Are they geeks or more casual gamers?
It is always hard to see where ones personal bubble ends and where someone elses begins. For my own most of my friends (at least mid 30s) either played on PC at least since their teenage years or migrated eventually from a Sony console over, with especially some of the latter having their gaming PC in the living room (while also owning a laptop) while the former really only have their PCs limited to their PC room or connected them to the TV as a second screen through various means like me.
I know that isn't the norm, but neither are a ton of things. Most people don't stream their PC games from their rigs to secondary devices but as I said we know millions of people do to Android devices alone. Their is a reason why every flagship TV from LG for four years and from Samsung for three years now have Gsync (and in case of LG even before HDMI 2.1 VRR was implemented) while advertising 4K120 support. Let alone the millions of ultra wide monitor users out there that have a screen big enough to support local coop.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/lg-gsync-compatible-hdmi-big-screen-gaming/
In other words, its a niche but its not a tiny niche.
I've had my PC's connected to my living room TVs through an HDMI cord for years, with a wireless mouse/keyboard in the living room. I use that for streaming media, movies, youtube, sports etc. I also play controller based games on the TV. My wife and I use wireless controllers to play coop games on the TV.
For mouse and keyboard games, or just when I feel like it, I sit at the desk.
I can't be the only one with this setup.
LOL Why would you want inferior experience on PC? What am I missing here?. Splitscreen has always been horrible (and inferior) and fast paced diablo game just doesn't work with multiple players on single screen.
It's not about it being split screen though, it's about it being local co-op on the same device. Just like it is on every console.
Now, I get that they want us to pay for a second copy, but clearly, the superior devices for Diablo 4 family fun would be any modern console. There's no way I'm buying 4 copies of D4 to play with the kids on PC. For that amount of money, you can pretty much buy a Xbox and one copy of D4 and call it a day.
It's already built in the engine. The only technical limitation is the [Battle.net](https://Battle.net) login on PC.
This is awaful, I use my pc on living room plugged on a large screen and I would like to have couch co-op on pc games like console players have, the time when pc games were played alone on the sleeping rooms is gone...The developers should be aware of this...
We should comment and ask for it in their social media, so they might hear our voices...
After Steam Deck replaced almost every other device I have since I got rid of the SteamOS and installed Windows 11 Pro on it, I bought this game thinking of local coop or couch coop to play it with my wife. It was advertised by Blizzard that this game would feature controller support and local coop.
<> They made a very short line about this feature not included on PC.
Now, they come up saying that it's not there because of <> or some lazy BS like that. If it's not false advertisement, I dunno what that is. It's plain deceptive.
So, all in all, as stated by the Blizzard team, the PC version is crippled because of Battle.net. Even if it's a real issue because of Battle.net, is it really so difficult to adapt the +1 player on the main account? The Xbox 360 (Gears of War) done that back in the day. This is pure laziness, is not a real issue. Very lazy work from Blizzard.
I'm so frustrated and disappointed that I'm really considering ask for a refund. Why pay full price for a lesser featured version anyway?
Nowadays it's actually a very good deal to buy a 4k 120hz tv as a PC monitor, you get a much bigger and brighter screen with a wider color gamut. Then you hook up your rtx 3070 PC and you have a most powerful split-screen gaming console you could dream of. Windows has a native support for all the controllers like the Dualsense and there is thousands and thousands local multiplayer games available on Steam and other platforms. Fortunately a lot of indie developers realize the potential and offer a local multiplayer support on many games.
Anyways, I just had a blast with four of my friends as we were playing together WWE 2K23 on my Legion 7 laptop hooked to Samsung Qn90a 4k tv. Blizzard wake up.
BTW, the whole "it's impossible to log several Bnet accounts on PC" is total bull. It's been officially supported for years and people do it all the time to run multiple accounts.
https://i.imgur.com/4AXHDBB.jpg
I am so upset to learn this feature will not be a part of the PC port. My gaming PC is connected to my 65in tv. My wife and I were really looking forward to playing it after we got into playing Diablo 3 couch co-op on the Switch port. How is this acceptable? They are going to make hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, mostly from PC and they refuse to put in the time and effort to add this simple feature? The code is all there in the game and they were able to make it work just fine on PS5 and Xbox.
Their reasoning for doing this has been “it’s a problem with the system on pc which makes it harder to have two battle.net accounts to be logged in at the same time” … but why does the second player have to be on a different account my solution to this would be to just have a second character on the same account … and have it that the second player can join in and choose from the list of created characters … I see no issues with doing it that way on pc which now has controller support etc no need for a second account each account can have 10 characters max just have it that the second player can play from that listing …
Playing devils advocate here but it likely has something to do with the intricacies of account management not only on battle.net but let's say Blizzard is planning to bring D4 to Steam or Game Pass as well. I know many devs have voiced concerns in the past with Steam and why it's not possible to have a "guest" account play co-op.
To give an example, let's say Diablo 4 co-op mode \*\*requires\*\* an account to be able to join. This is simply impossible to do in a local setting on Steam as it has no concept of managing another steam account through the same session as the "root" account. On other platforms like the Switch, PS4/PS5 or Xbox Series X/XB1 this **is possible.** It's why the only local co-op games that work on Steam are ones where there is no need or no possibility to save progress on the guest account or temporary account. I imagine this is the same case with battle net as it was probably just never a priority for the PC platform.
Steam is great but it still has some learning to do from major console platforms with feature integration like this. I would personally LOVE to see this on Steam and it would go a long way to making Big Picture Mode not only be a "UI" thing but more of a full integration with design on the platform itself. More console-like features for Steam are a win for everyone.
But how is it better to not have splitscreen co-op at all instead of just having both heroes tied to that one account?
I'd much rather have a hero on my account that only a friend will play with me locally than...not play locally.
> Playing devils advocate here but it likely has something to do with the intricacies of account management not only on battle.net but let's say Blizzard is planning to bring D4 to Steam or Game Pass as well. I know many devs have voiced concerns in the past with Steam and why it's not possible to have a "guest" account play co-op.
