Back in 2011, plans were made to create the ultimate Diablo III website centered around the real-money auction house, and so D3RMT was born (for those who are not aware, D3RMT stands for Diablo III Real-Money Trade.) As time went on, we found that we did not want to be just a website about the auction house, but rather be the one-stop place for news, guides, community, and more. It only makes sense that we update ourselves to a more appropriate name, one that conveys a message of who we truly are. After hours of thinking and names being tossed around, we finally came up with DiabloHub. So update your bookmarks, tell your friends, and continue having fun!
With the name change comes an increased focus on our guides and events sections.
Blizzard has been hinting towards a console release of Diablo 3 for quite some time. Back in December, they mentioned that they already had a version running on unspecified consoles. However, the official announcement of the PlayStation 3 & 4 release has provoked a negative reaction among players. This announcement came as a shock to many, and the idea that Diablo 3 has been “dumbed down†for consoles is being discussed on forums everywhere. A common concern amongst members of these forums is that Blizzard has sold out since their merge with Activision, and that releasing Diablo 3 on consoles is not what the old Blizzard would do. If you take a moment and look at the big picture, the games in the Diablo series, among other ARPGs, have always been a good fit for consoles. Blizzard Entertainment actually started as a console developer with titles such as Lost Vikings and Blackthorne. The first Diablo title was a huge hit on the original PlayStation when it was released back in 1998, and after Diablo 2 was released the developers planned on making a Diablo Junior game for the Game Boy Advance. The project has long been scrapped, but what we do know about it is that Blizzard wanted to release three variations of the game, each one featuring a different hero. The ability to trade across game versions (similar to the Pokémon series) was to be a major focal point of the game. The only footage available of Diablo Junior is from a very early alpha version of the game.
The idea that Diablo 3 will suffer because of a console port is a bit of a stretch to make. Starcraft being ported to the Nintendo 64 didn't ruin it, did it? Even full blown MMORPGs such as Everquest and Final Fantasy 11 have been released on consoles without negatively affecting the PC experience. Blizzard's official stance on the matter is that the console port never impacted development, and that there is an entirely separate team working on it.
A major complaint since launch has been the difficulty of figuring out if an item on the auction house is an upgrade or not. Blizzard plans to address this in a future patch.
It may not sound hard, but it isn’t an easy code change. It often takes a great deal of work in order to update and alter our complex coding, and it’s actually been a notable tech investment to try to tackle this particular request for updated item comparison tooltips (which Lylirra mentioned here as well). The good news is that we’ve been making a lot of progress, and this feature is planned for an upcoming patch. :)
Game designer Travis Day mentioned on the official forums that gear customization is a planned feature.
Vaeflare confirmed that the console and PC versions will not interact. Characters will remain seperate between both versions.
While we think cross-platform play would be awesome, there are currently no plans to allow connectivity between PlayStation Network and Battle.net (this is pretty standard for most games that have PC and console support). As a result, the characters on your Battle.net account and PlayStation account will also remain separate.
There are currently no plans to include gamespad support into the PC version or mouse and keyboard into the console versions.
In terms of allowing an analog controller hookup for the PC, we don’t have any plans for that kind of support right now. Similarly, since Diablo III for console was designed with a controller in mind, the PlayStation version of Diablo III will not support USB mice or keyboards.
Lylirra also mentioned that the console version did not impact the PC versions development.
No, the PC version of Diablo III was not designed for console from the beginning. It was developed for the PC with one major goal in mind: provide players with an awesome hack-and-slash computer game that's both fun and engaging. Whether or not we achieved that goal is certainly up for debate within this community, but it doesn't make it any less real or valid. All the decisions we made when developing Diablo III -- including combat, skills, character controls, user interface, and itemization -- were ones we believed would deliver a great online experience, and the same can be said for the improvements we've made since launch. These decisions were not hindered (i.e. "dumbed down") by the development of a PlayStation version or altered to accommodate it.
For clarity, the PS3 version of Diablo III is based on the PC version and will include many of the same features as the PC game, including content all the way up to patch 1.0.7. From there, it's being tailored specifically for the PlayStation platform and will feature a redesigned control scheme, camera perspective, and UI.
So, while there may be some players who don't like how Diablo III was designed for PC, the PlayStation version of the game was ultimately predicated by the PC experience (not vice-versa). Therefore, if you don't like the skill system, the inclusion of the auction house, or how itemization works, that's fine, but please try to attribute those disagreements to the right place.
Even so, to counter a metaphor with a metaphor, I think a lot of players in this discussion can't see the forest for the trees. The point is that it wasn't on the PC design team to make considerations for console. Their focus has been and continues to be the PC game. It's the job of console team to make considerations for console as they adapt the existing game for the PlayStation.
During the development of the PC version, the job and goal of our design team was to create a fun product for the PC. After launch, it's been to support the game in the form of content updates, balancing, and bug fixes. That's their focus.
Beyond that, we actually have an independent team of designers, engineers, artists, and producers that are dedicated to adapting Diablo III to the PlayStation and creating an epic console experience. It's their job to take the PC game and translate it to the PS3, and in a way deal with all the considerations you're talking about. While our console team and PC team do collaborate (and have collaborated in the past), it's always to ensure that we’re staying true to D3 on the PlayStation platform.
Lylirra briefly shared some insight into future plans such as making Legendary items more "game changing."
TitanReign, mgsfan09 and paulomei are this weeks winners.
Contest is now over.
Another week and and another 3 prizes of 10 million gold each to be given away.
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