Diablo 4 launched summer season 2023 throughout PC and console, together with the final technology of PlayStation and Xbox consoles. That means it was constructed to run properly on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, {hardware} now over a decade outdated.
Although Blizzard has but to release new options for Diablo 4 that go away the final technology of consoles, and certainly the present minimal specs on PC, behind, (*4*) that the time could properly come for such a robust resolution to be made. Right now, although, with the upcoming launch of Season 4 and, later this yr, the game’s first growth, Vessel of Hatred, Blizzard is sustaining parity.
“There’s always a time and a place for when maybe it’s time to no longer support a platform,” Fergusson mentioned. “I don’t think we’re at that time. But we have a long road for Diablo 4, and so we do talk about, ‘hey we have this idea for a feature, but maybe it’s not a feature our min spec or gen eight players can support, so it’s not something we can do today.’ But we keep pushing the boundaries on that.”
Fergusson and Diablo artwork director John Mueller spoke to IGN about varied options coming to Diablo 4 with Season 4 subsequent month, together with a vital increase in monster density to make the action role-playing game really feel more action-packed. This density increase comes with related efficiency calls for, nevertheless, though Blizzard was ready to make it work throughout all platforms whereas sustaining a stable frame-rate.
Meanwhile, Blizzard simply added ray tracing graphics technology to Diablo 4 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X. It is just not out there on Xbox Series S, Xbox One, or PS4. On console, so as not to compromise general efficiency, this function is locked at 30 frames per second.
“We’re pretty good at finding fallbacks,” Mueller defined. “That’s how we think of it. We’ll figure out a way to do a fallback, like if there’s something really awesome we want to do. I don’t think we’ve been gated by it. We’ve generally leaned into it, and it’s been a creative challenge to figure out, okay, how do we accomplish that on gen eight? So the two things will look slightly different depending on the platform. We just got ray-tracing in, that was a huge feature we added. It scales up and down depending on whatever you’re playing it on.”
By the time the Vessel of Hatred growth launched later in 2024, the Xbox One and PS4 can be 11 years outdated. Plenty of builders have left these consoles behind to give attention to the more highly effective present technology, or Gen 9 because it’s known as, but Blizzard isn’t prepared to let go simply but.
“We’re looking at that,” Fergusson mentioned. “It’s part of the conversation, always. Like, we have this idea for a new feature, can we do it based on what we’re supporting today? Yes or no? And generally, as John was saying, we can. We find ways to do it.”
For more on Diablo 4 Season 4, datamining and secrets and techniques, and the Game Pass launch, take a look at IGN’s interview in full.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].