Diablo III devs – Switch is “the next evolution”, frame rate / resolution talk, scrapped touch controls
GameSpot recently spoke with Diablo III Eternal Collection producer Pete Stilwell and associate producer Matt Cederquist about all things Switch. The two discussed how the system’s various features make it “the next evolution”, Diablo III’s tech specs on the platform, scrapped touch controls, and more.
Stilwell first had this to say about Switch and what it brings to the table for Diablo III:
“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.”
As for the ability to upload cloud saves, Cederquist mentioned:
“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].”
Once again, Diablo III will run at 60 frames “across the board” on Switch while resolution is 960p docked and 720p portable. Speaking about the game’s performance, Stilwell said:
“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.
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.”
As we know, Diablo III will support a variety of controller configurations. Stilwell noted that the team “did some experiments with touch,” but in the end felt there weren’t “enough compelling reasons to use it in the current state.”
Thanks to Jake for the tip.
