For some of the most masochistic gamers, playing Diablo II in Hardcore mode was the only way to play. And although death was permanent, the items upon your character could be salvaged provided you had a friend with you during your adventures, who could recover your goods.
The same can't be said for Diablo III, for when your character dies, the items you had equipped are also gone for good. This development prompted some amount of discussion on the official Battle.net forums. Blizzard's Micah Whipple, known as Bashiok on the forums, chimed in on the matter:
Honestly if your character dropping all of your items when you die in Hardcore is something a lot of people want, we'd very seriously consider it. So far in my experience feedback on it has been mixed at best, but it's tough to tell the actual Hardcore players from the riffraff. It's important to keep in mind through that without any kind of ladder resets to zero out the economy it could mean a completely different item landscape for Hardcore years down the road. For us, items being removed from the game when a Hardcore character dies is kind of exciting.
Our approach at this point is to see how this works out, because we think being a bit harsher on Hardcore is ok. Absolutely people may be scared to keep items on them, but maybe that becomes part of the fun and the strategy of it. We're taking a wait and see, but definitely after release we'll be interested to hear thoughts from Hardcore players and see how it's working out.
Regardless of what Blizzard decides to do down the road, I personally hope they keep things the way they are. I like the idea of being buried with my gear.
Diablo III is set for a May 15 release on the PC and Mac.