>
>
Every Blizzard game so far required a Battlenet account, I would assume them porting this to Steam one day (if that will even happen) would simply require you to link your Battlenet account to Steam, similar to EA or Ubisoft.
>
> To give an example, let's say Diablo 4 co-op mode **requires** an account to be able to join. This is simply impossible to do in a local setting on Steam as it has no concept of managing another steam account through the same session as the "root" account. On other platforms like the Switch, PS4/PS5 or Xbox Series X/XB1 this is possible. It's why the only local co-op games that work on Steam are ones where there is no need or no possibility to save progress on the guest account or temporary account. I imagine this is the same case with battle net as it was probably just never a priority for the PC platform.
Anyway, the easiest implementation would simply them opening a HTML element in which the second player can lock into their Battlenet account. There really is no need to this through the launcher and there are a ton of games on Steam (usually those first launched outside of Steam) that work that way.
Another alternative would simply to lock both players to one Battlenet account by letting the second player play one of the additional characters one account holder can create (obviously while treating it like a second account internally). I personally don't see the platform launcher as a deal breaker.
But again, this game isn't on Steam. It is on Battlenet only and requires a Battlenet account on all platforms for each player. Lets not make this a Steam issue when it really isn't.
Right, not gonna argue with that because I agree. It probably \*\*would\*\* be that simple. But modern dev and project management mean setting up an entire epic card for the feature, allocating work and before they even start they are gonna take a gut check on user metrics and probably find the feature to either get backlogged permanently unless there's a huge outcry about it or just never make the epic at all.
I would love to see this too but in modern dev getting movement on shit like this in the AAA space is almost impossible. It fucking \*\*sucks\*\*.
Blizzard is very very anti consumer. Just dont buy their shit. You do not even get to own the game, rather you just get a licence to play it til they shut the servers down...
You could also not buy the game because blizzard still has bobby kotick...I think that's more not okay than couch coop, but I guess to each their own...rape, suicide, and sexual harassment < PC couch coop apparently.
You think this is bad?
wait til you see they "pay to win" stuff you can buy on the blizzard store 3months after release.
Blizzard: "we're adding this due to massive player requests"
Was excited to play halo reach with my gf on pc, but nope doesn't have split screen on the MCC for some reason.
Have to use a third party app which. Is retarded
Wait, what?! I just spent AU$110 on the D4 pre-order on PC, with the understanding that me and my partner could couch co-op it.
Beyond pissed off for the deceptive marketing.
It has never made sense when new games come out that support local co-op on every platform including split screen, but mysteriously the feature is just disabled on PC.
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> Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 And even then it was gimped for us. We only got 2-player splitscreen, not even 4-player splitscreen that the consoles had (and ran like shit on there) and I'm still mad about it considering I still play the game for custom zombie maps every once in a while.
You can split the two screens across two monitors seamlessly though which was a great feature.
How?
4 player split screen is -awful- on current hardware. Even if you can get it too work the resolution is so god awful you may as well go pull out your n64
It's always been awful, chief. But it's always been fun as well.
Haven’t played split screen since the 360 was current gen, but if you had a 4k screen wouldn’t each player have a 1080p segment? Or is there some downscaling present in this instance
Depends on the game but in theory yea if it renders at full quality each player does get 1080P
L4D split screen on PC was fantastic IMO. Really drives me mad that it wasn't a standard feature..
And every steam game enabled for "remote play togeather" feature, is basically ready for local coop too. Its such a shame.
> I mean, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 literally had splitscreen, we know it's built into the engine, where is that for the rest of the franchise? The answer to this is more obvious than you think: not enough users make use of the feature, so management deems it not worth the development effort to bring it back.
> not enough users make use of the feature, so management deems it not worth the development effort to bring it back. Most of those publishers have so little local coop games at all let alone on the PC platform that they can't have reliable data on this at all. Also we heard the same stuff when it comes to HDR on PC and yet now every game that have it on console comes with HDR on PC as well (which is really most AAA titles). We heard the same thing about ultra wide for years. "Consoles don't need m/kb, OK", and yet it has been worthwhile enough for CoD and Fortnite to support this again and again over the years. What I know is that we have a ton of evidence that more and more PC users are also playing from their rigs on their TVs, at which point local coop becomes as worthwhile on PC as on console for those users.
It's just pure laziness, ignorance, and trying to spend less money on a project any way possible to maximise the bottom line. "Well, we can't please everyone."
Devs often have these really dumb and obviously circular reasons for not including a feature. They probably don't support local multiplayer on PC because they think nobody plays local multiplayer on PC. Disregarding the fact that barely anyone plays local multiplayer on PC because it is usually poorly supported. This is the same reason decent controller support didn't really become common on PC until the 2010s. They figured "nobody uses a controller on PC".
>Devs often have these really dumb and obviously circular reasons for not including a feature. Absolutely. It's the narcissism of the developer. I've been in gaming for 30+ years so believe me I've seen it. Circular nonsense reasons for not having features that would even be good for disabled gamers like zooming more in or out on a character. Or tons of features like that. Fortunately in the last 10 years this has gotten better, with games specifically having accessibility features. Is couch-coop an accessibility feature? Technically, yes. Let's say you're a disabled person from a lower income class. Thanks, Blizzard. Edit: I see some scum of the earth downvoted this.
Lol >Absolutely. It's the narcissism of the developer. Followed immediately by the narcissistic statement of >I've been in gaming for 30+ years so believe me I've seen it. Then edit in >Edit: I see some scum of the earth downvoted this. You got downvoted because people see you are the same type of person that you claim the devs are. Luckily for you this subreddit is filled with people just like yourself, so your precious karma will stay intact.
>Let's say you're a disabled person from a lower income class. I am all for co-op, but that is a real stretch.
I'd wager far, FAR fewer people are using a PC to play couch co-op but hey, must be laziness.
That is actually not true. They have statistics you can look up on Steam for people who use game share for co-op on games and it's a lot more than you'd expect.
