The PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions of Diablo III will have offline play among a number of other new features, Blizzard has said in a post-PlayStation Meeting interview with GameTrailers.
“You can have four people on the same screen—no split-screen, we just zoom the camera out. Or if you’re offline,” said Blizzard production director John Hight.
The PC version of Diablo III requires players to be online when they play.
Also new to the PlayStation versions are direct control—you no longer move around by clicking the mouse—and an evade capability to quickly dodge demon attacks.
The PlayStation interface has also been reworked. The inventory screen’s paper doll character representations have been replaced by full 3D models, for example.
According to Hight, Blizzard is “much further along” on the PlayStation 3 version than the PlayStation 4 version.
“We finally got to see the [PlayStation 4] controller yesterday, so we already have a lot of thoughts about how we’re going to use the touch bar,” said Hight. “And we want to take full advantage of the social aspects, so that it feels natural for console gamers. They can go into PlayStation Network, they can go through their friends list—we’re going to have full matchmaking through that.”
Currently, all of the content in the PlayStation version of Diablo III is up to version 1.07, so PvP brawling will be there
“We’re going to do updates on the console side just as we’ve been doing along on the PC side,” said Hight.
The PlayStation 3 version of Diablo III will be playable at PAX East next month.
Thanks, Eurogamer.