Could Diablo III be coming to your consoles? Maybe not, but something very much like it certainly could.
Update: The Diablo III community site has been updated to reflect the interest in these new job postings – and console owners shouldn’t start dreaming of unique items and health orbs just yet:
We’re exploring a Diablo-related concept for consoles and are currently looking to fill a few senior console-related positions on the Diablo III team. As we’ve said in the past, with proper care the gameplay could suit the console platform, and we’re interested in seeing what talent out there might be interested in such a project. If you’re passionate about all things Diablo and have the requisite skill and experience, then head over to our jobs site to check out the positions and apply.
Please note that this is not an announcement of a console title. We are first and foremost developing Diablo III for Windows and Mac PCs and don’t intend to allow any possibility of a console interpretation to delay or affect the release of the game.
Personally, I’m just glad that it won’t cause the game’s development to take any longer than it already has. I want this game, like, yesterday.
The original post is preserved in its entirety below:
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A collection of job offers on the Blizzard site indicates that Diablo III may be on its way to your living room, and not just your computer.
Development powerhouse Blizzard is known as one of the few major studios remaining that focuses its aim solely on the PC, as more and more studios jump on the multiplatform wagon. It makes sense, really, given that each of its three “pillar” franchises are best suited to the platform: StarCraft is an RTS, Warcraft is an RTS and an MMO, and in Diablo you click on all of the things all the time.
That may be changing. Gamasutra noticed multiple new job listings on the Blizzard career site under the Diablo III heading, including: “Lead Designer, Console; Lead Programmer, Console; [and] Senior Producer, Console.” The implications are obvious – even if Blizzard isn’t planning on releasing Diablo III for consoles just yet, somebody at the Irvine-based developer is definitely thinking about it.
It isn’t like this development is completely unheralded, either – Blizzard representatives have been adamant that the developer intends to return to console development someday (in a return to the days of Rock N’ Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings) for quite some time now. D3 lead Jay Wilson said that Diablo would be the easiest of their franchises to port to consoles, and the developer had in fact acknowledged the possibility as far back as the game’s reveal in 2008. It wouldn’t be the first time the series had appeared on console, either – EA published the original Diablo on the PS1 back in the day.
I’d personally be wary about how such a port might work. Part of the charm of the Diablo series is the rapid-fire carpal-tunnel-inducing “click on everything forever” style of gameplay, a style that is very much at home in the sequel as it exists now. How does that work with a thumbstick and face buttons?
Still, if Diablo III could be properly ported to consoles with a control scheme that made sense, I’d be all for it. It’s shaping up to be a great game, and the more people that get to play it on the Xbox 720 and PS4 when it eventually comes out in 2018, the better.
(Via Gamasutra)