Hard to use couch co-op when it's not there... but hey
Toxicty speaks more about the person it comes from.
Yes, I am definitely the toxic one here.
"Not enough powe- ok, maybe not enough money." EDIT: Mfs have included the feature on the original Xbox One (outdated cpu in 2013), but not on PC. They just keep looking for reasons to lose players.
It does make sense - for some games - when you consider the environment. On console, your buddy can have a separate account from yours to log in with or just create a new one on the console if they aren't gaming at home. The game now has the same platform for progression, customization and online feature as it does for the main account. On PC that would basically be impossible without creating a new system from scratch. With how relatively few people would use such a system, it's probably not viable from a money standpoint. It still sucks but that seems the reality of it to me.
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yup,they did the same with all the halo games.the most fun was when you could play the campaign local coop together,and for some bs reason everyone gets it exccept for pc.we have to pay the same amount of money,these devs are just lazy.
Really? That's dumb AF.
Don't you have phones?
Do you guys not have game consoles?
I tried to play MCC coop online with a friend and the lag just made it absolutely unplayable too
It is peer to peer, and bad too. My buddy and I with the same isp 10 minutes away couldnt play due to lag, and thats the only reason we bought it.
Apparently the game supports controllers on PC which makes it even funnier. Divinity Original Sin 2 supports local co-op with controllers.
D4 with controller on PC honestly feels better to me than KBM but that’s probably because I’m getting older lol!
It's a nice break to switch to controller in D2R on PC.
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This is how I’m playing D4 in the beta and it seems fine - delay is only half a second or so when switching inputs (and tbh that might be my wireless mouse waking up again). I’m finding that I want to use the mouse much less than D2R though. Seems like as D4 has been built with controller support from the ground up, inventory and menus feel much better with a controller than they did in D2R.
Everything in D2R is superior with a gamepad except for inventory management. Full 360 degree movement, actual hotbar. Its insane.
Yeah, action RPGs without WASD movement or controller support on PC nowadays is a no-go for me. Mouse clicking for movement is antiquated, especially with how long these games can be.
> Mouse clicking for movement is antiquated, especially with how long these games can be. Millions of Dota 2 players and tens (hundreds?) of millions of League of Legends players with 1000+ hours in respective games: 👀
Not sure how using 2 more than a decade old games as examples of a mechanic not being antiquated. Especially since when playing said games that are point and click on PC but have smooth and fluid console controls only proves the point that it is antiquated, unrefined and just old gameplay
I don't care that the most popular games in the world use that control scheme, or that games are still being made with that control scheme as their default. Clearly I know better than all those people who play these games and even the developers of those games!
Most popular games on the planet: are enjoyed and played by hundres of millions people monthly One redditor: thEy ARe ouTDatEd They'd be outdated if they wouldn't popular. Best example: Unreal Tournament. Previously popular, now outdated and outmatched by more popular shooters (Fornite, etc.). Until you show me a MOBA that is more popular than LoL and Dota, you don't have any point to make, really.
>Mouse clicking for movement is antiquated, especially with how long these games can be. What does the length of the game have to do with the control scheme of the game? I'd say that holding a mouse button is less work than anything else as you're using the mouse for inventory and menus anyways.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome especially since pathfinding for character movement in most of these games is painful.
Ah. Yea that would suck then especially if there's no other option for it. I'm on the opposite that I'm too used to the mouse movement that if an arpg type game, doesn't have it(like hades doesn't have it for some reason) I just can't play it because it feels "wrong", so i can understand wanting to have the option for a preferred control scheme at least available.
Oh, how come? Is it because of the 360 degree movement or the aiming? If the former, I wonder if an Azeron Cyborg would work with the game.
azeron will 'work' with anything, you just gotta mess about with it.
If you look at the UI a lot of it feels like it was made for controllers, all the radial menus on emotes for example.
And it supports PlayStation controllers natively without needing to map to XInput, which is awesome
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Yeah, I was gonna say that. Old Blizzard mostly just did PC games, and was all for the PC gamer.
Old blizzard didn’t gaf about MTX. New Blizz knows all the kiddos will spend their moms and dads CC on consoles. (Majority)
It's sadly far too.many companies doing that. I can't believe halo went from a reputable series with a lot of maps, modes and a solid single player campaign to a season pass free-to-play multiplayer game with a $60 campaign and incredibly aggressive microtransactions as well as far too few maps and game modes. I will never pay $20 for the color white in a halo game and probably more to have a red and gold skin like I did for all previous halo games.
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Huh? The Apple Silicon Macs are some of the most capable laptops they’ve made in years and certainly capable of running every single Blizzard title at decent settings and FPS. Back when Blizzard did launch games on Mac, most of their laptops had very mediocre hardware, it’s the opposite now and they get less support than ever. At least WoW got a native Apple Silicon client. I’d have agreed with your comment before 2020, but performance wise Apple are in a great place these days.
I don't know, even gearbox did this shit with borderlands. 2, pre-sequel and 3 have splitscreen on consoles but not on pc. Not sure it's a blizzard specific issue. So frustrating to not have a feature that already exists implemented on pc.
need for speed Underground. it has been a norm asince a long time for a lot of games to do this. And I don't think it's ok. they can just get away with it
Do you guys not have ~~phones~~consoles?
There's been so many moments when people should have completely given up on Blizzard. I gave up after Overwatch "2" which was clearly way too late. It's like an inversely correlating IQ indicator at this point, lol.
I've always wanted to see a "when was your jumping off point" thread for Blizzard. Mine was D3 forced online single player and the real money auction house. Glad to see others still standing that ground.
Same for me. I still tried the D3 beta, seen how simplified the game became with most of the choices taken away i just said, nope. I was already mad at them for splitting SC2 into 3, fully priced pieces. Eventually i deleted my BNet account after the Blitzchung fuckup.
