"Dungeon Siege III’s cooperative multiplayer mode is designed to be easily accessible and allow for a drop-in, drop-out multiplayer structure," explained associate producer Nathan Davis. "To bring this vision to fruition while maintaining both the deep story-based experience of the game and the balance of characters versus enemies, your single player characters will be distinct from your multiplayer characters -- however both can be persistently grown, equipped and adventured with over multiple game sessions.

"Co-op players can absolutely expect to have the loot and experience they gain in multiplayer games to be saved to their multiplayer characters ... Achievements and Trophies earned in multiplayer are still saved to your profile as normal and there are additional awards that you can only receive from playing in a multiplayer co-operative game."

"There’s no question that the ability to carry entirely persistent character data around can be fun, but it also presents a number of unique challenges including those from a balance and storytelling perspective," he added. "When you join a multiplayer game in Dungeon Siege III, if someone is already playing Lucas or Anjali, you will not be able to play as that same character simply because it does not make any sense from a storytelling perspective. Having 3-4 Anjali’s running around turning monsters into giblets sounds fun, and it’s something you could do in other titles, but it completely breaks the story immersion we’ve worked so hard to create. And, of course, our heroes have numerous combat-related synergies that you would never see with a party of the same characters.

"Overall, for our first foray into the Dungeon Siege universe we really wanted to nail an easy and fun cooperative experience that allows you to jump into games with friends and family, but that still has enough depth for the hardcore, loot-piñata-exploding, item-hoovering gamers among us. And, I think we’ve done just that."