Blizzard community manager Micah Whiple has said that Blizzard is working on a console version of the upcoming action-RPG Diablo III.
The question was posed via Twitter by user TaNGoIX, who asked: “can you confirm or deny Diablo 3 coming to consoles? Thanks.”
Whiple replied: “Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project.”
Proof!
Console gamers better start doing thumb pushups in preparation for the epic trial that the index fingers of PC gamers have known since the first Diablo title launched back in 1996.
Revealing such information via twitter seems rather out of character for Blizzard, who usually take the “until it’s announced in a press briefing, nothing is true” approach.
However, the Diablo III console project isn’t really a huge surprise, as Blizzard has been talking about it for quite some time, stopping short of saying anything “official.”
Also rather telling is a recent job posting on the Blizzard website, seeking a game systems designer for console, who should have “Familiarity with Diablo and other Blizzard Entertainment products” and “Live and breathe console video games, and role playing video games (RPGs)”.
Let’s face it; of all the Blizzard games out there, the mechanics of Diablo probably lend themselves most easily to a console controller.
Diablo III beta - Wizard vs Skeleton King
Josh Mosqueira was a game designer at Relic Entertainment, and worked on the fantastic Company of Heroes games. He also held the position of creative director at Ubisoft Montreal. He is currently a lead game designer at Blizzard – so it seems the console brethren are in safe hands.
Of course, there is still no official confirmation of Diablo III coming to consoles, let alone platform specifics and a release date – we don’t even have an official PC version release date; current rumours peg it for Q1 2012, but that could just be wishful thinking.
Diablo III on consoles could turn out to be an experiment by Blizzard that gets scrapped in the long run. Anyone remember WarCraft Adventures and StarCraft Ghost?
Sources: twitter, Blizzard
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Not sure I’d want to play Diablo with a controller however I’m sure there are others out there so why not.
I don’t really intend on playing D3 though because of the forced online bits (i.e. I’d prefer to give a bash at a trial before I fork over the asking price without knowing that it’ll be a smooth experience) but if I think back to D2 and having to it on a console I reckon it would have sucked…so I’m assuming their enhancements/simplifications (inventory management?) would make it more viable now though. Interesting I guess…I’m hoping that they do provide an offline mode for the console version as it may mean an offline mode will be patched into the PC version too then – sadly though I think I have more chance of winning the Lotto.