Blizzard has revealed a few new features that will launch exclusively in the PlayStation 4 version of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. Speaking to IGN at BlizzCon, senior producer Julia Humphreys explained that the team behind the console versions of Diablo III has been able to take advantage of both the PlayStation 4’s controller and social features for the upcoming next-gen release. “The DualShock 4 definitely has some really cool features on it,” Humphreys told IGN. “A small one is the Light Bar. I know that seems like ‘okay, whatever, that’s cool,’ but one of the nice things is we can color code it to the player colors in the game. We found it’s actually already really useful. If you’ve been playing and someone walks away from the table and comes back, they’re like, ‘which one is mine? Oh, I’m the blue one.’ It’s a small thing, but very cool.” Humphreys explained that, while the general UI and analog-based controls of Diablo III won’t change compared to PS3, the team is experimenting with some of the DualShock 4’s new features to add some extra components for PS4. “We’ve been playing around with the touch pad,” Humphreys said. “What the touch pad can be really useful for and really cool for are kind of shortcutting things that you do over and over again. Or maybe even giving you the opportunity to do things that we just didn’t have buttons for. One of the things we’re investigating right now is we could use it for emotes in the game. That’s been a popular request from people, because we have emotes on PC but don’t have any way to have them really on the PS3, so with the touchpad we can have a little shortcut menu for emotes.” More importantly, the PlayStation 4’s built-in Share button and PSN’s new social features have allowed the team at Blizzard to come up with some creative new ways to interact with friends. “That’s definitely one of the things we really want to focus on for the PS4 version, new ways that we can incorporate social aspects into the adventures,” Humphreys explained. Those new features include Player Mail, Player Gifts, and a new idea called Avenger Kills. “Player Mail is pretty much what it sounds like,” Humphreys explained. “You can mail an item to a friend on your friends list, so it’s pretty straightforward. Player Gifts are kind of a cool twist on that. So, let’s say you’re out adventuring in the world and you get a Legendary item that drops. There’s a small chance that a second Legendary would spawn off of that. So, let’s say you and I are playing, it would say ‘gift for [your friend] has dropped,’ and so once I click on it, it would just go straight to your mailbox. And once you open it, it will roll for your class. It’s kind of a way to help share your adventures even if you aren’t online at the same time.” The third feature, and perhaps the most interesting, are Avenger Kills, which let you take revenge on monsters who have killed your friends. “Let’s say you’re out playing in the world and a lowly white monster manages to get that last killing blow on you,” Humphreys said. “There’s a chance that that monster will level up and then a portal will open and the monster will jump through. And then maybe later on when I’m playing in my game, a portal may open up and the monster will come through and I’ll get a message like ‘[your friend]’s killer is now hunting you.’ And I have a chance to then take vengeance for this monster that killed you. It’ll be now a unique monster that has affixes and is much more powerful and when loot drops, of course, I’ll be able to get mine, but that I can send some back to you. It’s just kind of a fun way to help connect games.” We asked Humphreys if these features might make their way into the PC version of Reaper of Souls as well, and she told us, “this is something that’s kind of part of the PS4 platform, so that’s why we started looking at it. Like any of our features, then the PC team would take a look to see if that makes sense for the game and for their audience.” To confirm, we also spoke with John Hight, production director on the PC version of Diablo III. When asked if these social features might come to PC players, he told us, “we love some of the stuff we’ve seen on the console side. I think Avenger Kills is a really cool feature. We’re all one team. Julia sits two bays down from me, so we’re all sharing the ideas, and I think that certainly I wouldn’t put it past us to steal any good ideas from the console side, and obviously console’s taking what’s already been developed on the PC and making it fit for that audience.” Source - IGN