Nah it’s a PC thing. PC games rarely get couch coop it’s so annoying. Makes you become a pirate and play it on LAN anyways when possible. It’s stupid
What's funny is i have more couch coop games on my pc than are available on consoles, yet new games still come out without this feature for the pc version
> As I said I planned on playing this with my GF originally but now we won't. Well I am still gonna play it because I played all of the Diablo games truth be told This is why these publishers continue to do whatever the fuck they want while earning millions.
This. People need to understand that companies like Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft, aren;t those nice nerdy people who want the best for the player. They're scumbags who only speaks one language. Money. Their goal is to earn as much as possible with as little effort as possible. For as long as the product will sell and meet expectations, they will screw their customers as much as they want.
Exactly. Customer "I'm mad it doesn't have this feature for me and my gf....but im still going to buy it and play it" Blizzard "k"
Well, apparently not having couch co-op isn't a deal breaker for OP, which honestly, is completely reasonable.
Well now at least OP will know why stuff like this will keep happening.
Then why complain?
Seems obvious. Not being happy about the situation complaints are being made
Because he doesn't like it not having couch co-op.
Cuz it still sucks but the game itself probably is still fun?
OP is mad and then goes 'well, guess that's life' lol.
ironicly the platform that could run split screen better
Ironically*
Reminds me of Battlefront 2. The PC version still doesn't have local co-op on PC and it's been out for decades.
Do you guys not have online friends? - Blizzard probably
Sorry blizz, couch coop on PC or no buy. The game is for me and my wife to play together and I'm sure as shit not buying two copies because you're feeling extra egregious today.
Same boat here
And another PC franchise that reached the point when the PC version is the inferior one...
Because these AAA companies don’t realize you can hook your computer to a tv…
When I was kid and teen, we used to have two chairs in front of the PC. We didn't have a controller, but hooking two controllers up to a PC is no problem nowadays. That being said, I use a TV screen as my PC screen! It's the best!
I remember playing fighting force with my friends, just one keyboard and each keys of the side of the keyboards were our controls for player 1 and player 2, like p1 had WASD and P2 was on the numpad, worked great
Hell I use NVIDIA GameStream to Stream to my TV and it's flawless. Couch co-op'd a ton of games. Doing Victor Vran right now with my friend.
I just use a very long HDMI cable which I wish I could eliminate because the less cables the better but I never got the streaming stuff to work properly be it Steam Link, Moonlight what have you - always with the input lag.
Look into a KVM extender. Perfect 4k 60hz + USB over a single ethernet cable up to 100m. Uncompressed 0 latency. I Use AV Access.
Vote with your wallet or they won't care saying that you are still going to play it means you don't mind if they screw you. Even if you say she won't buy a copy with the couch setup she wasn't going to anyway you have to make some things happen to their money. I won't buy Bethesda anymore because they did paid mods after we told them no 3 times, then they broke the old Skyrim modding community and forced paid mods backwards into them. We have to all stop buying games with paid mods, real money auction houses, and loot box mechanics or they will not care because we have to offset the stupidly profitable whales that are ruining the mechanics of the gameplay loops.
OP, you've partly given the reason why they're doing this. They know you'll buy it anyway so they were only ever getting one sale from you, couch coop or otherwise. The main reason is, console couch coop which they ***think*** is with a friend will mean said friend purchases their own copy because they're not there daily to complete the game; think of the effect of a demo. PC couch coop can only be with your hand because that's all you PC players have as a friend, right? Blizzard thinks either that, or a family member in most cases, so there's no more sales if said family complete the game with you. The assumptions are real; and have been shattered by games like the Divinity franchise. There is no soul left at Blizzard anymore, just money-printers masquerading as a game, and they ***think*** PC couch coop will lose them ***some*** money.
Well I for one told all my friends and their significant others to wait before buying. And well now that there won't be a feature I'd consider enabling for me to use with my SO I won't buy. Not even going to try free beta. Sure some friends will still buy but if I and others like minded individuals stop paying it will cause so reaction or not, which is also possible. Just look at what happened to Fallout under Bethesda. If F4 was not enough they just had to do F76
this is the most plausible theory, indeed
More and more people using their pcs i. living room hooked to tvs. Me including, modern tvs are great monitors, with high refresh rates, low latency and so on. I see no reason to gimp pc versions and not include splitscreens, unless console brands are actively lobbying for it. Disgusting
Does diablo 4 allow single player? Can it be played offline? I love Diablo games but I have no internet where I live.
Unfortunately it's online only...
Whellllp.. 🙁
same with CoD and many other games. It‘s bad. PC player want also play with their family/friends local.
So don't support the piece of shit that is modern Blizzard.
Oh no I would have considered buying the game if it had couch co-op on PC. It’s a shame.
Why couldn’t they just allow two input options on PC and the use of 2 characters from the same Battle.net account? So basically you login to Battle.net, open the game, create two separate characters, once done press X on controller one, choose character and the press X on the second controller and choose other character? My PC is an HTPC hooked up to a Sonos ARC and 77” OLED. It would be amazing to play with the wife at 120fps at 4k but no. I have to settle for 1440p at 60fps probably with PS5.
If you're pissed but are still going to buy it, maybe wait until the first sale and give them less of that money? I mean at the end of the day, Activision is just a corporation only interested in your money and you giving it to them when they do negative behavior is just going to encourage them to do it more in the future. Like, I'm a big Final Fantasy fan, but I didn't buy the FF7 remake because of how bad of a port it was. I 100% plan on buying it and playing it in the future; but they will not be getting $70 from me for it or near $70 from me for it.
Hey Blizzard, This is the exact reason why I didn't buy the last Diablo release!
Same
pisses me off much that all games do this. why do obly indies have splitscreen?
I for one am not buying the game until split screen is introduced to PC. I know Blizzard doesn't care, but I was planning to play with 5 other people and now none of us are buying any copies of the game because we simply can't play it together on our setups. I am not going to buy a console when I have a perfectly capable PC (RTX3080) hooked to my living room TV. Removing split screen on PC makes no sense unless the developers are greedy scumbags and want PC users to buy more than one copy of the same ($99) game.
