Many developers have already cashed in on the Switch’s success by porting their own games to the system. Dark Souls, Skyrim, Crash Bandicoot and Stardew Valley are just a few of the numerous gems that have been ported over to the Switch and sold well. People just like having the ability to take their games on the go. Now, Blizzard has followed suit and announced Diablo III on the Switch which will come out later this year.
Whether you are a fan of the Diablo series, or have never played any of the games before, you should be excited about Diablo III coming to the Nintendo Switch. Blizzard Entertainment is a legendary developer in the gaming industry. Even though their focus is on developing PC games primarily, they have branched out with console ports several times in their long history. SC:64 back in 2000, Diablo III on PS4 and XBOX ONE in 2014, Overwatch following suit in 2016, and now they’re bringing Diablo III to the Switch by the end of 2018. While all those other ports were fantastic in their own ways, there are a few reasons that Diablo III is particularly poised to be a great experience on the Switch. Before we buy, however, we need to consider the risks involved in buying this game and go over all the pros and cons. We’ll talk about what this means for the future of Blizzard games, console gaming and the Nintendo Switch as a system.
Diablo III is the perfect game for Blizzard to port to the Nintendo Switch. Considering this is Blizzard’s first game on a Nintendo system since SC64, they probably wanted to make sure they were making a safe investment and providing a quality product. For a number of reasons, Diablo will make an excellent port to the Switch. Let’s start by considering the kind of system the Switch is. One of the largest draws to the Switch is that it’s portable. It has made it possible for many games that previously could only be played on a stationary system to be taken on the go. Because of this, however, the hardware the Switch contains is a little weaker than what you expect from a Playstation 4 or an Xbox One. In the past some ports to the Switch have experienced FPS issues and downgrades in graphical quality.
Blizzard has already addressed these concerns.
In an interview the Senior Producer at Blizzard, Pete Stilwell, said “Diablo 3 on Switch will run at 60 frames per second across the board, at a native 720p resolution in handheld mode, and at 960p in docked mode. Other than resolution, you shouldn’t notice anything different between docked and handheld play.” For a game that was released in 2012, Diablo is a good-looking game. It’s great to know that we’ll be able to enjoy it without issue of it underperforming. Even in the handheld mode, the game will look great and run well. We can enjoy the hack-and-slash, dungeon-crawling gameplay uninhibited. Diablo III, for those who don’t know, is a dungeon-crawler played from a top-down angle. Usually you will only need to make use of a couple of skills at a time in your build. Unlike full-blown MMORPGs, you don’t have dozens of skills to manage. Diablo 3 is gear and player level dependent and you will only ever be using 4-6 abilities. The Switch has plenty of buttons to make use of for abilities.
Also having two joysticks, one to move and one to aim, will be a perfect control scheme. We’ve already seen it work on the PS4 and XB1. It’s a game where you could benefit from picking up and only playing for a few minutes, which is a common thing to do with the Switch while you’re on your daily commute, or waiting on a friend to arrive, or even if you have a few minutes at home to play. It’s not the kind of game where you need to wait on save points, or just play long hours in one sitting to get value out of it. 5 minutes or 5 hours. Diablo III is always worth playing.
Oh, and did I mention it’s coming already decked out with the Reaper of Souls expansion and Rise of the Necromancer DLC? Yes, it’s the full and complete version. Buy it, pop it in and play.
Now that we know Diablo III on the Switch is going to be a quality product, let’s take a moment to consider what this means for the future of the Nintendo Switch and Blizzard. The Switch is selling beautifully and game developers, like Blizzard, can’t ignore that. This could mean that for future projects that Blizzard surely has in store, the Switch might be in the back of their minds as a potential market. Blizzard is not just a AAA developer, they’re above that, they’re one of the most legendary companies in gaming. Having them involved with Nintendo increases the value of Nintendo products. Lots of developers have already ported to the Switch, now Blizzard joins them, what is next?
It’s exciting to consider the possibilities that this system has, and how many of our beloved games that we could maybe take on the go and play. The Switch truly is a system that does it all. If you’re like myself, you’ve already bought a Switch just for the Nintendo IPs, having everything else is just the icing on the cake. It’s a great time to be a Switch owner, or a fan of Blizzard. Many who aren’t already fans of both will surely be soon. What other games does Blizzard have that we could see coming to Switch? Hearthstone is an obvious answer as it’s already very popular on iOS and android, and would be a welcomed addition to any switch owner’s library, it’s free after all! How about Overwatch? Some shooters have already found their way onto the Switch like Doom and Wolfenstein, and it’s not impossible to imagine Overwatch as well. Nintendo has been open to cross-platform play and Overwatch could join the list of shooters already on the Switch that people enjoy. Looking forward, the future is bright. Diablo III is looking to be a great start to Blizzard’s new partnership with Nintendo, their first in eighteen years!
Personally, I’m nothing but optimistic about this news and hopefully you are as well. If you share the same opinions as me, consider going out there and purchasing a copy of Diablo III when it releases on Switch. Show Blizzard that there is a market here for them and that future projects on Nintendo systems would be successful. Or just look forward to all the other incredible games coming out in the near future. Either way, it’s great to be a video game fan in 2018.