DiabloFans Interview With the Devs: Highlights

IMPORTANT: To clear up some confusion: No announcements regarding Xbox One were made in this interview. Any reference to development of 'next generation' platforms or potential release dates was expressly referring to the PlayStation 4.

DiabloFans Interview With the Devs: Highlights
DiabloFans had the opportunity to speak to Josh Mosqueira, Travis Day and Wyatt Cheng and while we work on the full transcript we wanted to summarize the major points in an easy to read form.

The Game
  • There will be announcements about new features before BlizzCon
  • Even though he loves PvP, Travis hopes Diablo 3 doesn't go down the eSport road, because when you focus on that type of PvP content you’ll have diminished results in the PvE part. Diablo 3 is meant to be a PvE game
  • Archon and Wrath of the Berserker changes won't come in a “vacuum”. They'll be part of a bigger change to class skills. This way skill power can be redistributed more effectively
  • Blizzard are working on including the Mystic back into the game, but it’s still not clear what unique feature she might offer
  • There are talks about making Paragon levels account-wide, so that you don't feel like you're losing experience while playing your Paragon 100 character. Also potentially adding customization like stat allocation to it
  • If additions to the Paragon system are made, people that already have the required Paragon level will get the rewards on patch day
The Process
  • The different Blizzard teams not only give feedback to each other, but sometimes even help each other with development
  • The Diablo team draws a lot of inspiration and even “some direct ideas” from the community and even mentioned specifically some of our “Suggestion” articles that have gained some good popularity
The Console Version
  • The Diablo 3 team has actually just received the new PS4 development kits so the translation for that platform is yet to be done. They really like the features on the PS4 controller and want to try and do something cool with the trackpad and share button
  • Diablo 3 will not be a launch date title for the PS4. It will come in 2014. The developers prefer to try and get the most out of the different features that platforms have, instead of just porting the game to each of them
  • There aren't any plans for Diablo 3 on portable devices
  • When an expansion comes the main concern will not be to ship it simultaneously on all platforms, but instead try to make the expansion features as relevant to each platform as possible
The Game Director
  • Jay Wilson approached Josh for the position of Lead Console Developer, because of their long past of working on other projects together
  • Josh tries to play a variety of games besides Diablo 3, like other ARPGs and even some Call of Duty in his spare time. Currently he's looking to try The Last of Us
  • Travis explains that Josh is the type of person that really thinks about the grand scheme of things and how the different features may pan out in the long run and their exact purpose in the game

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