Here's a huge disappointment for all Diablo fans and would-be next generation console owners. According to reports, Blizzard's popular action role-playing title Diablo 3 has been to be delayed until 2014 for a potential release on next generation consoles like Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
The information was revealed via Blizzard during a developer Q&A session with Diablo Fans, where it was made clear that Diablo 3's release on next generation consoles will not happen for a while, even after the expected November/autumn release of the new consoles.
According to the lengthy post, "The Diablo 3 team has actually just received the new PS4 development kits so the translation for that platform is yet to be done. They really like the features on the PS4 controller and want to try and do something cool with the trackpad and share button."
"Diablo 3 will not be a launch date title for the PS4. It will come in 2014. The developers prefer to try and get the most out of the different features that platforms have, instead of just porting the game to each of them."
The post, quoting Blizzard's Josh Mosqueira, Travis Day and Wyatt Cheng, also states that there will be announcements about the game's new features before BlizzCon, and even though Day loves PvP, he hopes "Diablo 3 doesn't go down the eSport road, because when you focus on that type of PvP content you'll have diminished results in the PvE part. Diablo 3 is meant to be a PvE game."
An update to the summary article restated that the developers made no such announcements regarding an Xbox One version of Diablo 3 during the interview, and that all references to next-gen console development were in relation to the officially announced PlayStation 4 game.
As far as other details are concerned, Blizzard stated that "Archon and Wrath of the Berserker changes won't come in a 'vacuum,' and that "They'll be part of a bigger change to class skills. This way skill power can be redistributed more effectively." Moreover, Blizzard is also working on "including the Mystic back into the game, but it's still not clear what unique feature she might offer."
"There are talks about making Paragon levels account-wide, so that you don't feel like you're losing experience while playing your Paragon 100 character. Also potentially adding customization like stat allocation to it," the post added.
Diablo 3 first launched for Windows PC and Mac in May 2012. Since then, the game has sold more than 12 million copies as of Dec. 31, 2012.
