No Cross-Platform Play For Diablo III

[Andy Chalk]

No Cross-Platform Play For Diablo III

Diablo III is coming to the PlayStation, but integration with the PC version of the game is not.

Blizzard's announcement [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122269-Blizzard-Bringing-Diablo-III-to-PlayStation-3-4] of Diablo III for the PlayStation 3 and 4 at Sony's big shindig last week was met with, let's say, mixed reaction. Diablo on consoles: very cool. Offline play for Diablo III on consoles, after Blizzard spent months swearing up and down to PC gamers that the nature of the game made it utterly impossible: not so much. But the possibility of cross-platform play does have an allure, and the promise of new features for the PC being catalyzed by the PlayStation was no doubt in the minds of many long-time Diablo fans.

But don't hold your breath waiting for the chance to head back to Tristram with your console cousins. "While we think cross-platform play would be awesome, there are currently no plans to allow connectivity between PlayStation Network and Battle.net (this is pretty standard for most games that have PC and console support)," Diablo III Community Manager "Vaeflare" wrote on the Battle.net forums. "As a result, the characters on your Battle.net account and PlayStation account will also remain separate."

"In terms of allowing an analog controller hookup for the PC, we don't have any plans for that kind of support right now," she continued. "Similarly, since Diablo III for console was designed with a controller in mind, the PlayStation version of Diablo III will not support USB mice or keyboards."

It's perhaps not a terribly surprising revelation but it sounds a bit to me (without wanting to read too much into it) like Blizzard is washing its hands of the PC version of the game and putting its focus on the console market instead. That may be a premature and unfair assessment, but if Blizzard can't even work controller support into the game, the addition of an offline mode for PC - which I think would bring an awful lot of erstwhile fans back into the fold - would appear to be just a pleasant but faint pipe dream.

Source: Battle.net [http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7979508440?page=3#49]



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[Paragon Fury]

WHY NO CONTROLLER SUPPORT FOR PC?

Diablo 3 is one of those rare games where it would actually be objectively better using a controller over the Mouse/Keyboard, since D3's control and setup translates very well into the "Dual Stick Shooter" style of gameplay, like Geometry Wars.

 

[scw55]

Another few aspects which the Torchlight team can do, when Blizzard seem to not be arsed to.
Blizzard slowly killing this genre.

 

[deathbydeath]

What are they smoking? Seriously, I'd love to get my hands on whatever they're getting wasted on.

 

[Ickorus]

Don't really blame them for it, guess they don't want to find out the hard way whether cross platform works for action RPGs.

Also:

Spoiler: It's perhaps not a terribly surprising revelation but it sounds a bit to me (without wanting to read too much into it) like Blizzard is washing its hands of the PC version of the game and putting its focus on the console market instead

 

[Little Gray]

It's perhaps not a terribly surprising revelation but it sounds a bit to me (without wanting to read too much into it) like Blizzard is washing its hands of the PC version of the game and putting its focus on the console market instead. That may be a premature and unfair assessment, but if Blizzard can't even work controller support into the game, the addition of an offline mode for PC - which I think would bring an awful lot of erstwhile fans back into the fold - would appear to be just a pleasant but faint pipe dream.

As long as there is a cash auction house blizzard can not create an offline mode for Diablo 3. it would open far to many loopholes in the game. Also controller support would be a pain in the ass for the PC with the auction house.


I find it hilarious that you say Blizzard is washing their hands on the PC version when they are doing the exact same fucking thing any developer who ports a game to console/PC does.

 

[FEichinger]

It's perhaps not a terribly surprising revelation but it sounds a bit to me (without wanting to read too much into it) like Blizzard is washing its hands of the PC version of the game and putting its focus on the console market instead. That may be a premature and unfair assessment, but if Blizzard can't even work controller support into the game, the addition of an offline mode for PC - which I think would bring an awful lot of erstwhile fans back into the fold - would appear to be just a pleasant but faint pipe dream.

As long as there is a cash auction house blizzard can not create an offline mode for Diablo 3. it would open far to many loopholes in the game. Also controller support would be a pain in the ass for the PC with the auction house.


I find it hilarious that you say Blizzard is washing their hands on the PC version when they are doing the exact same fucking thing any developer who ports a game to console/PC does.

