Reports concerning a tweet from Blizzard community manager Micah Whiple suggest that the studio has officially confirmed that Diablo III will be coming to consoles. However, according to Blizzard, that’s not the case.
“Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project,” said Whiple via Twitter in response to user TaNGoilX’s direct request for confirmation of a console port for Diablo III.
Word of Diablo III's possible arrival on consoles should come as little surprise to fans who have been following the game's development, or even those who remember the original Diablo was once a PSOne game itself. Since as far back as August 2011, the studio has been talking seriously about the possibility, with Mosqueira himself telling Gamescom 2011 press that Blizzard was “very, very serious about bringing the Diablo III experience to the console...[we're] looking for programmers, designers, artists who think their dream job would be to bring Diablo to the console.”
One month later, game director Jay Wilson revealed the team was tinkering with a “360-like” controller and that, “One of the reasons why we’re exploring the idea of a console version of Diablo 3 because we feel that the controls and the style of the game lend itself to a console.”
Combined with Blizzard's console-related job postings and a slew of sound bites over the past few months, it’s no surprise that many fans took today’s tweet as confirmation that a console version of Diablo III is now official.
However, when asked for an official comment, a Blizzard spokesperson clarified that Bashiok’s tweet was only “intended as a confirmation that [Blizzard] is actively exploring the possibility of developing a console version of Diablo III,” adding, “This is not a confirmation that Diablo III is coming to any console platform. Our focus right now is on finishing the PC/Mac version of Diablo III and making sure it’s a worthwhile successor to the series.”
