Diablo III Expansion Confirmed For PS4, Will be Playable at Blizzcon

[Steven Bogos]

Diablo III Expansion Confirmed For PS4, Will be Playable at Blizzcon

It's possible we may see a simultaneous launch of Reaper of Souls on both PC and PS4.

Earlier in the month, Diablo III console senior level designer Matthew Berger told us that the game's first expansion pack, Reaper of Souls, will come to consoles, but official PlayStation blog [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128307-Diablo-III-Expansion-Will-Come-to-Consoles] has announced the expansion will be playable at Blizzcon, both on PC and PS4.

"Attendees of the convention will also be some of the first in the world to take on Death itself using DualShock 4, armed with all-new social features and touch pad technology designed to help keep heroes on focused on what they do best: killing monsters."

Reaper of Souls was officially announced at GamesCon [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127058-Diablo-III-Reaper-Of-Souls-Official-Announcement-Trailer] this year, and will feature a new class, a new act, a new artisan, and a plethora of loot and adventuring improvements. In true Blizzard style, it doesn't have an official release date yet, but we can probably expect it some time next year.

While Diablo III has been released for Xbox 360 and PS3 already, the Xbox One/PS4 launch also won't happen until 2014. Considering that the expansion is already playable on PS4, it seems somewhat likely that the next-gen release will combine the original game with the expansion (or at least, we will see the expansion launch shortly afterwards).

No word has been offered on when the expansion will make it across to current-gen consoles, but Berger said earlier that "we have to make sure that it is adapted to the console eco system in a way that is going to play the best way possible," and that this will take some time.

BlizzCon takes place November 8-9.

Source: Official PlayStation Blog [http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2013/10/17/diablo-iii-reaper-of-souls-set-to-invade-ps4/]

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[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Ehh, Crate Entertainment just released Alpha Build 13 which added the Nightblade Mastery.

Goodbye Diablo, hello Grim Dawn!

 

[black_knight1337]

It's possible we may see a simultaneous launch of Reaper of Souls on both PC and PS4.

They've already confirmed otherwise.

For those who were curious, yes -- we are looking to release Reaper of Souls on PC first (which is slated for 2014 as well).

Could very well mean that the next gen version will have RoS on launch though.

Soooo did blizzard just decide screw pc gamers with this one? they get a superior version and the expansion tailor made with consoles in mind. I'm so exhausted with diablo 3 but damn what a waste of a good pc franchise. (I'm not being all pc master race here but a lot of the best parts about the diablo experience relied on PC as a platform it just seems strange to switch focus on a heavily entrenched title)

I'm curious to see what your reasoning is for that. If you're referring to UI, control scheme or console specific features (dodge, boss battle tweaks etc) then fair enough, but I'm thinking you're referring to the loot changes. In which case your criticism is unfounded. "Loot 2.0" is coming to PC before consoles (along with a heap of other stuff), the loot changes that are available on consoles currently is commonly referred to as "Loot 1.5". This is because it has parts of "Loot 2.0" but not all of it. And why did this get on consoles and isn't on PC yet? Presumably because they wanted to give them the best experience they could at the time. And it isn't on PC because it is still an incomplete system.

 

[Kahani]

all-new social features and touch pad technology designed to help keep heroes on focused on what they do best: killing monsters.

In what way do "social" features do anything other than take focus from the actual playing of the game?

 

[black_knight1337]

Was not talking about loot at all. Where did you get that? I'm talking about the numerous design and game play choices they're making now with the though to keep it console friendly. UI and control scheme are just the starting point for numerous tweaks in order to make the finished product work together. Out of curiosity do you know how well blizzard pays these days. That redirect was politician level PR.

There was no redirect there at all, I covered all of the reasons I could think of and expanded on the only one that isn't 100% subjective and that is also the most common. UI and control scheme, as I said, is fair enough. That just comes down to what is your personal preference.

Can you elaborate on the "numerous design and game play choices they're making now with the thought to keep it console friendly"? I'm not sure what you are talking about here. I haven't seen any information, whether announced or datamined, suggesting this.

 

[black_knight1337]

a well designed game wouldn't create circumstances that are approachable by the player

Sure...

or ask unreasonable things.

D3 doesn't, closest would be related to the pretty average drops which are soon to be fixed.

Loot wise it pretty much stops the use of items with charges or active abilities because access would be too clunky.