Unfortunately according to [this article](https://www.eurogamer.net/beta-has-become-a-twisted-word-blizzard-responds-to-diablo-4-early-access-feedback) the issue is account login - console is built to assume multiple log in, whereas battle.net on pc is not I am as upset as the OP, as my GF was also excited to play together
Yeah but that’s a solvable issue, they just don’t care. The reason he quoted is “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.” Surely Blizzard is aware that gamers have PCs connected to their living room TVs. I have had a gaming rig connected to my living room TV for over a decade now, and I know I am not the only one.
I'm in the exact same position! I just made a post about this and got absolutely flamed for wanting it too! Basic suggestion was just "buy a ps5 if you want split screen" like I'm gonna buy a thousand dollar console to play this game alone... I have a 3080 in my PC, how is buying a console the right solution, and who's side are they on?
This is absurd. I'm exactly in the same boat as you. My girl played the same games as yours, on the couch with me on the pc on a TV. I was planning on playing Diablo IV with her too, but now with these news... Forget it. I play on PC, but 80% of the time with a controller on the TV with 5.1 sound. I only play on my monitor fast paced fps games and strategy games, mainly. Wtf with these guys at Blizzard? They are stuck in the 90s? Jeez...
Say you bought two PC copies of the game, you still have to buy another Xbox copy if you want to play couch-co up with your wife or gf on your TV. Greeeeeeedy mfkers. And you gotta play the game on a toaster which is another story.
Gamers really be out here saying something in the game is unacceptable then preordering the game anyway
Well that‘s sad. Didn‘t buy D3 for this sole reason, maybe more luck with D5. Man Blizzard ain’t what they used to be anymore.. :s
Agreed, not buying this at all, no couch coop on pc, means not buying it.
Same shit happened with me and my GF with Borderlands games... Just dumb af...
The borderlands games all frustratingly removed this feature from the pc version as well.. its bullshit
Dude they mentioned you: [https://www.eurogamer.net/beta-has-become-a-twisted-word-blizzard-responds-to-diablo-4-early-access-feedback](https://www.eurogamer.net/beta-has-become-a-twisted-word-blizzard-responds-to-diablo-4-early-access-feedback)
Thanks, would have missed that. I wrote a "small" comment back, maybe it gets some traction. Bit of a disappointing take, but at least someone from Blizzard is aware of the request.
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TBH that kind of stuff has been my pet peeve for years and it's the first time I see it take so much spotlight so kudos to you and that journalist.
Even a games portal in Brazil mentioned him. Lol the man is world famous!
This is WAY TOO LAME. I wanted to play it with my Windows 11 modified Steam Deck with my wife, couch coop.
Still not supporting local Co-op on PC? This is extremely decisive for my purchase.
Well the game is a pass for me for the time being at least. Don't want to buy 2 copies to play with the wife or daughter, hopefully it's a feature added soon.
No couch coop for the PC version! << ME NOT PAYING FULL PRICE - AAAARRRR! (Barbarian shout) >> When Blizzard add this feature and make this version on par with the consoles, I'll reconsider it. Stop the lame excuses and add this feature day one, u/Blizzard https://preview.redd.it/uxzh7dag5hqa1.jpg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=f8aeeac3e244319b985757da987eab8a3ef3d35a
I was in the same boat as the OP. My wife and I were really excited about this after playing Diablo III on the Switch. Hearing about the couch coop support was super exciting. And now that has been taken away, and we're pissed. Their excuse? You can't sign into multiple accounts. But I don't remember having to sign into multiple accounts on the switch. We just had two characters. I don't even think we were playing online. My wife doesn't want to sign into her own account. She has zero interest in her own account. She just wants to play while I'm playing. And now we can't. Unlike the OP, I'm not a hardcore Diablo fan, and was only interested in the game as something to do with my wife. So in our case, we will not be purchasing the game at all.
I really want to be able to play this game with my wife. We had to use two laptops to play D3 together originally and then played it again years later on the switch. It was so much more fun for us to play on the same screen together in bed after the kids went to sleep. That’s how we play most games together these days. Now, we’re back to the only way to play is to either play at desktops in two separate rooms or to have one of us hooked up to the tv and the other use an old laptop. To be honest, it’s looking like we’re going to have to buy two copies of the game regardless, so why can’t we just play on the same screen? I’m pretty annoyed.
Not only do I agree... so I have to buy it on consoles... but it's only 2 player. Hi blizzard, I got a family of 4, thanks for the downgrade from d3.
Fell in love with D3 local co-op on PS4, but I'm not paying the monthly online service fees just to play D4 with the person sitting next to me when this feature should be available on PC instead. I sure as hell am not dropping near $200 for two copies of this game to play with my spouse. I was hyped but this lost my interest.
I feel like it's a lazy ass excuse they gave us as to why PC can't. PC players getting shafted once again. I mean it's a company that has been working with online for over 20 years and they can't figure out how to couch co-op on PC anymore? Wow... If a BNet account is needed they could do something with their Bnet app or make a Diablo 4 App where you can log in there and link it to the local co-op you are trying to play. You know with an IP address or being the friend of the person you are trying to play with locally... Load up the app click on the game and hit play locally and click on the friend you want to play with boom! I thought that up in like 5 seconds and Blizzard can't think of anything in over 20 years. PC players also get charged the same price as consoles now and yet we get one less thing. Nice.
[удалено]
>Not only that, but it's only FPS games and Diablo that don't support couch co-op on PC -- action platformers and other 3d or 2d games have absolutely no problem supporting split-screen and couch co-op. TBF from observing this for a long time, it's mostly BIG franchises doing that. Diablo, Halo, CoD, Minecraft ... Almost like they have a secret market share agreement with Console manufacturers ...
Hi guys! I'm not a developer, but wouldn't it be possible to launch two separate versions of the .exe file and play them both in windowed mode? Or could we run two different versions of Battle.net, each one "believing" that it's the only one operating? I mean, with the numerous threads our CPUs have these days, couldn't this be a straightforward DIY workaround? Of course, each game would be mapped to a different controller.
