So, this past weekend some news was let loose basically saying that Activision and Vivendi Universal (owner of Blizzard) were merging together under the new name Activision Blizzard. Yada yada yada, old news right? Well, one of the questions brought to mind by many-a-gamer was “will World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, or Starcraft 2 be brought to consoles now that it is owned by a well known console-loving publisher?” The answer, as it stands right now, is a resounding no.
Despite being part of Activision now, Blizzard execs have officially gone on the record as saying that their platform of choice is still the PC and they have no intentions to begin development on any console for the forseeable future. Sound a bit harsh? Well, if you remember correctly, Blizzard got burned on the consoles once before and it doesn’t seem like they are too open about going back to it. Remember the whole Starcraft Ghost incident?
In anycase, a quick look at Blizzard’s F.A.Q. on the whole merger will generally distill any notion in your mind that Blizzard has changes coming to the way they operate their games and development. Feel free to take a gander here.
Console RTSes haven’t ever been very successful, although Diablo 3 on a console is more understandable… Blizzard doesn’t really make console games, they make PC and MAC games. How would a console MMO work anyway? There’d be a few issues with it, although Playstation Home works well, I still doubt it’s a good idea to move an MMO from the PC to a Console