Speculation went rampant earlier this week when Blizzard Entertainment advertised several positions under its "Diablo III" official site that appear to relate to the development of the highly anticipated RPG for home consoles. Specifically, the post called for a lead designer, lead programmer and senior producer with prior experience in console game development as well as experience with shipping or porting multi-platform games.
Looking to alleviate any concerns of a further delay on the PC side to accommodate a console release, the publisher has now come forward with an update clarifying that position advert is indicative only of the their interest in exploring the possibility of a "Diablo-related concept for consoles" and that it shouldn't be interpreted as an announcement. If they take the console plunge it seems they will approach it as an original development, possibly a spinoff set in the same universe, and not just a port of the PC title that may ultimately suffer in terms of gameplay.
Blizzard also noted explicitly that they are "first and foremost developing Diablo III for Windows and Mac and don't intend to allow any possibility of a console interpretation to delay or affect the release of the game."
Blizzard has primarily stuck to PC based development for its recent projects, but the publisher has had some experience with console titles as well – the original Diablo was released for the PlayStation in 1998, for example, while StarCraft 64 made its way onto Nintendo's last cartridge based console. The company has previously said it will return to console game development at some point, it simply wants to make the right game for the right platform.