Last year it was revealed that Diablo III and its expansion Reaper of Souls would be launching on PS4 in 2014. Both the game and the expansion pack will be sold together as Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition. However whilst the PS4 is the only next gen version announced, the game’s lead designer Alex Mayberry has revealed to Videogamer.com that his team is also developing the game for the Xbox One. This matches with a leaked listing from Best Buy Canada that showed a Diablo III game for Microsoft’s next gen console.
Yet whilst he can confirm that he is developing it, he cannot confirm if the Xbox One version will ever be released. ”I don’t know where we are with Microsoft right now so I can’t really comment on what that contract looks likes” said Mayberry. “The point is we are developing for Xbox [One] and PS4 simultaneously. We hit those major platforms and then our goal as a development team is to make them run.” Whilst it may seem odd to us to develop a game that you’re not sure you’re ever going to release, Mayberry said that it makes sense from a developer viewpoint. “We have that pipeline worked out,” he continued. “We’ve already done it with the 360 and PS3, so that team knows how to develop at the same time for both of those platforms. That’s just what we do. And then Blizzard and Microsoft can work out whatever they work out.”
We’re unsure of when exactly the PS4 version of Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition will be released but we do know that it will not simply be a lazy port. Speaking to IGN, Mayberry emphasised that, “Our goal when developing on the console side is to not just port the game over. We want it to feel crafted for that console. Certainly the user interface will be completely retooled for the console side of things, but their also looking at a number of features that’d be different from the PC side. I can’t go into details though.” What we do know from Polygon is that the PS4 game can output natively at a 1080p resolution and will run at 60 frames per second. Characters from Diablo III for the PS3 will be able to be transferred across to the next gen version.
In the meantime, Diablo fans can look forward to Diablo III: Reaper of Souls when it launches on PC and Mac tomorrow, March 25. You can check out Blizzard’s very own launch day guide right here.
Via Videogamer.com