GC08: Gabe Newell on Ep 3, Left 4 Dead and more
GC08: All details from the Sony press conference
GC08: All the details from the EA press conference
July 2nd, 2008 @ 08:27
Speaking under conditions of anonymity, a highly-placed source close to Vivendi has told VG247 that, despite comments from Blizzard to the contrary over the weekend, a newly-formed Activision-Blizzard may see a console version of Diablo III as a no-brainer.
“Blizzard will face immense pressure to produce a console version of Diablo III,” we were told. “If Kotick says, ‘We can sell 10 million units of a console version’ - and he will, because they can - it’s an obvious situation. Money talks. You could be looking at nearly half a billion dollars in revenue.
“That said [Blizzard is] in a unique position. Very few people have any sway over them at all.”
Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter agreed that Blizzard is likely to maintain its untouchable status within the new merger, and is unlikely to submit to coercion.
“No forcing,” said the analyst when asked if he thought Activision would push the issue. “If they disagree, I think Activision will defer to their judgment. However, I do expect the companies to engage in friendly dialogue on matters such as these, because all have the same goals.”
Blizzard said consistently at the Worldwide Invitational in Paris at the weekend that it has no plans to develop anything for consoles at all.
For all our Diablo III news so far, hit this.
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July 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 am
blizzard is saving pc gaming lol. i think they should go to consoles though, i don’t see a big problem other than their lack of experience with them.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 am
The solution here seems blatantly obvious - let Blizzard concentrate on the PC and Mac versions, and get someone else to do the console ports.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:43 am
I think the problem may be brand equity and transmitting the experience. They may simply say that the game won’t work on a console because of the control method and put a big foot down. They’re so precious about their brands (for good reason, imo).
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:52 am
I’m downloading the Diablo 2 demo right now, so I’ll tell you what I think later on.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 am
I hope you like it. I’m going to have to do it soon. I’ve got play it again.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 am
“They may simply say that the game won’t work on a console because of the control method”
And, they’d be utterly full of it, if they did! That’s just a load of rot. We KNOW that Diablo can play on consoles, already. Nothing much has changed, since D1 to prove otherwise, in terms of UI and interface. Granted, it didn’t translate seamlessly to the d-pad at the time, but it was playable. I think that, with control sticks you can recreate any keyboard based motion to console - especially considering there aren’t many actions you need to translate.
Consoliers are used to selecting things from inventory wheels, so if push came to shove in that regard, the effect wouldn’t be harmed, by using that approach.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:12 am
Maybe they just don’t want to be locked into a situation where they lose a lot of control, Valve were saying that very thing last week when it came to updating their titles like TF2. Valve want to change stuff and roll it out straight away, something that Blizzard could also do over Battle.net but couldn’t do with any console.
Plus Blizzard are generating tens of millions of dollars of revenue every month so no-one will rock their boat.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:34 am
You know what… I’ve never even looked at a Diablo game so why don’t I try the demo too?
Because I’m lazy, that’s why.
No. COme on. Be a man.
OK, damn it. Fine
You just keep… you always just… (argh!)
Yeah whatever, I’m going I’m going.
Sorry that was weird…
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:35 am
Try the demo. You may as well
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 am
If you guys like it I’d recommend picking it up along with the Lord Of Destruction expansion, which will allow you to run it at 800×600.
I’ve been playing through D2 again recently since the rumours about D3 started up again, and it still looks lovely if you run it in windowed mode.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:27 am
If ActiBlizzard aren’t planning a simultaneous console/PC release, then announcing a console port of Diablo 3 *before* the release of the PC version would only gouge sales of the PC product. If I were them, I’d ship Diablo 3 for PC first and for consoles 12 months later.
July 4th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
12 months might be a bit excessive. Personally,I don’t think announcing a console version before it’s released on PC would affect the PC sales much; you know, everyone always wants the game as soon as they can get it. Personally, I’d buy the PC version when it comes out then the PS3 (hopefully) version when that’s released too.
I love Diablo, one of the games I played the most. I’m trying to find my copy of Diablo II now ¬¬
July 4th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I just spent my lunch hour playing the Diablo 2 demo. I likes it! \o/
July 4th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Nice, just wait till you get to Act II in the full version Blerk (if you’re intent on trying that as well), it feels almost (and certainly looks) like a totally different game then (same counts for all the other Acts). Act I was a bit too Diablo 1-like for many folks (in terms of colour use
and the subsequent dungeon followups at the end).
Also, if you don’t want to spoil the story for yourself (it’s pretty standard but it’s incredibly well told in top-notch CGI scenes that tell a parallel storyline of poor, crazy, old Marius getting caught up in a hellish road trip) then certainly don’t click through the Lore section of the Diablo III site since that contains all the cinematics of Diablo II and LoD and also tells about everything that occurred in Diablo 1 (not Hellfire though) and the sequel.
July 4th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Blerk: