Blizzard: We're platform agnostic

CVG: Unless you've been living in the proverbial cave - or under rock, or under a rock in a proverbial cave - you'll realise that today is d-day for StarCraft II, the long awaited successor to the most successful RTS game of all time.

Developer Blizzard is one of the greatest PC developers in the world - with a slew of stellar hits that read like a Who's Who of PC gaming over the past decade, including StarCraft, Diablo and, of course, all-conquering online juggernaut World of Warcraft.

Yet for such a renowned developer of PC games, Blizzard are apparently platform agnostic when they begin the process of making a new title. At least that's what Michael Ryder, Vice President and Executive Managing Director of International Operations told us when we spoke this morning.

We asked Ryder if he felt Blizzard was "flying the lone flag" for PC gaming.

[Xof]

...but other than that, has blizzard ever made even one console game?

Rather than "agnostic," I think the word is "apathetic."

[kesvalk]

lost vikings, black thorne and someother that i don't remember right now...

[Montrealien]

"...but other than that, has blizzard ever made even one console game? "

RPM Racing, Rock n Roll Racing, Lost Viking 1-2, Death and Return of Super man, Justice League Task force. All games made by blizzard on consoles, Ironicly their first ever game was RPM, a SNES game.

imho, they are confortable where they are now and have no need to make console versions of their games.

[AntoineDcoolette]

lol, the first Diablo showed up on PS1 and I think warcraft 2 might of as well >_> I think Starcraft 64 was their last console outing?

[Persistantthug]

Warcraft 2, Diablo 1, and Starcraft 64.

I'm betting that Diablo 3 ends up on consoles, because that's a game that could work out pretty well, design wise, I mean.

Besides, we all know how greedy Activision is these days, so I'm guessing Activision will want that particular game on consoles as well.

[Motion]

inserting the word "platform" in the definition:

A person who claims that they cannot have true knowledge about the existence of a platform(God), but does not deny that platforms(God) might exist.

Platforms aren't really something you can be agnostic towards.

[Montrealien]

It is a bad definition, however I think it means they they know they exist but Question its true power?

[Baka-akaB]

at they start they were console legends ... at least to some of us .
Most arcade racers can't even compare to rock and roll racing

[Darkstorn]

Wasn't the first Diablo on PS1?

Still, Blizzard is not a console developer. Perhaps they'll expand their horizons in the future, but for now they're doing just FINE. Blizzard is rolling in cash right now, there is no decent justification for porting their games to home consoles.

[kevnb]

"facepalm" theyve ported diablo, warcraft and starcraft to console. Theyve made console games in the past. They arent unlike most devs, even valve makes console versions of their games (albeit the true 100% experience is exclusive to pc). Console makers offer big bucks for games they want, and they will usually get some sort of version of them, everything from doom to dragon age has been shamelessly massacred on console.

[mistajeff]

I used to be platform-jewish, but lately I've become really jaded and I went platform-atheist.

[GodHandDee]

Well said

[AEtherbane]

Makes sense to me.... WTF?

[Revvin]

I'd like to see them branch out and make SC2 for the PS3 or 360.

[asyouburn]

keyboard and mouse support on console, it would be a mess control-wise

[SprSynJn]

PS3 has the Move, and that could work just fine if they did it well. R.U.S.E. is going that path, why not SC2? I would pick it up instantly if it were to follow.

[Revvin]

Well I'll be buying SC2 for my gaming PC anyway, I love RTS but I think Halo Wars and Supreme Commander showed how a good control scheme can be done on a joypad. I'd buy it again if it came out on my PS3 or 360 just to play against some of my console only friends.

[despair]

yea but its limited in what you can do to get a great rts on a joypad, just look how limited Halo wars was, good game but barebones compared to pc rts games.

Move support might work on the PS3 for SC2, some tweaking and limited grouping options as well as no keyboard shortcuts, but it may work well for console vs console MP.

It'll be kinda like using just a mouse and a few keys on the keyboard with move.

[Revvin]

Move support would be good but why do you think that would work if a joypad wouldn't? all you need is one analogue stick and two buttons to mimic the mouse on a PC then the other buttons to bring up menu's that would cover any keyboard shortcuts. You'd still have an analogue spare which could be used just for grouping or even as a four way switch to supply even more commands.

[Alos88]

Come on Blizzard, give the consoles some love with Diablo III.

[Montrealien]

they did with EA already, and no one bought it. Then again, times have changed, it would be huge now. The real question is, do they care?

[Alos88]

Even if they don't, Activision will want some of those sweet console profits, and methinks they will have the final word.
I have faith it will happen, ecspecially given how console friendly Diablo is compared to Blizzard's other games.

[dktxx2]

Diablo ain't console friendly. Its built for a mouse. Plus activision does not have final say over what Blizzard does. Blizzard has made it clear that activation can go to hell in regards to them and their games.

[Alos88]

I kinda hope they do tell Activision to go to hell, simply for how awesome that would be if it were ever made public.
As for being designed for a mouse, it's debatable as to whether it could work equally well with a controller.

[NYC_Gamer]

blizzard should just stick with pc since all their fans game on that platform

[Nihilism]

I'm dying for Diablo 3 more than starcraft 2. I've been a long time fan of both, but there have been a lot of different RTS games that could be said to have matched starcraft in gameplay, but nothing ever came close to diablo...

I refuse to play D2 now though...seriously their solution for higher res is to run it in windowed mode...that just sucks. It's time for the next gen...

I will be buying SC2 as well though, i've just got to let the mrs calm down after I got a gtx480 today...

[koehler83]

Does. Not. Compute.