There are active abilities on some legendaries. The Hellfire ring being just one example. But I presume you're referring to how in D2 gear could roll a "+x to y skill" affix. That's just a general design decision, there's no real reason they didn't implement it beyond them simply not wanting to do it. Consoles don't justify it at all because it would be no clunkier than however console players currently select skills.

likewise ranged precision targeting in an isometric view while easy to do with a mouse is far more difficult to do with a controller. This affects the types of skills that are usable and viable and also to some degree enemy attacks as and behaviors.

Eh, from what I've heard the console version does reasonably well in this regard. Only things I've heard that are tricky are skills like the Witch Doctor's Grasp of the Dead which you'd want to be using in front of enemies rather than on them. And I don't see how that relates back to Blizzard "screwing" PC players.

 

[black_knight1337]

Not sure if your just intentionally missing the point or what. For one hellfire ring doesn't have an active ability an active ability is an ability you deliberately activate ie press trigger button gain life press trigger button shoot fireball. A chance to fire a hellfire ball on attack is a passive ability because you have no control over when it triggers. The need for a separately bound button is why a game designer who is thinking about controller limitations would not use it. This is the point consoles have specific limitations and if they are thinking of designing the game with console as high priority those limitations will affect design choices. How do you not understand this? It's really simple. Like REALLY simple.

Not sure if you're just intentionally ignoring what I write or what. Like I said, consoles don't justify the lack of the "+x to y skill" type affixes at all. There's no reason to have an extra button bound specifically for gear based skills (Which runs into the issue of having them on more than one piece). The only way to reasonably implement gear based skills would be to just add a "gear" category on the skills screen, letting them be bound to one of the five restriction free slots. So like I said, not a console caused design decision but rather a regular design decision.

And I agree that the limitations of consoles force design decisions. And if you had of backed that point up with some of the more common arguments then my response would have been along the lines of "That's all speculation but fair enough". But it still wouldn't relate back to your original point at all.

 

[freedash22]

And Blizzard continues to fix Diablo 3 and make it 'better' it seems. Good for new players but I am not going back. I used to be a big fan of this. Diablo 1 and 2 were classics. Spent ages playing both. I had my doubts on D3 but I still supported them because I had faith. But after playing through the mess that was D3, I have had enough. The auction house and enrage timer combination to force players to buy the best loot in Inferno difficulty is inexcusable. And with the withdrawal of PVP and the auction house (later), I can't imagine why this still has to stay always online. Got DCed multiple times fighting infernal bosses due to connection issues or server maintenance and it was hell! A total sign of Publisher mistrust on its customers. I trusted them with the auction house and game economy, now it is broken and I can't buy anything due to the hyper-inflated prices because of bugs. Yeah, they will fix things but they will not be able to give me back all the time and hardship I had to go through because of their bad decisions. I'm done with these guys.

 

[black_knight1337]

I'm intentionally ignoring parts of what you write because it has nothing to do with anything I said. Like the "+x to y skill" type affixes- never mentioned that - not once - never talked about it - it has nothing to do with anything but you keep arguing it like your making some sort of point.

Except you specifically said "Loot wise it pretty much stops the use of items with charges or active abilities because access would be too clunky" which is exactly what the "+x to y skill" kind of affixes are.

It's actually making this conversation surreal. Since we're talking about expansions I'm not talking about the existing frame work; new skill slots could be added with a new expansion. Further I already said this was probably not a direction they'd go anyways but an example of a direction that they now could not go because a controller only has so many buttons so adding new slots would be difficult to fit on a controller.

Finally! A point which can be argued in a way that can support your original point. Of which I'd argue otherwise because there are still easily accessible buttons that are unused. Why have them unused when your limitation is the amount of buttons available?

The limitations of consoles compared to the PC is vastly different and I would prefer a game working with what a PC can do then worrying about what a console can because it is almost always more inferior an experience for PC users.

That's only a little unreasonable. I mean, it's not like they'd have to rewrite pretty much everything mechanically or anything.

Hence PC users get screwed so they can focus on console hence my original point.

Yeah, you finally got there. Would've been quicker if you didn't change what you were saying with every post. "Was not talking about loot at all" to " Loot wise it pretty much stops the use of items with charges or active abilities because access would be too clunky" to "Like the "+x to y skill" type affixes- never mentioned that - not once - never talked about it - it has nothing to do with anything". Stick to one thing next time please, makes it easier on everyone.

