But seeing a new shape and size was unsettling for a game that's long been celebrated for its rare ability to preserve a thematic and tonal consistency through three major releases, spread as they were across 16 years of a barely 30-year-old industry's history. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, mind you.

But it's a different kind of hell than the PC game that Blizzard fans know and love. 'Diablo 3' on a PlayStation 3 still gives players the journey to hell they waited more than a decade to play through once again. Matthew Berger, a senior level designer at Blizzard who was brought into the company to assist with 'Diablo 3's' transition to the console, told NBC News this week that the studio hired a whole new team alongside him to retool the game for the gamepad and joystick. But would Diablo on a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 really be Diablo? The Xbox and PlayStation had both produced many impressive games of their own, no doubt.

So when Blizzard revealed during Sony's PlayStation 4 unveiling that it would bring its 2012 PC game to current and next-generation video game consoles, 'Diablo' purists met the new with equal parts of horror and trepid excitement. Changing that up would be like trying to turn football into a touchscreen smartphone game: it doesn't really work. After almost two decades, Blizzard is bringing its acclaimed Blizzardįor its legions of fans on the PC, Blizzard's epic demon-slaying video game 'Diablo 3' is practically synonymous with hours upon hours of mouse clicking.