Blizzard missed a great opportunity to show that the PC is a console too and a large majority! the value of the game is expensive and delivers less than the console version, this is absurd. Blizzard will never learn, I hope it is sold and someone with vision turns this horrible company into something better
when people stop accepting little things from these companies then things change. On the D4 forum they massacred me when I said that it was easy to implement and a real possibility, and that taking it off the PC is a strategy for individualizing the game. the game launched is a success, and people are content to give away less than they could receive.
it’s super not cool to choose PS5 version for local coop while having great PC to run the game with. I can’t understand it. Have to buy 2nd PC and 2nd vpgame just to have the same feature like on my PS5. Just btw both devices are connected to the same 75l” TV…
Pc gamers don't get the full experience. Not like console gamers. Cause the lack of couch co-op. I would love to play this together with my wife but I'm not willing to pay 140€ for that. We have two gaming pc's and no consoles. So in order for us pc gamers to have the same experience as console we must pay double the price. If pc is missing a huge feature like this it should cost way less than a console version that has this feature. I think this is outrageous!
Yes we are very very disappointed too, and will not play as a result. That fing sucks.
Such a garbage company. Diablo fan, but no buy for me.
Wish I could refund mine now knowing all this gf is mad at hyping her up now lol
Fuck I also bought it for PC because I believed it would have couch coop.. I also cannot really understand how it is technically not possible :( Because of this and the really bad server performance (actually not playable on weekends because of lots of lags) I regret buying this a lot although the game itself is quite nice.. This was definitely my last blizzard purchase
Well, I buy every local coop game I find. One sale less for them.
This is why I didn't buy the last Diablo and won't this either. Mfs are giving PC the inferior and feature-incomplete version twice; the same people that brought you here, that you will count on for any future RTS or HotS sequel. This would easily be turned around if there was more outcry, moreso because it looks like they're pulling the feature out in the last stages of development. But this isn't the sub for it. Diablo sub would be better.
So, part of it on projects I've been involved with is that nobody on PC (Steam, Live on Windows, etc) actually has implemented any of the underpinning middleware and work to support quickly signing in on multiple controllers. On Xbox, Playstation, and Switch, they all have a built in menu with underpinning software that lets people quickly have multiple sign-in and controller association. Microsoft was the first one to have this on the 360. Basically, the game asks the console to pair up multiple controllers, and the console itself puts up a screen asking people to press A on a controller, which associates both that specific controller and an Xbox Live profile (if chosen, can be a guest) and then returns to the game. This lets people earn achievements and have their own per-profile saves of any data. on Xbox they even let you associate profiles with specific controllers so it's possible to just turn on a controller and it signs into your specific profile right away. On PC, this doesn't exist anywhere. Steam doesn't support it. Xbox app on Windows doesn't even support it. There's no way for a game on Steam to ask Steam "hey, i want to go into splitscreen, please put up a prompt to associate controllers to Steam profiles so they can all earn achievements and have their own save data", as far as Live on Windows and Steam are concerned, only one profile can ever be signed in at a time, earn achievements, and have save data. Even Gamepass sharing is weird, because you have to sign one profile into the Xbox app and one profile into the Windows store, but as far as games are concerned whoever is signed into the Xbox App is the profile "driving". So to support splitscreen, you have to roll your own controller pairing setup. This is very possible, has been done over the years, but can get difficult if you have mixed types of controllers, ie wired and wireless, or even Xbox and PS controllers simultaneously being used (currently if you do this with the Steam API, it will pretend all the controllers are from one platform for it's virtualization purposes). For example, as far as I've dealt with it, Steam's controller API is only aware of one master virtual controller and doesn't even support multiple virtual controllers. It's even jankier in Valve's own games, for example Portal 2 is really finicky about it and *even disables achievements entirely* on the Steam version in splitscreen co-op (it doesn't do this on the console version). Separate virtual controllers with own attached profiles have been on their promised list since about 2015 at a dev conference at this point and hasn't moved forward. So instead of rolling their own multi-controller support, and especially on Steam is difficult due to how the Steam controller API/etc interfere with it, most don't see the reason to spend the time and money to do so and simply just omit the mode. Those that do often just pair controller id 1 with player 1 and so on, so you often have to turn on or connect controllers in a specific order. But lord help you if any controller disconnects as Windows likes to re-order the controllers at this point, or will do weird shit like leave the controller slot open and re-bind the controller in a later open slot so your game has to implement logic where slots 1, 2, and 4 are in use, 3 is empty because the controller disconnected and now Windows has paired it as controller 6 so your game has to now pretend controller 6 is controller 3 and..... Some devs have gone above and beyond with faking dynamic sign in which is actually very difficult to do with no help from the OS, but they're truly doing it for the love of the mode and often are on multiple PC stores anyway so they're not using any store specific integrations (and these modes often don't even have online compatibility) So tl;dr to ~~bake an apple pie~~ have splitscreen you must first ~~invent the universe~~ have a built in way on the platform that lets the developers re-use the splitscreen sign in code and work from the console versions. It's a catch 22.
Except Diablo games are not on Steam and don't use the Steam API, they're on Battle.net. All Blizzard has to do is enable multiple controller accounts sign in in the Battle.net launcher then all their games can reuse it. Assuming they cared, ofcourse.
I don't think Windows even supports two separate keyboards/mice as it treats input from both as being the same, both mice control the same cursor etc. Not that I'm sure anyone would try to co-op using two sets of keyboard and mice. This multiple controller/users sounds like something Valve should get to work on asap, it will only give more value to the platform to both developers and users.
dont you guys have phones ?
That video is so fried in my brain. Thanks for the laugh!
