A lot of Blizzard fans were shocked last week when the publisher confirmed that it was bringing Diablo III: Eternal Collection to Nintendo Switch later this year. (You can see the announcement above in case you missed it.) While we wait for the inevitable release date announcement, the development team behind the game recently sounded off on why Nintendo’s console was such a fit for the game.
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Speaking with GameSpot, producer Pete Stilwell and associate producer Matt Cederquist explained that the system’s features make it feel like “the next evolution” when it comes to all things Diablo.
Stilwell explained, “I think this [is] the next evolution. The portability of Switch [and] the ability to play offline with your friends locally between multiple Switch [consoles] is really powerful. We’re excited to be able to travel, [play] this on a plane, get off the plane, [and] upload progress.”
Then Cederquist talked a bit about the game’s cloud saves. “Switch automatically uploads save files. The only thing that won’t upload is leaderboards, but anything else such as achievements or progress that’s made through campaign will be [uploaded].”
Stilwell then talked about the game’s performance, as it will run at 60 frames per second in both handheld and console mode, though the resolution will be different. “That was a huge focus, to make sure we were giving a responsive, awesome gameplay experience and we’ve managed to achieve that. Part of the technology itself changes [depending on whether] you’re docked or not. That was one of our learning experiences along the way, dealing with how the architecture changes depending on whether you’re docked or mobile. It’s just an optimization effort,” he said.
“In my mind the only thing that changes is the Switch itself goes from 720p to 960p. You should not be feeling any different; we don’t feel anything different … We for the past couple of months have spent more time just making sure that the game feels as great no matter what controller setup you have, whether you’re plugged in or not. Our biggest motivation was to make sure that we weren’t giving you an inferior experience.”
So however you’re willing to play Diablo III on the Switch, you’re in for one hell of an experience.
The game will release later this year for Nintendo Switch. Can’t wait? Eternal Collection is also available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
