Yesterday, [wiki]Bashiok[/wiki] replied to a tweet about the Diablo 3 console project with a short and factual statement that [wiki]Josh Mosqueira[/wiki] was the head of the Diablo console team. I read the tweet and didn’t consider it newsworthy, and I bet Bashiok didn’t either, (given that he personally announced the Diablo console project back in October 2010) but as happened a few weeks ago when Blizzard posted their latest Diablo console job opening, a ton of general gaming news sites, all of which apparently missed the heaps of Diablo console news from Gamescom and Blizzcon last year, picked up Bashiok’s tweet as though it was a revelation. So here it is.
[blue]can you confirm or deny Diablo 3 coming to consoles? Thanks. –TaNGoIX
Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project. —Bashiok[/blue]
We’ve posted seven news items about Josh Mosqueira interviews since late last year, and in all of them he talked about being the head of the Diablo console team at Blizzard. Those are just a few of our the dozens of Diablo console news items we’ve posted, and of course the DiabloWiki [wiki]console[/wiki] article goes into great detail on the subject and includes numerous Blue quotes about the project. For example, here’s a paraphrase of Jay Wilson speaking at a Blizzcon panel last year.
[blue]Jay Wilson: We’ve hired people to work on the console. We have an internal team. We’ve spoken about it since it helps with hiring. We think Diablo 3 will work on console, we’ve experimented with controls, etc. But it’s essential to us that it not compromise the PC game at all, and it doesn’t feel like a crappy port to console either. Both should stand alone and work nicely. But we’re not announcing anything until we’re more sure about it.[/blue]
That’s still the most definitive statement on the project, and we’re unlikely to learn more until Blizzard makes an official announcement with specific details And you know how they are about those. “Soon.” “When it’s done.” Etc…
Update: Just to help out the game journos who “broke” the news today on the console version Bashiok Tweeted a clarification, and followed that up by retweeting a fan’s sarcasm:
[BLUE]”Yup” wasn’t meant to be an announcement. We’re still exploring a console version, but more importantly working on the PC/Mac version.
BREAKING NEWS @Bashiok CONFIRMS THEY *ARE* WORKING ON A PC/MAC VERSION OF DIABLO 3!![/BLUE]
The lesson here, do some research before posting a so-called “announcement”.