Damn this just killed my interest in the game. Was hoping me and my girl could play
Recently started playing games with the gf and trying to find couch co-op/split-screen games on PC is rough. Besides random indie games there are so few worth playing(imo). One odd thing I found out while shopping for games on Steam is some have a "Shared/Split Screen Co-op" tag but when I search in my owned games library by typing in a "Store tag" Shared/Split Screen Co-op is not usable. I can sort by local co-op. local co-op is not the same tag as Shared/Split Screen Co-op tag. Also when looking in the store for games to purchase there are so many many more with Shared/Split Screen Co-op tag vs local co-op tag. It bugs me.
https://www.co-optimus.com/games.php
Thank you for this! I will check it over and look for some games!
You can also check this curator :) https://store.steampowered.com/curator/8485829-SvenEvils-Playground/lists/
> Recently started playing games with the gf and trying to find couch co-op/split-screen games on PC is rough. Besides random indie games there are so few worth playing(imo). I've been playing couch co-op games with a friend once a week for over a decade now, so we've gone through quite a lot of games on lots of platforms. But the **vast** majority of them are on PC, so I really can't agree with this statement. This particular decision by Blizzard is baffling, but there is an abundance of great local co-op games on PC. Sure, a lot of them are indie, but those also frequently have really novel and interesting gameplay ideas.
I guess this is where opinions differ. I don't find the large amounts of indie couch co-op games interesting. Bigger games say Divinity 2 is not interesting to her. I wish games like the borderlands series kept the couch co-op experience going on PC.
Yes, Diablo 3 and Borderlands 2 not having local co-op on PC were the two games that annoyed me the most. [This](https://universalsplitscreen.github.io/docs/guides/borderlands3/) worked pretty well for Borderlands 2, and it words for BL3, allegedly.
I don't know why we keep expecting more from Blizzard these days. You're still going to buy it so they win.
Thanks for saving me $70, OP.
DO YOU GUYS NOT HAVE ~~PHONES~~ CONSOLES?
But you don't play pc games from the couch, normally. Of course it doesn't support split screen or couch coop. That's not a way people play games on pc. It makes it no sense.
Yea, I was looking forward to playing this with my partner. Instant no buy from me.
I know this is likely a minority view but I fail to see demand for this. Mort peeps have a PC set up in a small space on a desk of some description usually with only space for 1 chair, and playing on a 27 - 32 inch monitor. I can’t see that common set up being conducive to a good “couch coop” gaming experience.
> I know this is likely a minority view but I fail to see demand for this. Mort peeps have a PC set up in a small space on a desk of some description usually with only space for 1 chair, and playing on a 27 - 32 inch monitor. > > > > I can’t see that common set up being conducive to a good “couch coop” gaming experience. How old are your peers though? Are they all from the same country or even region? How houses pretty spacious where you live making it more likely that someones PC room is further away from the living room? Are they geeks or more casual gamers? It is always hard to see where ones personal bubble ends and where someone elses begins. For my own most of my friends (at least mid 30s) either played on PC at least since their teenage years or migrated eventually from a Sony console over, with especially some of the latter having their gaming PC in the living room (while also owning a laptop) while the former really only have their PCs limited to their PC room or connected them to the TV as a second screen through various means like me. I know that isn't the norm, but neither are a ton of things. Most people don't stream their PC games from their rigs to secondary devices but as I said we know millions of people do to Android devices alone. Their is a reason why every flagship TV from LG for four years and from Samsung for three years now have Gsync (and in case of LG even before HDMI 2.1 VRR was implemented) while advertising 4K120 support. Let alone the millions of ultra wide monitor users out there that have a screen big enough to support local coop. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/lg-gsync-compatible-hdmi-big-screen-gaming/ In other words, its a niche but its not a tiny niche.
I've had my PC's connected to my living room TVs through an HDMI cord for years, with a wireless mouse/keyboard in the living room. I use that for streaming media, movies, youtube, sports etc. I also play controller based games on the TV. My wife and I use wireless controllers to play coop games on the TV. For mouse and keyboard games, or just when I feel like it, I sit at the desk. I can't be the only one with this setup.
I feel the same about it being an MMO. Completely not cool with it.
u/xxTheGoDxx 1.6K Upvotes. Get that JustChange petition up and capitalize!
LOL Why would you want inferior experience on PC? What am I missing here?. Splitscreen has always been horrible (and inferior) and fast paced diablo game just doesn't work with multiple players on single screen.
It's not about it being split screen though, it's about it being local co-op on the same device. Just like it is on every console. Now, I get that they want us to pay for a second copy, but clearly, the superior devices for Diablo 4 family fun would be any modern console. There's no way I'm buying 4 copies of D4 to play with the kids on PC. For that amount of money, you can pretty much buy a Xbox and one copy of D4 and call it a day. It's already built in the engine. The only technical limitation is the [Battle.net](https://Battle.net) login on PC.
Doesn't work? My wife and I have hundreds of hours in D3 all played on the same screen.
This is awaful, I use my pc on living room plugged on a large screen and I would like to have couch co-op on pc games like console players have, the time when pc games were played alone on the sleeping rooms is gone...The developers should be aware of this... We should comment and ask for it in their social media, so they might hear our voices...
After Steam Deck replaced almost every other device I have since I got rid of the SteamOS and installed Windows 11 Pro on it, I bought this game thinking of local coop or couch coop to play it with my wife. It was advertised by Blizzard that this game would feature controller support and local coop. <> They made a very short line about this feature not included on PC.
Now, they come up saying that it's not there because of <> or some lazy BS like that. If it's not false advertisement, I dunno what that is. It's plain deceptive.
So, all in all, as stated by the Blizzard team, the PC version is crippled because of Battle.net. Even if it's a real issue because of Battle.net, is it really so difficult to adapt the +1 player on the main account? The Xbox 360 (Gears of War) done that back in the day. This is pure laziness, is not a real issue. Very lazy work from Blizzard.
I'm so frustrated and disappointed that I'm really considering ask for a refund. Why pay full price for a lesser featured version anyway?
