It has been almost a year since Diablo 3 was unleashed on the PC and Mac gaming population, as well as the cluster-fudge surrounding the launch that ensued and you will be able to play Diablo 3 with the Playstation 3. According to the press release, Activision has said that along with the game, will come with “an intuitive control system” as well as the updates that PC guys and gals have seen made over the past year. You can pre-order the game now and you will get an item called the “Infernal Helm” which boosts your XP. The game will have online through the PSN and you will be able to play local, online, or combinations of the two with your friends, co-workers, acquaintances, complete and utter strangers, societal invalids, snot-nosed 14 year olds, snot nosed-40 year olds, ‘roid monkeys, bros, mistresses blah dee blah dee blah. According to Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, who played a version at PAX East, it will not require an always on internet connection, because a console that would require an always on DRM scheme, that would be crazy, am I right guys?… RIGHT!!?! The game is available for pre-order now, and if you get it from EB Games, you get a double-sided poster. Whoop-Dee-Doo. While there is no confirmed release date, you can Go to Diablo 3.com for more details.
A couple of thoughts, I am sort of excited for this, as I have not yet played Diablo 3 and am interested to see how this would pan out. I have been reading some reports from PAX East, and it does sound like the controller tweaks have made the game play just fine. Also, in researching this story, apparently there will not feature the auction house that is found in the PC version. In fact, according to an interview with Time, former Diablo 3 director Jay Wilson had admitted that the auction house had really hurt the game, leading many to speculate that Blizzard is going to shut down the auction house altogether. Now the good thing is that you will be able to trade items in-game with other players, provided that they are playing with you. As of this writing, there is no word on an Xbox 360 version, which to me a little strange. Getting a team to make a console port of a PC game in the manner Blizzard are doing so, requires certain skill sets, sets that may have to do with dealing with console architectures and may prove to be both time and money consuming with one port, let alone two. All in all, I am interested to see how this pans out, as well as interested in the tidal wave of ridicule from the PC game crowd.
The word from Activision is only PSN connectivity. I don’t know if the online infrastructure is in place for such a thing, or if it would be a cost effective measure. It would be cool though.