Rumours fly as Gamasutra interviews J. Allen Brack about Blizzard's thoughts on Consoles vs PC's, and it seems that a console game may not be too far off for the PC Juggernaut.
Official Blizzard Quote:
"We just want to make the right game for the right platform."
"Think about StarCraft II. Some real-time strategy games have tried to happen on the console. Some of those have been successful, but overall, our experience is that it's going to be a better game on the PC, ergo it's developed on the PC."
"But we're a company of gamers. I have two consoles at home. Sam has consoles. We're a culture of gamers. We will definitely work on a console game at some point. I have no doubt about that. It's just [a matter of] what game. What makes the most sense?"
Now, Blizzard has tried in the past to make console games, such as Starcraft 64 (for the Nintendo 64), or Diablo I (for the Sony Playstation). Having played both, I can say with certainty that they were immensely fun for gaming nights, but both were dwarfed by the PC version, complete with a LAN party.
These days however, it seems that LAN parties are becoming a thing of the past. Sure, pockets of resistance still exist. But for the most part, those gaming nights are moving towards multiple consoles in the same house. If Blizzard wishes to take advantage of the changing demographics of the gamer culture, then they may have to release games on consoles once more.
Of their current franchises, Warcraft is the only that has not had a console treatment. Keep in mind that both Diablo and Starcraft 64 were relatively unsuccessful on the consoles. For WoW, which is similar to Diablo, this means bad news. For Warcraft (the RTS version), this also means bad news, since it is similar to Starcraft.
With this in mind, it means that Blizzard may not be using Warcraft as their next console game.
However, this leaves the door open for a new franchise to step up to the plate, and dominate the console world. It's already been confirmed that Blizzard has a new franchise in the works, in the form of an MMO, so it's clear that they are expanding their line.
Whether this means a new franchise will also be made for consoles though, is yet to be seen.
That said, I prefer consoles over PC gaming in general, basically because, to me, it always came down to who had the most money to blow on a computer that could out-perform other players on-line. With consoles, it basically limited it to internet connection speed and if you modded your system at all. I don't mind playing PC games, especially when it comes to Diablo, but if some PC games can be made into console games, then more power to Blizzard if they can. If they manage to make MMORPGs come to console, you can bet your last dime, and probably mine too, that I'd be amongst the first in line to buy it. If they made D3 into a console game, or even D2 at this point, I'd snap those up in a heart beat. If they made collector's editions, they'd make a killing off of someone like me.
Seems most of the games on consoles are either FPS games, or TPS/A games (Third person shooter/adventure). Of course, there are exceptions, but for the most part the successful games fall into those categories.
Seems RTS games still continue to be the realm of the PC, there have been RTS games on consoles, of course, but they exist mostly on PC's.
Anywho, these days I think Diablo may actually do quite well on consoles. Dragon Age origins is quite similar to the Diablo games, and it fucking dominated on consoles. Plus, I actually liked Diablo on the console, it just didn't do as well since Battlenet wasn't offered on the Playstation, and it blew everyone's minds on the PC.
As far as FPSs and TPSs/A are concerned, they're like chocolate soldiers - you've seen one, you've seen them all. It's just how you make the chocolate and how nicely you wrap it.
Same thing with RTSs imo, however they seem equal in gameplay on PC and consoles.
I agree that Diablo would do well if Blizz could bring it to consoles successfully. I imagine all the possibilities of playing party-wise across Xbox Live or Playstation 3's version of that and it brings a wide evil grin to my face.
That, my friend, along with many other questions, can only truly be answered by the people in blue. We, as fans, can only make suggestions and ideas and minutely influence what direction the gameplay should take.
For items, I'd imagine you'd simply walk over it, and push a button to pick it up, or to cycle through all the items on ground.
Though, it would be a bitch to target specific places for a teleport...
One of the analog sticks could be used to double as a mouse, you could control the pointer with one of them.
It's not nearly as precise as a mouse, but it's still fairly close, so once more the cycling could work, you could retap to cycle through the monsters closest to your pointer.
I'm sorry. I guess I know what that just made me....:facepalm:
However, as Zhar said, for items, just walk over the item, or items, and hit the designated button for it. Now that I've glanced over both Playstation and Xbox controllers, Xbox has two rotational thumb sticks, a D-pad, six buttons and two triggers while the Playstation has, I believe, the same number of triggers, rotational thumb sticks and the D-pad, but has eight buttons.
If Blizzard can't make a feasible set-up with those controllers, something is wrong. Like Zod becoming president, wrong. Sorry, Zod...
:confused::P
[]------<(-.-) Trusty sledgehammer is at the ready!
Can't tell I dislike the Wii, can you?
I'm sorry, but the day Nintendo goes out of their way to make a MMORPG for a console that doesn't involve the same characters they've been milking for the past umpteen years is the day the polar caps melt, George Bush Jr. gets re-elected for a third term and Paris Hilton is named the most intelligent person in the world. At least, that's how I see it.
Neither of those is as efficient as a keyboard/mouse. Hell, I'd rather play Starcraft: Ghost on a keyboard/mouse. Halo on PC was way better than the Xbox version.
That's not to say Blizz couldn't make a good Diablo game on the consoles; but it wouldn't be a great game, or the masterpieces we're used to seeing coming out of Blizzard. X-Men Legends 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance showed that you could have a very fun ARPG on a console, but the depth just wasn't there. Using more than five skills at a time was a little clunky, and not very fluid, especially in the heat of battle. I would hope D3's combat was a little deeper and sharper than that, and I can't see that happening on a standard controller w/o a mouse. I would even go so far as to suggest D3 dumps the "click to move" paradigm and allows keyboard movement w/ mouse targeting. It would allow strafing, which a lot of us have grown too accustomed to in other games.
How it works:
The longer you hold the button the farther the "distance selector" travels on the screen.
Say for instace you want to teleport to a location on screen.
You would use the right joy stick to select the direction you want to teleport
Then you would hold down the teleport button (what ever that may be) for .5 of a second that would put u a half a screen a way and a 1 second hold would yield a whole screen travel.
What ever the travel:time increment would be it would have to be fast enough to be efficient in pvp.
OP: Someone might say how could a person no the diffrence between a half a second and a full second button hold.
Trust me, if you sit someone down and make them use a tool they will learn how to use it.
Im not saying this is the best method but im only trying to help.
Is it entirely possible to hook up a keyboard/mouse combo to an Xbox/Playstation and have the same type of gameplay and experience as someone who uses a controller to achieve the same level of gameplay/experience?
If you adapt both ways and make it possible to play the game at the same level of enjoyment and versatility, I believe the concept of MMORPGs on consoles not only becomes very viable, but also very, VERY marketable. And if that is possible, just imagine the profits Blizzard could make with that kind of sell....
Cheers to that Capn'!!
You just crossed that mental barrier that alot of PC gamers have and refuse to cross cuz of the fact that they do not want to see a de-evolution of core gaming within the upcoming titles but i think personally that if you bridge 2 giant communities you are bound to get great ideas from both that can generate a godly hybrid
I want both PC gamers and mature Console gamers to walk away happy
Keep core gaming alive but introduce more customers to expand the community. How does that sound?? :rolleyes:
Maybe a new I.P.?
[ offtopic ]Also, Nintendo haters are evil. >.> [ /offtopic ]