Diablo III may come to consoles

[Shuji1987]

Blizzard’s Diablo 3 experiments: “Oh, this feels even better with direct control”​

Everyone knows what classic Diablo plays like, but Blizzard has never been afraid to experiment. Part of that process for Diablo 3 involved looking at different control systems – up to and including seeing how the action would work with an Xbox 360 controller, or how its demon-slaying might play on consoles.

Yes. Diablo 3. On an Xbox controller. Read on to find out how Diablo 3?s game director feels about that.

“We don’t see ourselves as a PC developer – we see ourselves as a game developer. It’s just that the games that we wanted to make suit the PC platform,” game director Jay Wilson told us. “We don’t believe you can make a Starcraft style RTS and make it Blizzard great on a console. We do believe you could make an RTS that would be on a console, but we would have (to have) that idea, and that spark and that passion to make it.

“One of the reasons why we’re exploring the idea of a console version of Diablo 3 because we feel that the controls and the style of the game lend itself to a console. With some of our early experiments in putting a direct control scheme into the game via a 360-like analogue controller, I’ve been ‘Oh this feels even better, with direct control…’”

Don’t panic though. This doesn’t mean Diablo 3 itself is giving up its classic mouse controls, a la Dungeon Siege 3. It does speak to the chance of other versions further down the road though, which could even benefit the PC. “I can pretty much guarantee that if we decide to do a console version that we will look to support a pad on the PC,” says Wilson. “But initially with release I don’t think we’ll be ready.”[/p]

Source.

 

[Hadrian]

They've been saying this ever since they announced the game.

 

[Rydian]

@subtitle; that's what she said

It's not really surprising. I've used Joy2Key to map my PS2 controller to PC game controls more than once before, some PC games play just fine with joypad input.

 

[kevan]

Waiting for inevitable "OMG THEY RUINED IT" comment.

 

[Hells Malice]

...lol.
That wont work very well. But it's not surprising. There aren't a log of RPGs that are better on PC, but MMO and especially Diablo style games do NOT work on a controller.

I hope to god this happens so PC and 360 can play together. For PvP lulz more than anything.

 

[FAST6191]

Their snubbing LAN play and.... interesting thoughts regarding DRM have soured me on diablo 3 but this would not have even registered as something "odd" and frankly still does not seem odd if for no other reason than loads of mouse killers have made for great console ports (indeed diablo 1 is available for the playstation). Were I to be slightly more cynical today I would have called publicity stunt.

 

[clegion]

I agree with the above poster, Diablo 3 doesn't look that appealing currently, it seems that I have changed taste?

 

[Aether]

That wont work very well. But it's not surprising. There aren't a log of RPGs that are better on PC, but MMO and especially Diablo style games do NOT work on a controller.

Have you ever played Torchlight on the 360? It works surprisingly good for a 'diablo like' game.

 

[imz]

I'm pretty sure they ported the first Diablo to PSX, i never played it but it must be possible then

 

[gamerjr]

Can anyone hear activision saying these words and not blizzard?

 

[gumgod]

I hope they don't delay it just so they can make a crappy console version.

 

[Nathan Drake]

I'm pretty sure they ported the first Diablo to PSX, i never played it but it must be possible then

They did, I owned it, and it played well.

 

[awssk8er]

If all the versions are able to play together... that would be pretty neat.

Not sure if I'm going to get the game anyway. If I were to, I'd get the PC version hands down.

 

[FAST6191]

Re console vs PC I am not sure. I played a few diablo mods back when but they were nothing special compared to some of the stuff I saw for other games. On the flip side piling a couple of people in front of a TV and/or LAN for a spell of bauldur's gate dark alliance or similar titles works really well for me and mine.

@gamerjr if so more power to them; publishers having a positive impact is always desirable.

 

[Sterling]

They may be following suit and doing something like Dungeon Siege III. I know for a fact that DSIII transited very well.

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

There's nothing wrong with exploring alternative control methods. In fact, I think it'll make the game more accessible if it were released on consoles/ allows game pad control input.

 

[ferofax]

...lol.
That wont work very well. But it's not surprising. There aren't a log of RPGs that are better on PC, but MMO and especially Diablo style games do NOT work on a controller.

I hope to god this happens so PC and 360 can play together. For PvP lulz more than anything.

I really doubt cross-platforming on this one, because PC version will almost always have more patches/bug fixes, and for them to also keep the 360 version up to date like that would mean another team dedicated to replicating the PC changes and translating them to XBOX360 changes.

But Diablo style games not working on a controller? How about Diablo 1 for the PSX? Did that not work as well? From my very extensive experience with that game, I'll have to disagree. There's tons of diablo clones on other platforms as well (most especially the DS, with its touchscreen), how about those? How about Untold Legends for the PSP? How about Dungeon Explorer, Soma Bringer, and a myriad of other titles for the Nintendo DS?

Don't be so quick to disregard those.

Heck, the upcoming Heroes of Ruins title follows the Diablo formula, even going so far as looking like Torchlight on a handheld (and people who are familiar with Torchlight knows that it's the closest thing to Diablo 3 so far).

 

[Gahars]

The game doesn't really interest me, to be honest, but I'm sure this will be nice news to console users who want the Diablo experience.

Though really, considering how specialized this type of game would be for a PC, anyone who wants to play it would probably be better off sticking to that.

 

[DeadLocked]

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Diablo-3-PlayS...news-11420.html
amirite?

 

[FAST6191]

From DeadLocked's link

"at least 1 AAA title shipped for the PS3"
I guess "AAA title" is an accepted term now?

@ferofax when I look back at covering the patches and updates for the 360 I would often look to the PC and PS3 versions for a proper changelog (MS does not require a public one).

"considering how specialized this type of game would be for a PC"
I do not see it; loads of games like this have appeared on the consoles- baldur's gate dark alliances 1 and 2, a couple of gauntlet titles, whatever else the dark alliance engine got used in, XBLA recently got a D and D title (granted it was slated but control issues were not one of the mentioned things), the 360 got a decent port of sacred 2 and I could go on and/or twist it to variations on the theme (true top down is getting rarer but more action/button combo stuff is riding high- indeed (thankfully for me) many modern RPGs are heading down that path). Granted nothing much has quite approached diablo levels of time killing (usually for a lack of similarly in depth multiplayer) but that is neither here nor there for the purposes of this debate.
There are plenty of genres with accepted control schemes that fail to work well on consoles (complex/modern RTS for one- some of the console ports of cannon fodder and dune worked quite well for me) or fail to work quite as well (for the sake of flamebait I will call FPS titles) but for this it is certainly different but with the possible exception of potion selection I would not call it worse. In fact the nail in the coffin of that argument for me is these games were born in the arcades.