Multiple new job ads show that Blizzard Entertainment is hiring leads to develop Diablo III for consoles, a surprising development from a studio known for its commitment to PC gaming.
Diablo III was confirmed for PC in June 2008, with no mention of console versions. Previous Diablo games have been primarily focused on the PC, though the original Diablo did get a PlayStation port in 1998, well after its January 1997 PC release.
The developer, also behind World of Warcraft and StarCraft, is hiring "lead designer, console," "lead programmer, console" and "senior producer, console." The newly-posted positions are under "Diablo III." Gamasutra has contacted Blizzard for comment on the new ads.
The job ad for lead designer on the console version of the game says that ideal candidates have "prior experience in console game development" and an "extensive knowledge of Diablo." The lead programmer ad looks for "an experienced engineer to lead console development on the Diablo team."
The original Diablo launched in 1996 and saw expansions as well as a sequel, Diablo II. Blizzard said in 2008 that the franchise has sold 18.5 million copies.
Diablo III for PC does not yet have a firm release date, but has been deep into development at least as of its unveiling in 2008, according to Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime.
"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," the post reads. "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."
"Please note that this is not an announcement of a console title," the post continues. "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."]
The fact that Blizzard is hiring a Console team shouldn't be surprising. Starcratft: Ghost was originally planned for the Xbox and consoles, but was canceled.
It's not like Blizzard hasn't considered or attempted console development before. They've simply focused on the PC platform. Their foray into console is pretty inevitable, the real question is when they'll give console development real attention, instead of another Starcraft: Ghost attempt.
For all we know, a jobs listed under Diablo 3 could point to another project by Blizzard to create a game based on the Diablo franchise for the consoles, just like SC: Ghost was for the Starcraft franchise.
If it isn't a port for Diablo 3, could they be doing a Hack & Slash game based on Diablo? I could see that being pretty fun actually :P.
My main concern is how they will approach BNET on consoles. Maybe some kind of Valve-Steam deal to bring D3 to consoles? Fragmented comunities from consoles are not something Blizzard likes to deal with.
If Valve can convince Sony to allow for Steam on PS3 then Blizzard can convince Sony to allow for BN2.0 on PS3. As for Live, that's another question...
Greatest challenge of a console Diablo would be change the camera to support multiple players on the same screen. Split or online-only would really hurt the game.
Champions of Norrath did this really well. I agree that split screen is not necessarily the best option for an Action RPG.. Playing together on the same screen makes what Champions of Norrath did work really well, which was not to split the screen for multiple players.
Well Blizzard is one of those devs that do not make graphical extensive games that couldn't be done on consoles, so porting to consoles is only natural.
The only things i want from D3 is for the net code to be better than D2 and for the game to be at least close to as good as D2s Lord of Destruction expansion.
I think the gameplay would suit consoles just fine; but -- perhaps just because not much of a console gamer -- I can't fathom not playing Diablo III with a mouse.
Especially for ranged weapons, I can't really work out a decent way that would be controlled via controller.
I'm sure if anyone could do it well, it would be Blizzard. But I just can't imagine it myself.
They can, though (work out a method to control it).
Again Champions of Norrath implemented Action RPG on the console very well.
Assuming they have decent designers, their job is to think of ways to translate game play that players can't (as you admitted yourself). Even God of War did its limited ranged attack fairly well but that's a slightly different look and feel from Diablo.
Champions and its sequel did it rather well, though. It's hard to imagine taking Champions of Norrath and playing it with a mouse, but what you'd have basically is Diablo.
Think more along the lines of Gauntlet. It's easy to see how it can and probably iwll be done. You just have to think outside what you're used to seeing. For a person that played arcade and console games before pc games were popular it's pretty obvious, but for folks that mainly just played pc games it's not so obvious (vice versa as well :-)..
I don't think putting it on console would boost sales rather it might simply split the sales to pc/360/ps3, so I'm not really sure why they would do so. If it was a PC exclusive most people who have consoles will get it on PC anyway. I know they tried that with Diablo 1 by releasing it on PSone but I'm not sure how that went. Anyone mind changing my opinion on this?
It's not like Blizzard hasn't considered or attempted console development before. They've simply focused on the PC platform. Their foray into console is pretty inevitable, the real question is when they'll give console development real attention, instead of another Starcraft: Ghost attempt.
For all we know, a jobs listed under Diablo 3 could point to another project by Blizzard to create a game based on the Diablo franchise for the consoles, just like SC: Ghost was for the Starcraft franchise.
If it isn't a port for Diablo 3, could they be doing a Hack & Slash game based on Diablo? I could see that being pretty fun actually :P.
The only things i want from D3 is for the net code to be better than D2 and for the game to be at least close to as good as D2s Lord of Destruction expansion.
Especially for ranged weapons, I can't really work out a decent way that would be controlled via controller.
I'm sure if anyone could do it well, it would be Blizzard. But I just can't imagine it myself.
Again Champions of Norrath implemented Action RPG on the console very well.
Assuming they have decent designers, their job is to think of ways to translate game play that players can't (as you admitted yourself). Even God of War did its limited ranged attack fairly well but that's a slightly different look and feel from Diablo.
Champions and its sequel did it rather well, though. It's hard to imagine taking Champions of Norrath and playing it with a mouse, but what you'd have basically is Diablo.
Think more along the lines of Gauntlet. It's easy to see how it can and probably iwll be done. You just have to think outside what you're used to seeing. For a person that played arcade and console games before pc games were popular it's pretty obvious, but for folks that mainly just played pc games it's not so obvious (vice versa as well :-)..