According to a variety of whisperings that we have been hearing from GDC, the folks at Blizzard are taking a serious look at the possibility of console development for the next generation of consoles from Microsoft and Sony.

Our moles tell us that Blizzard has had some talks with Microsoft about what the successor to the Xbox 360 might, in fact, look like and what kind of features a next generation console would offer. This does seem to indicate that while actual prototyping of the Xbox Next, as it is being referred to, might not actually be started yet, planning and discussion are taking place.

According to sources, Blizzard at times has at least considered developing titles for the console market space, but real time strategy games in many cases do not lend themselves well to console platforms, as the design just isn’t necessarily good for these types of titles. Much of the issue centers on the input devices and the fact that RTS titles make heavy use of the keyboard.

It has been suggested that Microsoft might be listening to this and could be thinking about the possibility of designing a new type of input device that would be targeted toward RTS titles. It is anyone’s guess what kind of input device Microsoft might be thinking of designing to attract RTS developers, but it could open a new avenue for the development of RTS titles on console platforms.

Microsoft does have a lot of experience designing input devices such as mice, keyboards, controllers, as well as other types of input devices. This experience could lend itself well for an effort to build some sort of unique device for consoles that is targeted at RTS titles on consoles. What this device would look like is anyone’s guess, but we are doubtful that it would look like the alternative RTS input devices that some RTS players use for the PC today.