Blizzard community manager Micah Whiple has confirmed the surprising news that hack and slash series Diablo will be making an appearance on some console platforms with the release of Diablo 3.
Responding to a question on Twitter, Whiple (@bashiok) confirmed that veteran developer Josh Mosqueira of Relic Entertainment is heading up the company’s console push. Mosqueira’s back catalogue boasts highlights such as Homeworld 2, Company of Heroes and the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series, so it’s encouraging to see such a luminary behind the project.
Persistent rumours of cross-platform work have dogged the development process, despite Blizzard remaining tight-lipped until now.
Speaking to Game Informer magazine last November, Blizzard director Jay Wilson claimed that the team found elements of the design work better on console than the traditional PC gaming platform.
“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,” he said. “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.’”
Blizzard have yet to confirm the platforms being worked on, or an estimated release date. Diablo 3 on PC and Mac is due in “early 2012″, having gone through extensive beta testing at the end of last year.
