Diablo 3 was never built with controller support in mind

GameZone: Although Diablo 3 was eventually released for PlayStation and Xbox, senior level designer Matthew Berger insists Diablo 3 was not designed with controllers in mind. Despite how natural Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition feels on PS4, Berger explained "If that were the case, decisions would've been different."

[rodiabloalmeida]

Who doesn't knew that? It was a PC exclusive game to begin with.

[ThanatosDMC]

I disagree. Lots of people complained that they were targeting consoles instead of PC during beta. Limited skills, no on the fly skill switching, no hotkeys, simpler mechanics, etc.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

Yeah, it honestly felt they always intended it to be a multiplat.

[Dudebro90]

Limited skills compared to what? Wow?

Disblo 2 had a few more skills but only had two shots for skills, and one being usually used for your main attack.

Simpler? Diablo 2 again was much simpler due to its limited skill slots. Sure, it had the ability to switch to a different set but again that's 4 skills vs 6 on Diablo 3.

People keep saying Diablo 2 was much more in-depth, but are completely remembering it wrong. Go back and try it again. You'll be shocked.

[mep69]

@Dudebro90

You obviously never knew you could click on your right skill tab and bind a key simply by highlighting it and clicking the desired button.

[Baka-akaB]

Diablo 1-2 were simple to play but harder to master as per the usual Blizzard design philosophy .... it didnt automate almost everything like D3 does .

And D3 removed almost all build and stats costumizations and trade them for something truly easier and streamlined , still good and interesting but with less depth .

D3 is still very good , and i've made my piece with the changes for another era , and possibly new public , but it's far more streamlined than it ever was

[Sly-Lupin]

To be honest, when I first heard of the port I thought controller support would work well. I mean, similar games have done the top-down ARPG thing with gamepad support and have done so beautifully--like Sacred 2.

But, yeah. One thing a lot of gamers don't realize is that the core kinesthetic mechanics of a game really have to designed from the ground up for a gamepad. I realized that perfectly the moment I tried the demo: it just doesn't work with a gamepad.

But, honestly, I find the common opinion seems to be the reverse: juvenile PC gamers whining about not being able to use kb/m for games designed from ground up for gamepad input.

[TitanUp]

what little i played of diablo 3 on ps3 the gamepad seems to fit it just right.
even if the game wasnt designed for gamepad support it still works very well.

[curtis92]

That's how good Blizzard is. Playing D3 on PS3, It feels totally natural.

[MysticStrummer]

Yeah they did an outstanding job adding controller support.

[Fullbucket]

I enjoyed it very much so on pc. Can't wait to play it on ps4.

[Mankey]

But it works great regardless

[DarthJay]

I enjoyed this way more on Xbox 360 than I did on PC. I can't wait for it to launch with everything on PS4 (though I'd prefer if it came out on Xbox One, but so far doesn't look to be the case). I'll play it all over again on either new console. LOVE it with a control.

Can you use a control on PC now? I may just pick up Reapers on PC if you can...

[Somebody]

They want to keep console fans on consoles and PC fans on the PC. If they want to they can easily give the same direct control to PC fans but that would mean PC fans won't have any reason to get into the console version.

Divide and conquer. Two huge demographics is much more profitable than one.

[Oschino1907]

Or maybe they have different user interfaces and will be altered even further with the Ps4 version considering it's touch pad and motion capabilities.

Also consider how different the controls are for player movement, combat and the roll move which isn't even on PC.

[Baka-akaB]

This , we dont even know if actual gameplay routines and stuff like cooldowns timing and skill frame animations are actual the exact same .

While a pc player might not notice instantly going to the ps3 or ps4 version , and vice versa , if things are so different at core , even a tiny bit , it will be a problem to handle online with all platforms involved

[Somebody]

Just look at the title. D3 was not designed for controller support and yet they can make it happen. In fact they made it into the perfect version(I love it that Blizzard let the media call it's the prefect version-neither admit it or deny the claim-so that the PC fans wouldn't feel betrayed while the console fans will feel special).

Are you telling me Blizzard was able to add a new feature for one platform but somehow couldn't figure out how to reconfigure it back to another? Animation and control settings are not bound by hardware, especially with the PC that is compatible every known controllers out there.

Indie devs with far less budget and man power, some are just one man teams, were able to add multiple control schemes to their games! I've even played a PSP game on a PC using an emulator and played the same game on a touch screen smartphone with the mobile version of the emulator.

[Dudebro90]

It's in development on Xbox one

[Perjoss]

I'm primarily a PC gamer, but I have to admit that D3 plays better with a controller.

[nope111]

Works great though. I just wish i can custom my controls a little more, L2 feels like a wasted button and L1 for potions should be mapped to the left D-pad.

Two more buttons for abilities, especially for the Wizard.

[Roccetarius]

Diablo 3 was designed with consoles in mind, so this didn't surprise me at all. Someone from Blizzard saying otherwise won't be convincing.

[Grave]

Could've fooled me. I prefer the controller over the click-click-click-click of the mouse 1000 times over. It's nearly ruined all top down style games like this for me. Controller just feels right and natural.

[Ratty]

I remember you had to click for every attack in the first game and I haven't played the third yet (waiting on PS4 version) but in Diablo 2 you could just hold down the mouse button and you'd attack until your target was dead.

Unless they changed that for some reason in the third game?

[Grave]

I was more talking about moving around. I know you can hold down the mouse button, but being able to move your character using the analog stick and roll with a flick of the stick is SO much better. Feels like you're much more connected and playing instead of leading the character around on a string.

[Baka-akaB]

Yeah you didnt need to click all the time in even D2 . And you used shortcuts anyway for skills if you wanted efficiency , in pvp and mp .

D3 took that to the next level with further simplified and automatized

[Ratty]

Sounds good. I was actually a little worried it wouldn't feel natural with a controller... especially since I have a friend at work who only plays PC games and keeps telling me it's not going to be as good on consoles.

I can't wait to play it now.