Blizzard Double-Secret Confirms Diablo III on Consoles

[Greg Tito]

Blizzard Double-Secret Confirms Diablo III on Consoles

After dropping more hints than a Vegas hooker looking for blow, Blizzard makes a definitive statement on a console Diablo III.

It seems like the last of the action RPGs are jumping the PC ship. Blizzard might be one of the few major developers out there that has remained a PC games company, but it looks like Diablo III might finally finish what Starcraft: Ghost attempted a decade ago. After saying in 2011 the Diablo team was "feels better" with a controller [http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112489-Blizzard-Were-Very-Serious-About-Diablo-III-On-Consoles&sa=U&ei=oIEMT8qnK8TWtwftkIWkBw&ved=0CAYQFjAB&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNHhyMm_nIfSOBBtbNSpRTcPOWsh5Q], a Blizzard community director answers a direct query from a fan to state, on the public record of Twitter, that Diablo III will be on consoles.

"Can you confirm or deny Diablo 3 coming to consoles?" the illustrious hoodie-bedecked TaNGoIX asked of the Blizzard community manager Micah Whipple, better known as Bashiok. "Thanks." At least he was polite, and that might have sparked the prompt answer.

"Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project," Whipple replied [https://twitter.com/#!/Bashiok/status/156215812473098240].

Josh Mosqueria is a veteran of the industry, having worked on previous games for THQ such as Warhammer: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes, but the most relevant experience for console development is his work on FarCry 3.

I get it. I know why stalwart PC developers from Bethesda [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110856-E3-Witcher-2-Xbox-360] want to make their classic RPGs console-friendly. But Diablo? Really? Come on. Just stick with making me click that mouse about three thousand times per second.

Source: Twitter [https://twitter.com/#!/Bashiok/status/156215812473098240]



Permalink

 

[Eric the Orange]

OMG, the game is getting a console release, that means it will be dumbed down and terrible. rage. RAGE!

 

[Gammayun]

More people can play a great game thats great news isnt it and pc supremacists cant complain becuase it a port from the pc. Though i have feeling they are going to anyway.

 

[phoenix352]

OMG, the game is getting a console release, that means it will be dumbed down and terrible. rage. RAGE!

you make jokes but experience says that's exactly what will happen.
the word multiplatform (2 words?) is almost guaranteed fail port on PC...
even big names like blizzard can do wrong.

 

[razer17]

Considering that Diablo boils down to just clicking rapidly, I guess it's not much of a surprise. How can you dumb down "hit a button repeatedly" for consoles?

 

[antipunt]

I understand where this is coming from. It's just silly to ignore the console market nowadays. To be honest, I don't see many reasons to remain PC exclusive, aside from the ones that require an RTS structure. I'm talking from a financial perspective, and yes, that's what makes the world roll. And I'm saying this being a PC gamer.

 

[teebeeohh]

OMG, the game is getting a console release, that means it will be dumbed down and terrible. rage. RAGE!

i am sorry but have you played diablo 2? there is nothing to dumb down unless you count the metagame which blizz decided to monetize.

as long as the game controls well with the "i really want to destroy my mouse" mode i am good

 

[danyy2009]

I'm really happy because i really want to play Diablo 3, and my comp is too old to run it.

 

[oMonarca]

There's a typo: it's Far Cry, not FarCray.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Hmm... I feel conflicted....

I should feel happy that console gamers might get to play it on their consoles, but for me I don't really care since I feel like it should be a PC only game.

I demand multiple clicks with my mouse!

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Good. I don't believe the console version would require an internet connection to play. I mean, I can't think of a console game that's done that yet, at least.

 

[Eric the Orange]

OMG, the game is getting a console release, that means it will be dumbed down and terrible. rage. RAGE!

i am sorry but have you played diablo 2? there is nothing to dumb down unless you count the metagame which blizz decided to monetize.

as long as the game controls well with the "i really want to destroy my mouse" mode i am good

It was a joke. I was trying to emulate the standard "overreaction at change" argument.

To be honest I don't think there will be much change to the PC version because A) the Beta is already out and it plays fine, or so I hear. And B) Torchlight made a console port and it fared pretty well so that shows this kind of game can work on consoles.

The only real issue I could see with a console version is you lose the ability to target specific areas with long range abilities. So for example the barbarians Leap Attack ability would have to have either a set destination like 5 feet in front of the player, or auto targeting for like the nearest enemy or the largest group of enemies.

So I guess the console port may lose a small amount of strategy from that, but I find it frankly laughable that people believe that they will retroactively change the PC version to match it.

 

[teebeeohh]

OMG, the game is getting a console release, that means it will be dumbed down and terrible. rage. RAGE!

i am sorry but have you played diablo 2? there is nothing to dumb down unless you count the metagame which blizz decided to monetize.

as long as the game controls well with the "i really want to destroy my mouse" mode i am good

It was a joke. I was trying to emulate the standard "overreaction at change" argument.

To be honest I don't think there will be much change to the PC version because A) the Beta is already out and it plays fine, or so I hear. And B) Torchlight made a console port and it fared pretty well so that shows this kind of game can work on consoles.

The only real issue I could see with a console version is you lose the ability to target specific areas with long range abilities. So for example the barbarians Leap Attack ability would have to have either a set destination like 5 feet in front of the player, or auto targeting for like the nearest enemy or the largest group of enemies.

So I guess the console port may lose a small amount of strategy from that, but I find it frankly laughable that people believe that they will retroactively change the PC version to match it.

the problem is when they decide to remove the option of manually targeting with abilities
but this is blizzard, they will not do that
i hope

btw did you just emulate a "there will be pc-elitist outrage" post, which itself emulates your generic "pc-elitist outrage"?

 

[Veloxe]

I used to play Champions of Norrath on PS2 so a console version of an actual Diablo game doesn't worry me that much. I think they should be able to pull it off with only minor issues.

 

[Rad Party God]

FarCray 3

My eyes... they burn!.

OT: Meh, good for them I guess. Blizzard are no strangers to consoles, the first Diablo was already available for the original PlayStation, with 2 player coop and all and Starcraft was available for the N64.

They get the money from people who poopoo PC games and PC gamers who want to play the game offline whithout Blizzard constantly checking if you're not cheating or scamming somebody for that precious armor they want.

The perfect Win=Win situation.