Blizzard dilutes Diablo 3 console confirmation

By Robert Purchese Published 11 January, 2012

Not a no, but a sort of maybe yes kind of.

Halt excitement - Blizzard apparently didn't confirm console Diablo 3 yesterday.

When Blizzard community manager Marc "Bashiok" Whiple was asked on Twitter, "Can you confirm or deny Diablo 3 coming to consoles?", his answer - "Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project." - didn't mean what it looked like it meant.

Explained Blizzard in a statement: "Bashiok's response on Twitter was intended as a confirmation that we're actively exploring the possibility of developing a console version of Diablo 3, as we've mentioned in the past.

"This is not a confirmation that Diablo 3 is coming to any console platform.

"Our focus right now is on finishing the PC/Mac version of Diablo 3 and making sure it's a worthwhile successor to the Diablo series."

Marc Whipple took to Twitter to relay a similar message.

"'Yup' wasn't meant to be an announcement," he tweeted. "We're still exploring a console version, but more importantly working on the PC/Mac version."

Why is Blizzard toying with our hopes and dreams so? There are a variety of possible explanations.

Blizzard prefers to announce a game when there's something solid to show and to demonstrate. Cast your mind back to the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in 2008 and the Diablo 3 announcement - we were shown a cinematic trailer, a long gameplay video and screenshots, not simply served a teasing announcement.

Blizzard was only spotted advertising for a console team in late 2010 - is there really a Diablo 3 console project up and running to the studio's famous high standards already?

Blizzard may not have even decided on final platforms for the project yet - it could conceivably be a next generation title. Would it make sense to spend considerable time and effort assembling a team and game for consoles soon to be outdated?

The next generation may better suit Battle.net, too - the glue that binds Blizzard's games together on PC. Many MMOs or ambitious online games have stumbled and fallen at the closed Xbox Live hurdle. Microsoft may rethink this for the next generation. Or, Microsoft may temporarily lower it to secure a famous developer like Blizzard and Diablo 3 as a Next Xbox exclusive. There's a compelling bargaining chip there.

Blizzard could have chosen not to announce Diablo 3 on console because the game may have a different name. Significant changes could prompt Blizzard to differentiate the project.

Or Blizzard could simply be being stubborn, and prefer to focus attention Diablo 3 PC/Mac (still without a release date) before muddying the PR waters by waffling on about a console project.

Should a Diablo 3 console announcement be coming, it will likely be at BlizzCon 2012 this autumn.

One thing's for sure: Blizzard won't be rushed.

A pretty pretty Diablo 3 cinematic.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 4 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DrStrangelove #1 4 months ago

    Would it make sense to spend considerable time and effort assembling a team and game for consoles soon to be outdated?
    I guess so, it means there's a huge user base, many many potential customers.

  • TheN7Spectre #2 4 months ago

    Don't they like money?

  • eviroboy #3 4 months ago

    In other words they jumped the gun on an announcement of it being a Wii U exclusive.

  • unacomn #4 4 months ago

    I'm not sure why the confirmation of the console version was even news. Blizzard said at BlizzCon that they are working on it, but they won't announce that it will actually be released until they're sure they can pull it off with a high standard of quality.

  • Inmediasress #5 4 months ago

    I'm guessing it will be a next gen console release or a Diablo MMO for consoles.
    Then again I don't feel praticularly excited about Dio3 release for PC either, too many shenanigans goign on with a game that loooks rather bland.

  • Apaar #6 4 months ago

    I think this was all an inane media over reaction and nothing else. That original tweet by Bashiok was basically a simple reiteration of mostly old information that the media seemingly willfully understood wrongly just in order to create traffic.

  • Shikasama #7 4 months ago

    I sort of hope it doesn't. I'd prefer the Torchlight guys tog rab that little slice of the market.

  • Eldritch #8 4 months ago

    Would it make sense to spend considerable time and effort assembling a team and game for consoles soon to be outdated?
    How much sense does that Mac version make then financially? I'm quite sure the ROI for 360 and PS3 must be quite okay.

  • paketep #9 4 months ago

    Very pathethic.

    Not that I expect anything other than pathethic coming from Blizz and their minions nowadays.

  • Subdominator #10 4 months ago

    @Shikasama Problem is that for whatever reason Runic chose to develop Torchlight 2 only for PC/Mac. Runic just confirmed it yesterday again on Twitter, no 360 version, if they decide to do one they'll start after the release of the game. It's quite surprising really because of the huge success that Torchlight XBLA was.

