"Right now in the state it's in, it's a fundamentally broken product D2R Items," said John Walker for RPS. "A single-player game that won't suspend, and should you quit it, it will kick you out and stop the progress you've made."

But Blizzard continued to follow the plan and the launch disaster ended up being the ultimate comeback. Adding to the frustration, the always-online requirement seemed as if it was tied to another online feature, and one that proved the most critical to the game's struggles in its early years.

Blizzard had a problem. In the previous Diablo titles, players' ability to trade items was a source of an illicit market for loot. Buyers looking for the highest quality equipment were willing to pay, which also left an open door for unscrupulous third-party sellers and price-fixing. Blizzard knew the risks of an unofficial, unregulated marketplace for Diablo products, and believed they could improve the experience with a legitimate, regulated one.

"The auction house was founded out of the need to legitimateize the third party market so that players will be able to conduct their business, rather than accessing third-party websites which would reduce fraud, scams, spamming, and the profit of hacking the game, creating dupes, etc.," former game director Jay Wilson said in an interview with DiabloII.

Net after being let go by the company. "The issue is obviously, that it legitimized too much trading. It made it way too easy. I think we all know this now, and the consequences. We were concerned about the consequences ahead of time however, we believed Buy D2R items Xbox would be beneficial to outweigh the negatives, and [World of Warcraft's auction house] seemed to be a great evidence of concept. It turns out we were right."