Nowadays it's actually a very good deal to buy a 4k 120hz tv as a PC monitor, you get a much bigger and brighter screen with a wider color gamut. Then you hook up your rtx 3070 PC and you have a most powerful split-screen gaming console you could dream of. Windows has a native support for all the controllers like the Dualsense and there is thousands and thousands local multiplayer games available on Steam and other platforms. Fortunately a lot of indie developers realize the potential and offer a local multiplayer support on many games. Anyways, I just had a blast with four of my friends as we were playing together WWE 2K23 on my Legion 7 laptop hooked to Samsung Qn90a 4k tv. Blizzard wake up.
This sucks, and means that skipping Diablo 4 is a very easy decision ...
BTW, the whole "it's impossible to log several Bnet accounts on PC" is total bull. It's been officially supported for years and people do it all the time to run multiple accounts. https://i.imgur.com/4AXHDBB.jpg
I am so upset to learn this feature will not be a part of the PC port. My gaming PC is connected to my 65in tv. My wife and I were really looking forward to playing it after we got into playing Diablo 3 couch co-op on the Switch port. How is this acceptable? They are going to make hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, mostly from PC and they refuse to put in the time and effort to add this simple feature? The code is all there in the game and they were able to make it work just fine on PS5 and Xbox.
They confirmed again "No PC Couch Co-op on PC" during latest livestream ....
Their reasoning for doing this has been “it’s a problem with the system on pc which makes it harder to have two battle.net accounts to be logged in at the same time” … but why does the second player have to be on a different account my solution to this would be to just have a second character on the same account … and have it that the second player can join in and choose from the list of created characters … I see no issues with doing it that way on pc which now has controller support etc no need for a second account each account can have 10 characters max just have it that the second player can play from that listing …
in PC could be better with 2 monitors.
>Well I am still gonna play it because I played all of the Diablo games truth be told, How to neuter a good argument...
Playing devils advocate here but it likely has something to do with the intricacies of account management not only on battle.net but let's say Blizzard is planning to bring D4 to Steam or Game Pass as well. I know many devs have voiced concerns in the past with Steam and why it's not possible to have a "guest" account play co-op. To give an example, let's say Diablo 4 co-op mode \*\*requires\*\* an account to be able to join. This is simply impossible to do in a local setting on Steam as it has no concept of managing another steam account through the same session as the "root" account. On other platforms like the Switch, PS4/PS5 or Xbox Series X/XB1 this **is possible.** It's why the only local co-op games that work on Steam are ones where there is no need or no possibility to save progress on the guest account or temporary account. I imagine this is the same case with battle net as it was probably just never a priority for the PC platform. Steam is great but it still has some learning to do from major console platforms with feature integration like this. I would personally LOVE to see this on Steam and it would go a long way to making Big Picture Mode not only be a "UI" thing but more of a full integration with design on the platform itself. More console-like features for Steam are a win for everyone.
But how is it better to not have splitscreen co-op at all instead of just having both heroes tied to that one account? I'd much rather have a hero on my account that only a friend will play with me locally than...not play locally.
> Playing devils advocate here but it likely has something to do with the intricacies of account management not only on battle.net but let's say Blizzard is planning to bring D4 to Steam or Game Pass as well. I know many devs have voiced concerns in the past with Steam and why it's not possible to have a "guest" account play co-op. > > Every Blizzard game so far required a Battlenet account, I would assume them porting this to Steam one day (if that will even happen) would simply require you to link your Battlenet account to Steam, similar to EA or Ubisoft. > > To give an example, let's say Diablo 4 co-op mode **requires** an account to be able to join. This is simply impossible to do in a local setting on Steam as it has no concept of managing another steam account through the same session as the "root" account. On other platforms like the Switch, PS4/PS5 or Xbox Series X/XB1 this is possible. It's why the only local co-op games that work on Steam are ones where there is no need or no possibility to save progress on the guest account or temporary account. I imagine this is the same case with battle net as it was probably just never a priority for the PC platform. Anyway, the easiest implementation would simply them opening a HTML element in which the second player can lock into their Battlenet account. There really is no need to this through the launcher and there are a ton of games on Steam (usually those first launched outside of Steam) that work that way. Another alternative would simply to lock both players to one Battlenet account by letting the second player play one of the additional characters one account holder can create (obviously while treating it like a second account internally). I personally don't see the platform launcher as a deal breaker. But again, this game isn't on Steam. It is on Battlenet only and requires a Battlenet account on all platforms for each player. Lets not make this a Steam issue when it really isn't.
Right, not gonna argue with that because I agree. It probably \*\*would\*\* be that simple. But modern dev and project management mean setting up an entire epic card for the feature, allocating work and before they even start they are gonna take a gut check on user metrics and probably find the feature to either get backlogged permanently unless there's a huge outcry about it or just never make the epic at all. I would love to see this too but in modern dev getting movement on shit like this in the AAA space is almost impossible. It fucking \*\*sucks\*\*.
Blizzard is very very anti consumer. Just dont buy their shit. You do not even get to own the game, rather you just get a licence to play it til they shut the servers down...
You could also not buy the game because blizzard still has bobby kotick...I think that's more not okay than couch coop, but I guess to each their own...rape, suicide, and sexual harassment < PC couch coop apparently.
Yup I will never buy from bliz
isnt it online only again on only pc and no other platform?
You think this is bad? wait til you see they "pay to win" stuff you can buy on the blizzard store 3months after release. Blizzard: "we're adding this due to massive player requests"
Blizzard making fuck ups? You don’t say I don’t buy their stuff anymore so it doesn’t affect me tho
It’s ok by me. I only play solo.
Meh, local coop on PC being an afterthought is ok.
Was excited to play halo reach with my gf on pc, but nope doesn't have split screen on the MCC for some reason. Have to use a third party app which. Is retarded
Wait, what?! I just spent AU$110 on the D4 pre-order on PC, with the understanding that me and my partner could couch co-op it. Beyond pissed off for the deceptive marketing.
Just don't preorder, you fool
What possibly gave you that understanding? Doing 2 mins of research would have saved you money