'Diablo 3' Heading To The Nintendo Switch, 'Overwatch' Port Also Possible

Blizzard Entertainment has officially announced that “Diablo 3: Eternal Collection” will come to the Nintendo Switch this fall. The arrival of the game on Nintendo’s hybrid console has also stirred up questions on whether or not Blizzard is planning to release its other games like “Overwatch” on the Switch platform.

“Anything is within the realm of possibility. Our team was given the task to work on this. If [‘Overwatch’ developer] Team 4 picks up that endeavor, that's on them. As of right now ‘Diablo’ is our only focus on Switch,” Blizzard Entertainment senior producer Pete Stilwell told GameSpot. When asked if “Overwatch” can run on the Nintendo Switch, Stilwell said, “Yes, it is feasible.”

“Diablo 3 Eternal Collection” for the Switch console includes the Reaper of Souls expansion and the Rise of the Necromancer pack. The game also takes advantage of the Nintendo console’s versatility by allowing different kinds of multiplayer gameplay, including local and online cooperative modes.

Porting “Diablo 3” to the Nintendo Switch was easier for Blizzard since the game has already been brought to Sony’s PlayStation consoles and Microsoft’s Xbox consoles. The “Eternal Collection” is able to run at 60 frames-per-second on TV mode and handheld mode. The only difference is resolution. When “Diablo 3” is being played on TV mode, it’s displayed at 960p, while in handheld mode, it’s displayed at 720p, Stilwell confirmed to Eurogamer.

The upcoming release of “Diablo 3” on the Switch console is also significant since this is the first Blizzard game to be available on a Nintendo system since the developer released “Blackthrone,” “The Lost Vikings” and “Rock n’ Roll Racing” for the Game boy Advance in 2003, as pointed out by Polygon.

“Overwatch,” released by Blizzard in 2016, is also already available on the PS4 and the Xbox One. With Stilwell saying that a Nintendo Switch port is feasible, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s definitely happening. However, chances are looking rather pretty good at this point.

But what about other Blizzard games like “StarCraft 2”? That seems pretty unlikely. Stilwell said that a Nintendo Switch port for that game will require reworking some of its gameplay elements since it heavily relies on mouse+keyboard controls. He also recalled that they had to rework the original “StarCraft” for the Nintendo 64 in 2000.

“The N64 version of ‘StarCraft’ was cool but you had to change the game quite a bit to make it work properly on console,” Stilwell said. “‘StarCraft 2’ is next level requirements from how much dexterity you need with a mouse and keyboard, so I think that would have been a very difficult port. It would have [to] change the core gameplay.”

"Diablo 3 Eternal Collection" for the Nintendo Switch doesn't have a release date yet, but it should be arrive sometime this fall. Blizzard will showcase "Diablo 3" on the Switch during Gamescom 2018 in Cologne, Germany and during the PAX West convention in Seattle later this month.