Blizzard Confirms Diablo 3 For Consoles

Up until now we’ve had no official word on a console version of Diablo 3, despite it having been rumored for years. Now Blizzard has confirmed the development of a console port with community manager Micah Whiple tweeting the following response when asked to confirm or deny the project:

“Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project.”

In case you’re wondering, Ars Technica pointed out Josh Mosqueira’s LinkedIn page says he’s been a lead designer at Blizzard since May. Prior to that he worked on games including Far Cry 3, and Company of Heroes.

It hasn’t exactly been a secret that Blizzard is considering developing a console version of Diablo 3. In November Diablo 3 director Jay Wilson said the the “biggest barrier is actually getting a console team”, and it looks like they now at least have a lead designer in place. He has also talked about his thoughts on the benefits of bringing the franchise to consoles:

“One of the reasons why we’re exploring the idea of a console version of Diablo 3 is because we feel that the controls and the style of the game lend itself to a console. With some of our early experiments in putting a direct control scheme into the game via a 360-like analogue controller, I’ve [thought] ‘Oh this feels even better, with direct control…’”  

Although there is obviously no solid confirmation on a release date for any version of Diablo 3, most expect a February-March release and as of yesterday Joystiq reported BestBuy was showing ads with a February 1 launch date. We’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE: Blizzard is now stating that the announcement was NOT official and that they are experimenting with the idea. They are still focused on the PC update and then will consider a roll-out to consoles.

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