It’s official: Diablo III is coming to Switch. Later this year, you’ll be able to cosplay as Ganondorf from Legend of Zelda and kick the crap out of Diablo from Diablo. It’s the first Blizzard game on a Nintendo platform in 15 years, but fortunately, Blizzard had help.
During a meeting in San Francisco earlier this week, senior producer Pete Stilwell said that porting Diablo III was a relatively smooth process, with “conversion on the graphics side” of things presenting the biggest challenge. Nintendo offered assistance with trouble-shooting, though.
Stilwell said the experience paved the way for potential future Blizzard ports to the Switch.
“Yeah”, he replied when asked if other Blizzard games could end up on Switch. “Without going beyond [the Diablo port], I think it was a good exploration into the platform and into the relationship with Nintendo that has been extremely positive, extremely healthy and forward-thinking”.
In a lot of ways, Diablo III was ideally positioned for a Switch port. Blizzard had to re-tune and re-imagine the game — originally PC-only — for consoles a few years ago, so the roadmap was already there.
Plus, it wasn’t just Nintendo helping Blizzard with the Switch version: Stilwell said that a team of “eight or nine” Blizzard staffers collaborated with Iron Galaxy, the studio that helped bring Skyrim to Switch last year. The whole process of bringing Diablo III to Switch took them about nine months.
If you think this means Overwatch on Switch is just around the corner, though, think again. Stilwell said that there was “nothing to say about that today” when asked about Overwatch, and he added that each potential port of a Blizzard game will be its own process.
“Blizzard is really comprised of many unique game teams, so the game engines are equally unique”, he said. “I wish I could say it’s simple, like ‘flip a switch.’ But it’s not”.
He did, however, tell GameSpot that Overwatch on Switch is “feasible”, so that’s something.
As for Diablo on other mobile devices, that, too, is its own can of worms. “I don’t think there’s current interest”, he said when asked if Diablo III could end up on smartphones next. “I think that has another set of problems and challenges with it”. He was similarly sceptical of the idea of Blizzard doing a game developed with Switch in mind first and foremost.
For now, the focus is on Diablo III‘s Switch version and letting people who might’ve only been privy to the game’s rocky, auction-house-embattled launch back in 2012 know that, hey, the water’s fine now.
“Hopefully, with the renewed attention around [the game], people will find out that it’s not just that version of the game you knew right after launch”, he said. “There’s meaningful change with Loot 2.0 and the Kanai’s Cube and all the other cool things that aren’t necessarily on the box”.
“Where the game was at launch compared to where it is now, it’s light years forward”.
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11 responses to “The Diablo 3 Switch Port Took 9 Months”
They should bring over hearthstone
While they’re at it, I’d like Warcraft2 on mobile.
Bought Diablo 3 on launch day and played it with my wife until we got bored, which honestly didn’t take long after we finished the story. I never got into Diablo 3 much after playing it initially and haven’t checked out the expansions at all, so this might be a good buy for me.
It’s definitely worth revisiting. Compared to what it was when it launched, it feels like an entirely different game with a ton more to do after the story is over. More than happy to see it coming to Switch, it’s an instant buy for me.
Never played Blizzard’s Diablo in all my entire life. But it’s good news to hear that Blizzard Entertainment is bringing Diablo 3 for the Nintendo Switch. But I agree I actually loved playing Diablo on Windows 95 since and now that Diablo 3 is coming out for the Nintendo Switch later this year I’m keen to get back into some Diablo action. I hope Blizzard brings over Overwatch for the Nintendo Switch soon.
9 months for a Blizzard project… hahaha that probably set a speed record for the company.
Day one purchase for me. I never had the time to play this properly on my ps4. This will do nicely on long haul flights.
Just out of interest, anyone know if the console versions – or even the pc version – are allowed to be played offline? I remember the PC version wasn’t for the longest time but don’t know if it got patched in or if the console versions always had it? Even then have a memory (and googling suggests – but doesn’t confirm) that for seasons play you do need to be online? I may be two years out of date but it hasn’t been something i’ve had to think about for ages.
Surely the switch version will be playable offline? Surely?
Can confirm the PS4 version played perfectly fine offline. Took it on holiday with me to a beach house with no internet years ago, made progress with saves just to the hard drive.
Guessing the Switch version should be no different seeing as it is meant to be portable and able to be played on a bus/plane, etc.
Console versions – yes
PC – no
Switch – Most likely yes
guess that means no D4? Which I don’t mind, would rather new expansion for D3. And they could always pull a Warframe and completely rework the game.