Blizzard in the past have tried their hand at consoles only for it to be wound up prior to completion but as far as I'm aware they are looking at consoles for D3 at some stage.
I am not in the beta so I'm curious as to how easy the mechanics of the game could be ported to a console. Forget the prejudice over consoles, can the game as it stands now handle a twin stick, 8 button paradigm?
As an additional question and this one with a broader scope, consoles don't tend to allow 3rd party logins, so would battlenet even be part of the authentication?
Blizzard has said many times it won't be a direct port. They have a brand new team working on it. Of course, items/art assets will be transferred over, but I don't think they'll attempt to just rip out the PC interface and plop it into the console interface. Bethesda has taught most developers by now how well that works out. Which isn't very.
As an additional question and this one with a broader scope, consoles don't tend to allow 3rd party logins, so would battlenet even be part of the authentication?
I've heard this rumor floating around the blizzard forums for a while. Especially after the changes from patch 13. People claim that the new rune interface would potentially be much more user friendly for console gaming. Personally, I don't put a whole lot of stock in these rumors.
As you said regarding third party logins, I doubt Xbox Live or the PSN would want to allow battle.net logins, which in turn would, I expect, be a deal breaker for Blizzard. Also, The multiplayer would be distinct from the multiplayer on PC, since with such drastically different control schemes, I can't see competition between PC and console gamers being fair (especially in the PvP arena.)
This^ PS3 is willing to do partnerships, just look at their partnership with steam... Xbox however will be more difficult. Simply because it is a paying service, therefore Blizzard will not want to work with them because in order to play their game you'd have to pay a yearly 60 dollar fee, which means diablo would no longer be free 2 play, at least for xbox 360, because the whole thing requires internet connection. This is why If anything I think they would have to go with PS3 or Wii or Wii U instead of Xbox, even though Xbox is more accessible and user-friendly.
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This^ PS3 is willing to do partnerships, just look at their partnership with steam... Xbox however will be more difficult. Simply because it is a paying service, therefore Blizzard will not want to work with them because in order to play their game you'd have to pay a yearly 60 dollar fee, which means diablo would no longer be free 2 play, at least for xbox 360, because the whole thing requires internet connection. This is why If anything I think they would have to go with PS3 or Wii or Wii U instead of Xbox, even though Xbox is more accessible and user-friendly.
I wasn't aware of Steam and PSN collaborating. That's good to know. And you make an excellent point about Xbox Live having a subscription fee and Blizzard likely not wanting to get involved with that.
I have played beta, but not patch 13... Something I'm looking forward to on the weekend (its on a friends pc). Runes aside, I can really see d3 on console.. Melee would be easy because whenever you swing a barbarian's axe or whatever, it tends to not rely on targeting a specific enemy (ie, you can shift and click on the furthest part of ur screen and barb will rip crap to shreds)... That been said, your ranged attacks (demon hunter/WD) will require some sort of targeting.
I do believe this to be their biggest hurdle and massive amounts of iteration could currently be taking place (a fifa styled target-swap-with-a-tap-of-X comes to mind as one). But I can already see the boredom in that.
Menu scrolling is easy, its just the maneuvering around certain screens that could cuz a problem- the faux-cursor-controlled-by-joystick is cliche and cheapens the game- remember, blizz likes to keep u in the action in D3. So imagine for a second what type of "different" systems/screens/UI could be in place come platform launch.
Moving on to battle.net on platforms: Ever thought they might not even necessitate a battle.net login? And just use the PSN or Xlive along with paypal?
As I don't own either of those I'd like to ask- what type of apps can u load on the PS3/XBOX? What about a battle.net "api" that "authenticates" you and then launches the game? I reckon this is the easiest hurdle for blizz, seeings as it doesn't affect how the game is played.
I am not in the beta so I'm curious as to how easy the mechanics of the game could be ported to a console. Forget the prejudice over consoles, can the game as it stands now handle a twin stick, 8 button paradigm?
As an additional question and this one with a broader scope, consoles don't tend to allow 3rd party logins, so would battlenet even be part of the authentication?
Thanks in advance.
That's a good question. I have no idea.
As you said regarding third party logins, I doubt Xbox Live or the PSN would want to allow battle.net logins, which in turn would, I expect, be a deal breaker for Blizzard. Also, The multiplayer would be distinct from the multiplayer on PC, since with such drastically different control schemes, I can't see competition between PC and console gamers being fair (especially in the PvP arena.)
I wasn't aware of Steam and PSN collaborating. That's good to know. And you make an excellent point about Xbox Live having a subscription fee and Blizzard likely not wanting to get involved with that.
I do believe this to be their biggest hurdle and massive amounts of iteration could currently be taking place (a fifa styled target-swap-with-a-tap-of-X comes to mind as one). But I can already see the boredom in that.
Menu scrolling is easy, its just the maneuvering around certain screens that could cuz a problem- the faux-cursor-controlled-by-joystick is cliche and cheapens the game- remember, blizz likes to keep u in the action in D3. So imagine for a second what type of "different" systems/screens/UI could be in place come platform launch.
Moving on to battle.net on platforms: Ever thought they might not even necessitate a battle.net login? And just use the PSN or Xlive along with paypal?
As I don't own either of those I'd like to ask- what type of apps can u load on the PS3/XBOX? What about a battle.net "api" that "authenticates" you and then launches the game? I reckon this is the easiest hurdle for blizz, seeings as it doesn't affect how the game is played.