BlizzCon 2009: Diablo 3 not yet ruled out for consoles
by Kevin Kelly 
{ Aug 21st 2009 at 6:20PM } 
Sure, it's what Blizzard says about all of its projects as they relate to consoles and yet, here we are, with nary a Blizzard console game in sight. But Sams did reiterate Blizz's interest saying that we will be seeing its games on consoles in the future. "Whether that's three years from now, five years, I can't say," Sams noted. "But I have no doubt that we'll be making games for consoles."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
(01) @ Aug 21st 2009 6:23PM
Hell
Fucking
Yeah
mirage @ Aug 21st 2009 8:09PM
Yeah right that is.
I will believe it when I see it!
Exemplar @ Aug 22nd 2009 2:31AM
Everybody has their price, including Blizzard. Show them the money so I can get my Diablo III on.
Ashkental @ Aug 21st 2009 6:25PM
It's about time!
Anthology @ Aug 21st 2009 6:26PM
I'm fine with that if they port if after completion.
I don't want it dumbed down for the sake of console controls.
Hydrophobicfish (PSN: HydrophobicFish) @ Aug 21st 2009 6:27PM
Diablo... dumbed down?
I... don't think that's possible. The game is literally being designed to be used with just a mouse.
Spartacus @ Aug 21st 2009 6:58PM
Yeah, it's tough to dumb down a game that is pretty much a one button click fest.
Although for some classes and skills, not having a mouse pointer could cause some issues- like teleport skills for example.
scott @ Aug 21st 2009 7:41PM
From what I've seen of the Diablo3 UI, a console port wouldn't require much dumbing down. Sticks for movement and aiming, face buttons for hot-key abilities, triggers for left and right mouse button abilities, bumpers for swapping right click power and map, and start button for bringing up inventory/stats/talents.
WiNG [XBL&Steam: WiNGSPANTT] from lifeinagame.com @ Aug 22nd 2009 1:51PM
I agree that the main problems with Diablo on a controller are:
1. Impossible to do pin-point teleports, corpse explosions, trap-like skills (any skill that requires its destination or center point be accurately defined
2. Hard to aim projectile weapons at specific enemies
Otherwise, it's doable
Radical Dylan @ Aug 21st 2009 6:27PM
Diablo at least needs a semi online MMO feel...
Like gather a group of friends, and bring up to 8 friends into your game, everyone retaining their own armor and weapons... and do dungeon runs together...
Spartacus @ Aug 21st 2009 7:01PM
Diablo II did exactly that nearly a decade ago. Diablo III will certainly be fully integrated with the new battlenet.
Hydrophobicfish (PSN: HydrophobicFish) @ Aug 21st 2009 6:27PM
Starcraft Ghost... reconfirmed?
But 4 srs... Ignoring the SNES days, have we ever had a good game from Blizzard on the consoles? Not really.
Diablo and Warcraft II were pretty lackluster ports (especially the later).
I love Blizzard, and own everything they've released, but... I'm not holding my breath on this one.
Better to have expectations be too low, and be pleasantly surprised, than them too high, and be dissapointed.
Arkanti (formerly Ihavepants) @ Aug 22nd 2009 2:25AM
Well they always said they stopped work on it because they wanted to instead remake it for the next console generation.
Nerdy Desi @ Aug 21st 2009 6:28PM
Wasn't Diablo 1 released for the Playstation?
I guess PC gamers will have to live with losing exclusives to consoles, I cannot mind too much as long as the PC still gets the games in the first place and doesn't lose games altogether to consoles. We're still getting ports of games that were thought to be console-exclusive like Street Fighter 4. You give some, you get some.
The Baron @ Aug 21st 2009 10:55PM
I agree. PC exclusive usually means low budget, which usually means poor game/bug testing. I have no qualms playing a console port on PC so long as they bothered to put in anti-aliasing and if I'm lucky, some higher-res textures.
Nerdy Desi @ Aug 22nd 2009 1:20AM
Even then, the wonderful PC modding scene can add those two in and other benefits as well. I admire the work modders have done on high resolution textures for Fallout 3 for instance and I love the blur mod for GTA4 and hear modders have made or are making anti-aliasing for it, when Rockstar didn't put it into the game.
Nerdy Desi @ Aug 21st 2009 6:30PM
"We can safely assume he means Sony and Microsoft, because it's nearly impossible to imagine this game running on the Wii."
I have zero interest in the Wii, I would much rather choose a 360 or PS3 over it but how is it nearly impossible to imagine it running on the Wii? Anything is possible, sacrifices may have to be made but that sentence seems a bit inflammatory no?
treqie @ Aug 21st 2009 6:35PM
Yeah, I agree.
knor @ Aug 21st 2009 7:04PM
lol at "because it's nearly impossible to imagine this game running on the Wii"
Spartacus @ Aug 21st 2009 7:08PM
At first I thought so too, especially with Blizzard's track record of middle of the road graphics in order to run on the maximum number of machines.
On the other hand, WoW is at this point a very underwhelming game from a graphics standpoint and it still requires a good amount of RAM to run smoothly.
While D3 won't really challenge the PS3 or 360 GPU's, as an open world game, it will challenge their 512MB of RAM and therefore would probably bring the Wii to its knees.
The Baron @ Aug 21st 2009 10:57PM
Classic WoW is fine, WotLK on the other hand..
The game still holds up because it's cartoony. But the problem is on the higher settings Northrend will kill even a Crysis-maxing PC just because of how badly optimised it is, without even looking much better to show for the performance hit.
Quiggy @ Aug 21st 2009 11:06PM
@Spartacus: You're confusing memory and storage. The Wii has 512 MB of storage space, and only 88 MB of RAM. It also has a 3 MB GPU buffer. For comparison the 360 has 512 MB of RAM, while the PS3 has 256 MB of RAM and 256 MB of VRAM. Consoles do require a lot less RAM than a computer since they don't have overhead from the operating system to deal with.
That said, I see no reason why a graphically paired-down version of D3 couldn't run on Wii. It doesn't take that much memory to store level data, the issue is in the graphics. I doubt that Blizzard would do that though.
Discotheque @ Aug 21st 2009 6:32PM
That's good news. Lets just hope this doesn't resort to them stripping features or going through radical design changes just to appease the console owners.
Clint @ Aug 21st 2009 6:33PM
That would be sweet
Yan @ Aug 21st 2009 6:34PM
From the computer room to the living room. Either way, I'm going to be losing a whole lot of sleep over the same reason.
Captain Craphead @ Aug 21st 2009 6:39PM
Would be sweet. Starcraft on Virtual Console and Warcraft 2 and Diablo on PSN would awesome too.
Captain Craphead @ Aug 21st 2009 6:40PM
Woopsie, forgot to add "be" in the sentence. Ah well, you get my point...
Vidikron @ Aug 21st 2009 6:40PM
I love Diablo so much I'd likely buy it for both PC and console.
343 Guilty Fart @ Aug 21st 2009 6:40PM
Picard says: "Make it so!"
Dr.House @ Aug 21st 2009 6:44PM
Anyone truly excited will get it for PC regardless. The way the game is designed you won't get the same feel without a mouse and keyboard.
Spartacus @ Aug 21st 2009 7:15PM
It would be a tough choice for me.
On the one hand, it IS a PC game and it would be weird for me to play a Diablo game without destroying the left mouse button.
On the other hand, my only PC atm is my nearly four year old laptop (dual core 2.6GHz, 2GB RAM, geforce 7800 GTX) and I need more gamerpoints, lol. If they offer "rewardables" for the 360, that would sway me even more. Can you imagine your avatar sporting Diablo gear?!
Slust @ Aug 21st 2009 6:47PM
Very interesting indeed.
I mean, I'm going to buy it on the PC. But I might also buy it for the PS3?
I think the control scheme could be adapted well to a controller. Hopefully the buttons are capable of button binding, because I already know how I'd want it to play out. But it sounds intriguing!
Austin @ Aug 22nd 2009 3:56PM
Sacred 2 (a shameless D2 knockoff) was ported to ps3 and 360 this year. Despite some glaring flaws in the game, the controller mapping is actually quite good.
PSN: Puselva @ Aug 21st 2009 6:52PM
Everyone seems to be forgetting the PS3 has keyboard and mouse support...
Spartacus @ Aug 21st 2009 7:18PM
Yeah, but Blizzard would be shooting themselves in the foot if they went that route. They'll have to optimize for the pad first, then possibly allow M+KB support.
Jeff @ Aug 21st 2009 6:56PM
cool
Faceman @ Aug 21st 2009 6:57PM
YES!!!! fuck it I'm ready to sign off another 6 months of my life to a Diablo game!!!
alexanderpink @ Aug 21st 2009 6:57PM
That would be sweet! Diablo 2 was one of my favorite games, so much so that like many others I have played it many times through over the years. I bet Diablo 3 could be done well on the console, like sacred 2 and Two Worlds (yes, I actually liked two worlds).
SupaB @ Aug 21st 2009 6:59PM
Ps3 for games and blu-ray, Computers for porn, X-box...? red ring of death I guess!
The Baron @ Aug 21st 2009 10:58PM
Fanboy comments for downvotes?
dAnixx @ Aug 22nd 2009 9:20AM
He's got a point actually. Why no porn on consoles?
(01) @ Aug 22nd 2009 11:32AM
Well, you can watch porn on consoles and surf the tubes for it as well... For me, game and animated porn just looks wrong, but to each their own I guess.
Jacksons @ Aug 21st 2009 7:17PM
I'll stick to the PC for this one. Channels for trading and other things are much better handled with a keyboard.
Spartacus @ Aug 21st 2009 7:20PM
I don't know, the PS3 has keyboard support and the chat pad on the 360 is pretty useful.
Not disagreeing with you, but I don't think it would be a deal buster for me just on that account as there are ways around it.
Snowblind @ Aug 22nd 2009 6:15AM
Keyboards work on both the PS3 and 360, but voice chat is dominant and widely used by most 360 players, which is a lot easier. Saves having to stop what you're doing to type.
Professor Lario @ Aug 21st 2009 7:23PM
Sacred 2 does the Diablo style gameplay pretty well on the consoles using the controller.
I would love to see Diablo on the consoles!!
Steve @ Aug 22nd 2009 1:41PM
Baldur's Gate and Champions of Norrath (apologies if spelt incorrectly) worked fine on PS2, can't think why Diablo wouldn't on PS3.
ids @ Aug 21st 2009 10:00PM
It would be nice to see it come consoles. But all i am asking for it first to come to pc and then to consoles. Don't let it be released at the same time. If they do it take even more time to get the dam game out. Honestly if it takes them anthor year 2011 i am just done with blizzard over all.
Dishwasher @ Aug 21st 2009 9:15PM
if they like moeny they will.
tmacairjordan87 @ Aug 21st 2009 10:57PM
Well they better hurry up and figure out if they're gonna do it, cause I don't want to waste money on a new computer if they're just going to release it on consoles.