Diablo III on Consoles Looking More Likely

The Los Angeles Times has published a short editorial suggesting that Blizzard Entertainment will be returning to console platforms if they’re able to strike the right deal for Diablo III. Blizzard COO Paul Sams sums up their plans and why they’ve stayed PC-exclusive so long:

Blizzard is shopping around Diablo III to consoles. “We are in ongoing talks with Microsoft and Sony,” Sams said. “I think they desire to see us on their platforms.”

A near-finished game called StarCraft: Ghost was the closest Blizzard has come to releasing a console game in years. Due to the loss of a key person on the outsourced development team, “it wasn’t turning out the way we wanted,” Sams said. So, Blizzard scrapped the project. That crucial developer, Ray Gresko, now leads work on Diablo III.

“I think that a lot of other companies would not have hesitated in publishing it,” Sams said about the game based on its sci-fi franchise. “We weren’t willing to put out a game that was not at the level of Blizzard polish quality that customers have come to expect.”

My guess is that Microsoft or Sony would pretty much give Blizzard a blank check if they managed to secure any sort of exclusivity on the game.