Confirming the legitimacy of the abusive "fuck that loser" remark he had allegedly made on Facebook about Blizzard North founder and Diablo creator David Brevik, Diablo 3 game director Jay Wilson has publicly apologised in a detailed post on the Battle.net forums.

As many of you probably know, I recently made a comment on Facebook about Dave Brevik. I want to make it clear that I am very sorry for what I said. I have higher expectations for myself than to express my feelings in such a rash way and disrespect a fellow developer like Dave, someone who deserves to be treated with greater respect.

What I said was expressed out of anger, and in defense of my team and the game. People can say what they want about me, but I don't take lightly when they disparage the commitment and passion of the Diablo III team. Dave is awesome. In Diablo and Diablo II, he made two of the games that have most affected me as a developer. I respect his vision for Diablo, but just like he said in his interview, the Diablo III team must drive a vision for the game that is true to us. We believe in Diablo and have stuck by it through years of hard development to make it a reality.

The incident was sparked by this interview with incgamers, in which Brevik, now the President of developer Gazillion Entertainment, politely explained how Diablo 3 was very different from the game that he would have made, and emphasised the significance of individual developers and how they impact the product. Indicating how most of the original Diablo and Diablo 2 team had departed following the closure of Blizzard North.

Wilson goes on to explain that the current team does still have some of the heart of the original creators, explaining how their lead programmer "built the basis of the Diablo III engine while at Blizzard North" and how most of the team were avid Diablo II players, but puzzlingly stops short of a personal apology to Brevik, going on to further explain the reasoning for the outburst and instead apologising to the greater community for the unprofessional outburst.

We made Diablo III because we believe in the Diablo games. We think the gameplay is awesome, the world is compelling, and it's the game we all wanted to play. Because we believe in it, we'll continue to stand by it and make it better. We are committed to making Diablo III the best Diablo game to date, and we hope you'll continue to help us do just that.

Saying that, I'd like to apologize to all of you, the players in our community. You deserve better than my reaction to Dave's comments. You deserve more honest communication about the game and what we're doing to make it a more awesome experience for us all. We care about Diablo very much, and appreciate your passion for it. Without you, we wouldn't be able to do this, and for that I can't thank you enough.

Read the full post over on battle.net.