Watch Dogs, Diablo 3, and more PS4 news

Watch Dogs gets new engine
Ubisoft’s much-anticipated new IP Watch Dogs will not be powered by the same engine behind Assassin’s Creed, which as far as I am concerned is GREAT news! The confirmation comes via Ubisoft’s Sebastien Viard, who is the technical director on Watch Dogs and has contributed to Far Cry 2 and 3. He Tweeted earlier today that Watch Dogs uses a “brand new engine” called Disrupt, which was created by Ubisoft Montreal and has been created for the express purpose of powering the new game.

Diablo 3 gets offline play for PS4 ?
In a video which has now been removed from YouTube, a Blizzard rep announced the addition of offline, shared-screen co-op to the PlayStation 4 port of Diablo 3. Whether this is strictly co-op, or will allow single-player offline as well, wasn’t specified, but it seems odd that offline play would be present and restricted to co-op. There’s no word on whether the feature will make it to PC, and Blizzard says it is not yet ready to share anything on the subject. It has also been revealed there will be no cross play between Playstation and PC.

PS4 subscriptions
The PlayStation 4 could employ a multiple-tier subscription service, offering different levels of access. "We could have gold, silver or platinum levels of membership, something like that," Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida says. "We can do subscription services when we have more content – especially now that we have the Gaikai technology available. With one subscription you have access to thousands of games – that's our dream."

Yoshida says the PS4 will have more digital content than its predecessors, at least: Every game will be available as a download, while some will still be sold at retail. This makes it easier to host smaller games such as Jonathan Blow's The Witness, and it supports a broader range of payment models, such as free-to-play or subscription-based games.