Game developers have had to apologize for a lot of things over the years, from content to characters to endings, and in the case of the recent “War Z” debacle, pretty much the fact that their game even exists.

Now it’s Blizzard’s turn to taste humble pie, as they are admitting defeat, and yanking the imbalanced and unpopular team deathmatch mode from “Diablo III”. Citing numerous shortcomings, Blizzard admits they just couldn’t find a way to get the mode to work, and will be removing it, ultimately, because it wasn’t really any fun.

However, they are working on a temporary mode that will still allow for player duels which should arrive with the next patch, and are also apparently designing an entirely new mode that will replace, and hopefully surpass, team deathmatch. The only details know about this new mode is that it will be a free addition to the game, available sometime in the new year.

Considering the numerous failures surrounding “Diablo III” at its release, it’s easy to look at this news as a further embarrassment, or a little more dirt on the grave. However, Blizzard is spot on that the mode just didn’t work in any entertaining or creative way, and even though the work on implementing team deathmatch apparently took up a sizeable amount of the development time leading up to “Diablo’s” release, its best that they admit their failures now and improve them, rather than skirt the issue entirely and rest on the laurels of some sizable sales figures. It’ll be exciting to see what they come up with instead, now that they have some more perspective on what works, and what definitely doesn’t.