 

[black_knight1337]

Nice try but no "+x to y skill" is a passive skill buff an active skill is a skill you activate on it's own and functions as it's own special skill unique to the wearer of the equipment its related to ie an item with that says something along the lines of "activating this ring fires a beam of lightning deal 100-200 damage + intelligence with a cool down of 2 minutes" and charged items are generally items that replicate certain skills or abilities both from enemy and character skill sets with a set number of uses before it expires or needs to be recharged. It's okay you learn this kind of terminology with time.

Ah, now I get why you've been responding like that. You've never played D2 have you? And if so you clearly haven't done any research on it. Let me explain it to you. In D2, there is an affix that gives "+x to y skill". When these are rolled as a random property they give you a nice buff to one of your skills. However, when they are a unique property or come from runes, they grant you a skill, no matter what class you are. A notable example is Wolfhowl [http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Wolfhowl], a unique barb helm that gives you access to some druid skills. Then there's the runes as well like Enigma [http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Enigma] which lets you teleport. All they did was add the skill to your pool, no specific buttons or slots for gear specific skills. So like I said, no reason for it to not be in D3 other than they didn't want to implement them.

 

[black_knight1337]

yaaa they're still passive skill buffs just for skills you normally don't have

But you can't buff things you don't even have. It's like saying an affix that "Grants the player 10% additional damage which is dealt as fire damage" is the same as "Increases fire damage by 10%". Which it isn't. One gives you fire damage, the other increases your fire damage.

Active abilities on items are in their own isolated skill pool cast directly from the equipment.

Why do they need to be isolated? Why do they need to be casted directly from the equipment? All that does is make the system harder to use.

Its a fine line but an active ability is activated directly by the player and generally lasts a fixed time frame a passive ability is always active and functions without the players input.

And that's exactly why these are active, rather than passive. Wolfhowl [http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Wolfhowl] doesn't make you permanently a werewolf, you need to activate it. Enigma [http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Enigma] doesn't make your every move a teleport, you have to activate it. Of course you could argue that they are passive because they are permanently (at least while it's equipped) giving you access to an ability. Although if you go with that logic then there is no such thing is an active ability on an item outside of consumables like potions.
EDIT: Also, how can you blame consoles for a lack of "active" skills on items in D3 when you are arguing that they aren't "active" in D2, which is a PC exclusive?

The reason why I'm even bothering to point out the distinction is because an actual active ability presents problems towards control complex it both in terms of binding the skill to a button and since most of these skills would be undesirable in a regular skill slot because they tend to be situational or with longer cool downs (they don't have to be but are made so generally to distinguish them from class skills and make sure that class skills are never overshadowed as every class just aiming for the same armor to use the same skill kills the diversity of the classes and is just bad design) the requirement of additional buttons and the more complex way to bind such skills makes them a less then desirable prospect when designed for a controller whereas with a mouse and keyboard the mouse can navigate the menus efficiently and there are more then enough keys on a keyboard.

Easily fixed by what I already suggested, just add them as an additional skill category which you can bind to any of the currently open slots. If you go and make a button dedicated to "gear skills" then you kill diversity by restricting them to a single gear skill when they might need 3 or 4 to make their build how they want. If instead you map a button to each piece then you have to use an additional 12 buttons for them, even on PC that's just silly. So it not being there is certainly not the fault of consoles because of the 3 implementations available for it, 2 cause issues on not only consoles but PC as well, and the other doesn't cause any issues beyond what is already present.

 

[black_knight1337]

No its not active because the item doesn't give you teleport it gives you a bonus to teleport which gives the prerequisite to use the skill. The effect is arguably similar but method of approach (and therefore the implementation which matters more in arguments of design) is completely different. I'm sorry your just wrong look up what these words mean before you argue.

Apply the same thing to Wolfhowl then, because that is set up in the exact same way. But wait, that'd ruin your argument wouldn't it? Because the only difference between Wolfhowl saying "+3-6 to Werewolf" and "Allows the user to transform into a werewolf at will" is the tooltip. Following your argument the latter would be an "active" skill and the former would be passive, but how can that be when there is no mechanical difference?

I like how you ignore everything that you know proves you wrong too. Like "Also, how can you blame consoles for a lack of "active" skills on items in D3 when you are arguing that they aren't "active" in D2, which is a PC exclusive?" which removes the legitimacy of your original argument completely.