Having only recently received dev kits for the Playstation 4, Blizzard confirmed that their next-gen iteration of Diablo III won’t see the light of day until 2014. While the dungeon-hunting RPG is slated to be released on current-gen systems – namely Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 – on September 3rd of this year, according to the game’s director, the extra time will allow the developers to implement unique features for each respective platform. Here’s a snippet of the condensed interview:
“The Diablo 3 team has actually just received the new PS4 development kits so the translation for that platform is yet to be done…Diablo 3 will not be a launch date title for the PS4. It will come in 2014.”
Originally launched for PC platforms and Mac in 2012, Diablo III kicked up a storm over the game’s always online caveat. Still, with 14.5 million unique players as of March 31st, the game was an out-and-out success and validates Blizzard’s typically slow development process to a degree. This momentum is set to continue onto the next-gen, too, and the aforementioned addition of new features will include the ability to manage your inventory using the Dualshock 4’s front-facing touchpad on Playstation 4.
Though an Xbox One version of Diablo III seems likely, the developers made no reference to Microsoft’s upcoming console in the interview. Furthermore, the team at Blizzard have no intention of releasing a portable version of Diablo III at this time. In saying that, when the projected expansion pack becomes available in 2014; the team “prefer[s] to try and get the most out of the different features that platforms have, instead of just porting the game to each of them.” With this in mind, it seems that the first batch of DLC for Diablo III may not be available on each platform simultaneously upon release.
Console gamers will experience their first foray into the world of Diablo when Diablo III launches on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 September 3rd. In the meantime, though, will you hop into Blizzard’s dungeon-crawler on current-gen platforms? Or will you wait patiently for the RPG’s next-gen debut?