There are absolutely no loopholes with a simple "Online Character" vs "Offline Character" setup. Blizzard just seem more and more lazy when it comes to stuf like this.

 

[LordMonty]

I think people care about this too much... I am just tired of this whole Diablo 3 'thing' I have better isometric rpgs to look forward to anyhow (Shadowrun Returns, Project enternity and Wasteland 2 being my main three)

 

[Skeleon]

Do people still care? Hm, at least a couple of folks seem to.

 

[GAunderrated]

The Blizzard I knew and loved back in my warcraft 2 and 3 days is forever gone. They lie and pull the same BS that activision, EA, and ubisoft pull on a daily basis and for that I will equally take everything they make from now on with a grain of salt instead of trusting them.

This is my personal experience but I played D3 for about the first week, ran into a bunch of problems (lag, error 37, more lag), had an account stolen and told I needed an authenticator, and just BS after BS with that game and blizzard taught me to never buy anything they have again or trust that they will make a game as amazing as warcraft 3 was.

So when I see articles proving that they are full of crap I can only shake my head at the millions of fans who are going to bend over and ask for more. Hopefully blizzard brings lube....

 

[Deshin]

What a load of utter bollocks. I've always said there is absolutely no legitimate reason for PS2/3/Xbox/360 games not to have a mouse/keyboard option especially when there's a PC version of the game already out there and already doing it. All this does is take away the OPTION of doing it, which imo is a bad thing, options are awesome.

And no cross-platform play? Also a load of bollocks. I still play Final Fantasy XI and that shit has had cross platform play in an MMO for the last 12 years. It cross-platformed the PLAYSTATION 2 with PCs and Blizzard rolls up saying it can't do cross-platform with the PLAYSTATION 4? TWO WHOLE GENERATIONS LATER and this shit is still mystical voodoo and sorcery that pubs/devs throw up their hands and say "fuck it, no cross-platform play".

They deserve to crash and burn horrendously...

 

[King of Asgaard]

So, wait, now an offline mode works?
Why was it not possible before?
How will the auction house work in offline mode? Will it work at all on consoles, or will it go unused like on PC?
Since it's being ported to console, will there be some kind of split screen co-op? (he asks expecting the answer no)

Honestly, I don't see this working out too well.
Partly it's the bad press Blizzard got after their always online debacle, partly it's the transition from PC to console and the inevitable control redesign that will not be optimal without also redoing other core parts of the game.
Oh, and no cross-platform is a mountainous load of bollocks.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Well that doesn't surprise me. I imagine Bnet 2.0 client is platform-specific for PC vs PS3 (and Sony, being as control-crazy as they are, probably want their own hook).

"Controller (dis)Advantage" shouldn't really matter as D3 still lacks any PvP component, and the game already demonstrated that positioning to avoid damage means little.

So, wait, now an offline mode works?
Why was it not possible before?

It was always possible (Diablo 2), it was just that Blizzard felt they didn't have to actually EARN their money anymore; but assumed people were stupid enough to just give it to them on brand name alone.

*glares at initial sales*
Sadly, they were right.

 

[Buccura]

Oi, I'm just glad the StarCraft II team isn't doing anything like this... not yet at least :/

 

[GAunderrated]

Oi, I'm just glad the StarCraft II team isn't doing anything like this... not yet at least :/

I would be surprised if they didn't pull something like that for the new starcraft game coming out soon and 100% for sure by the 3rd installment of starcraft II they will pull something like this.

 

[castlewise]

There is a lot of doom an gloom here. Honestly I just think its because mixing controller and mouse/keyboard is a hard thing to do. Diablo is a very mouse centric game. I'm sure they had to change a lot of elements to make it work for a controller. Those same changes mean that it would be hard for controller/mouse players to do coop, either cross platform or via controllers hooked into pcs.

 

[Do4600]

and thats just fucking stupid.

now they wont use cross plattforming when it is basically the only thing that might make diablo 3 worth getting on a console at all.

and they get an offline mode...

First problem that comes to mind, it would ruin both auction house economies and that's the last thing Blizzard wants, right now the auction house on PC is booming, when the Ps4 version is released it will also boom.