  • subedii #11 4 months ago

    I seem to have been noticing a trend over the past week whenever pretty much any PC-related article crops up.


    PC game ported to console? "ROFL PC GAMING DOOOMED, ALL GOOD STUFF GOES TO CONSOLES SEE?!!!"

    Console game ported to PC? "ROFL PC GAMING DOOOMED, ALL GOOD STUFF IS FROM CONSOLES SEE?!!!"


    So I dunno, are we done with this yet? And perhaps just possibly accept the wider an audience a game has, the better?

    It doesn't hurt your little e-peen if a title doesn't appear on just one platform. And since we're going there, it's typically not a death-knell either if it does for that matter.
    Edited by subedii at 11/01/12 @ 17:03

  • fragglerocks #12 4 months ago

    One thing's for sure: Blizzard won't be rushed.
    This x 1000
    Come on Blizzard just give us a release date for the PC version already!

  • Jmog #13 4 months ago

    Apparently Runic can't get the game to run due to lack of RAM on the consoles. I think they said something like that when asked about a console version a while back.

  • arcam #14 4 months ago

    Post deleted at 17:15:14 11-01-2012

  • subedii #15 4 months ago

    @Jmog That's not it. Basically the memory issue is how physically big the game in, which means that it cannot be released on XBLA, but would have to be a standalone release.

    Torchlight is a game that can be configured to run on a netbook (literally, there is a netbook mode), and IIRC they want similar for the sequel.

  • ZuluHero #16 4 months ago

    TBH, the response was a bit vague. I had to read it quite a few times before I read it the way Eurogamer interpreted it.

    The answer to me looked more like a misdirection to the question.

  • Golgo #17 4 months ago

    The 'announcement' yesterday led to such rabid console vs. PC ravings on the comments list that I was actually embarrassed on behalf of some of commentators. I wonder what idiocies this updated news will throw up? Let's see...

  • Ternon #18 4 months ago

    Too bad Diablo 3 has such a primitive outdated combat system and graphics compared to Dungeon Siege 3.

    How can anyone go from Dungeon Siege 3 to the primitive combat system of Diablo 3?
    Not to mention Amalur...

  • WeakOrbit #19 4 months ago

    Just pre-ordered the collectors edition today in at gamestop. They reckon it won't be there until March.

    Can't wait though!

  • LOLBox #20 4 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:35:41 22-05-2012

  • JayG #21 4 months ago

    March, same month as Mass Effect 2, Darkness 2 and Max Payne 3, either feast or a famine. Then as a lad who prefers solo player in these types of games might pick up the console version instead.

  • HardcoreGR #22 4 months ago

    the useless info of the day

  • Subdominator #23 4 months ago

    @subedii Considering the first didn't even reach 200 MB it's hard to believe the second one, which looks quite similar, should struggle with the 2GB limit.

    And it isn't, see this old news:

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-04-torchlight-2-is-too-big-for-xbla

    First few lines. So they just make the levels too big to keep them in Ram on the consoles.

  • Nephirion #24 4 months ago

    Just finish the PC release, I mean how long does it take to make a isometric dungeon crawler?

  • Ramboness #25 4 months ago

    Did he not boldly state that they at blizzard were looking for a console department, good one.. way to go blizzard!I smell something fishy in the article and the last one.

  • bobfish09 #26 4 months ago

    I would assume they are still building the console team and aren't prepared to commit at this point in time.

  • geeza2020 #27 4 months ago

    WTF? The last half of this "news" item is just a load of guff being spouted about "if's" "but's" "whys" and "could"'s. Why are you asking me these questions EG? You're supposed to be telling me the answers to these questions, not just randomly spouting shite to get page hits.

    Come back when you've actually got some news, this is sub NotW trash reporting.

  • Mindstorm #28 4 months ago

    @Nephirion I agree, it seems this game has been in development for far too long anyway, and honestly I don't care much about any additional feature they might add, unless they get the "isometric dungeon crawler" thing right as it should be for a Diablo game.

  • Lord_Gremlin #29 4 months ago

    There were previously news of them hiring PS3 specialists. They are making a PS3 port, since Sony allows third party stuff on PS3. Such as steamworks, ubisoft Uplay etc.
    Knowing Blizzard they will announce it no sooner then they'll have fully playable PS3 build to demonstrate.
    Robert Purchese seem to like Microsoft. And fails to follow the whole story from the beginning.

    Anyway, I'm wondering just how much freedom Sony will give them? Are we facing a possibility of a console game requiring a constant internet connection?