Rumor: Blizzard Considering Diablo for Consoles

On the heels of yesterday's Activision Blizzard Q4 2010 earnings call, rumors are circulating that Blizzard may bring Diablo to consoles. Joystiq reports that Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime added fuel to the long-standing rumors at the DICE Summit yesterday.

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"I think you could make an argument that a game like Diablo might play very well on a console," he said. "It's something that we're actually doing an investigation into to see if that could make sense." Morhaime said issues like the ability to patch and add expansions are concerns, but believes Diablo is the easiest console port in Blizzard's catalog.

This isn't the first time we've heard these sentiments from Blizzard. Morhaime made similar comments as far back as 2008. Only months ago Blizzard was hiring to explore a "Diablo-related project" on consoles, but the company promised it wouldn't delay the game's release.

The timing comes just after Blizzard announced at its investors call that it planned to cut its peripheral games like the Guitar Hero franchise and focus more on sure-fire hits like Call of Duty. Included in the announcement was word that Blizzard might not release a game in 2011, but that would mean at least two in 2012.

At this point, it would almost be more surprising if we didn't see some iteration of Diablo on consoles. The team at Blizzard has apparently been "investigating" the idea for over two years, and Blizzard executives just keep mentioning it. A console port is far from confirmed, but consider this yet another log on the fire.