Blizzard: “We’d happily put a game on console if it played well on console”

As one of the few gaming companies making good games for PC I have a mixed bag about this. I would love some good Blizzard games on consolles but at the same time there is so little realy good games on PC that I kinda want em to stick with that.

Consoles have terrible control schemes. Up, down, left, right just doesn’t match just clicking the icon you want to select, or the monster to attack, or the spell to use. Up, down, left, right is primitive at best. These games just don’t work well without a mouse.

To add: Playing Diablo III on the consoles would be like trying to navigate Windows or Mac using only the keyboard.

I first played Diablo 1 on the Playstation, and the control scheme was actually superior to the original PC version.

Diablo isn’t exactly Baldur’s Gate or Starcraft. In fact, Diablo is relatively infamous for its carpal tunnel causing PC control scheme. Moving directionally actually suits the game just fine and is much easier on the fingers over the course of long hours, despite the protestations of the nostalgic hardcore (almost none of whom actually played the original PC game). Inventory management and skill mapping is a little slower, of course, but hot button use is actually easier.

Which is why Cullen (and the rest of the planet) is saying “DIABLO 3 DIABLO 3 DIABLO 3 DIABLO 3″ when Blizzard drops a really obvious hint like this.

*cough* Starcraft Ghost *cough*

I agree with Hitnrun. No matter how much the PC fanboys want to argue, realistically from a controls alone standpoint, there is no reason whatsoever as to why Diablo 3 wouldnt work on console.

Euh guys, Diablo defined mouse clicking, I don’t know many console games able to trash a controller because it’s used so intensively by the player. It’s perfect for a top-down game and has the same precision advantage as with FPS control schemes.

Agreed that hack & slash can work (to some extent) on consoles as Dark Alliance and such have proven but the fear is that any developer, even Blizzard, trying to do so will make compromises for the PC version, as has happened so many times in the past years that it’s borderline criminal.

Rather PC-only (and with rather low system specs, it’s still Blizzard) than a full-on multiplatform title. It has been proven time and again that going multiplatform is only detrimental for the true potential of every version, not just the PC version. Also, we would have to wait longer as delaying console versions after the PC version isn’t efficient and simply isn’t done anymore these days.

@blizzard. uuum, duh!

@6 Because noobs like you never played Diablo in PVP or serious matches.

Playing D2 or future D3 without hotkeys is almost stupid as playing Starcraft II on consoles.

Realistically you can play SCII or Total War on consoles but this is not the same experience. Not the same.

Where did i say the experience would be the same? I said that the controls would be perfectly passable, i never said the controls would be blow for blow identical.

And you can have hotkeys on console, just off the top of my head i can think of a way to have up to 16 hotkeys on a 360/PS3 pad. Its not fucking rocket science, you can always find ways to work round something.

“you can always find ways to work round something” No! u can not make a Renault run like a Ferrari!

starcraft, diablo and wow all blow chunks. i hope they don’t put it on console because the day they do ima have to delete anyone off my friends list i see playing a blizzard game.

Absolutely, Gekidami. There’s no reason that it wouldn’t, and Blizzard’s statement reads ever hollow, the more times they recycle it.

I think a game like diablo would lend itself quite well to a controller form of input? Maybe not competitavely against another player…where micro is really important, but for trapsing through a dungeon on your own I would prefer to be sat with a controller on the sofa, rather than a keyboard

I wonder if D3 will allow me to code/script some input stuff for a 360 controller?

Also, I think a macro capable style UI would be pretty cool for a game like this. ie, I am able to program (using drag and drop tools) that when my characters HP is below 25%, 3 buttons on my UI change from spells A to spells B, allowing me to heal myself back up, or use a potion, before changing back to AOE style spells. Just a thought

Consoles are shite! Period.

@16 You’re not even trying anymore, are you?

I just have to laugh at the brainwashed and dying race called pc gamers out there. Diablo 3 would work perfect on a console, even better I think.

Games like Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance 2 and many more prove that realy easy.

The future of gaming is on consoles, you may not like it but thats where we are heading either you like it or not.

@18, The future is never certain.

The future of gaming may well be the cloud, which could very well kill of consoles very swiftly.

Therefore I must call bullshit on your assessment.

Taken in the right direction the right pc setup could be the ultimate livingroom media hub, including gaming. Just needs a group of individuals with the vision and the balls to cast Microsoft aside…

@19 Cloud gaming use a little console you connect to your tv, On Live uses this. So in the end a console in one way or other is probably the future.

Little media hubs and consoles have taken over the ultimate livingroom media hub for a long long time ago. Who needs or wants a pc in the livingroom anymore?

If todays consoles had better media support they would alone be the perfect solution. But as most use mkv files for HD most people use other little mediahubs. Dont know anyone anymore that as a pc as a media hub in the livingroom…that just so 1990…

@20, so backward minded. Right now onlive uses a pc The onlive “console” (which isn’t even available yet) is little more than a box with an Ethernet port and a tv out.

But anyhoo, the idea of having a clutter of boxes under the tv is entirely backward. Why should I have different boxes for different media types if I can have a server that sits upstairs or anywhere completely out of sight and delivers gaming, audio, video, tv, pvr functionality to anywhere in my house?

It would work perfectly well on consoles. But since Blizzard is as fast as a snail we will probably never see them release a console game.

“ima have to delete anyone off my friends list i see playing a blizzard game”

lol yeah I’m sure they’d be heartbroken…

There are still a worrying amount of people on consoles (especially Xbox in my experience) that are still dead set against the “Thou art swords and dragons” setting. All they want is shit to shoot in the face, not a story or a bit of fantasy. I reckon ONE blizzard game on console could change all that and really remove some of the old stereotypes.
*/hopes*

@23 god dammit your gone asshole lol

So this wouldn’t work on a ps3 say, because a Dualshock can’t do all the point and click jiggery pokery of a mouse huh? *looks at Move controller* hmmm…

I don’t see any reason why a game like Diablo couldn’t work just fine on console, tbh. Maybe it wouldn’t be the same, maybe it wouldn’t be as good, but maybe it would still be just fine?

I’m not entirely sure why the PC crowd seem so terrified of a Blizzard game making it onto a console anyway – Blizzard are never going to skimp on their PC versions regardless of whether console games are part of their future or not.

Regardless, the XBLA/PSN versions of Torchlight should be interesting to see. If Runic can make that work then D3 should be no problem, no?

Sacred 2 is a perfect example of how a Diablo clone with tons of lootery and clickery can work perfectly fine with a console controller ( except, apparently, if you’re a diehard RSI-hardened PC fan with plum tomatoes for thumbs who refuses to accept that things they don’t *like* aren’t automatically universally *shit*).

EDIT: and yes @25 Move would be the perfect device for this.

@16

Go home.