If they start making tons of money off predatory P2W microtransactions, they are not going to make more PC content, they are going to make more mobile trash content with more predatory P2W microtransactions.
They have already said they have many of their best developers working on multiple mobile trash projects across all their platforms. They are lusting hard after Chinese mobile gold. PC players aren’t the easy suckers that the mobile market has, so they will leave the PC market to wither away.
The problem isn’t the mobile trash game. The problem is the fact that we have gotten a game, xpac, and a DLC as content for sale for PC Diablo in the last 17 years. The Diablo franchise is very, very low on Blizzard’s totem pole. This is why it was chosen as the test dummy market for mobile trash. Loot boxes and predatory P2W microtransactions are very lucrative with little cost, all they need to do is lose their integrity.
Constant delays and complete radio silence tend to be bad things.
The direction of where that ball is rolling is actually the problem - it’s going the wrong way.
And no one should be told to be grateful for announcements they do not like.
Yes, Diablo Immortal is made by a separate team but that’s not relevant. Here’s why the game cops so much hostility:
1 - The hype in the lead up to BlizzCon 2018 suggested major Diablo for PC announcements. Years of little to no major content and the end is in sight. Sadly, none of that happened.
Instead the attendees, most of which are hardcore PC gamers, were peddled a mobile game. That’s like going to a steak restaurant only to be served up a plate full of vegetables out of nowhere.
Fans felt cheated out and it had a bait-and-switch connotation about it.
2 - Diablo games are quintessentially PC games. A mobile version cannot hope to replicate the same visceral gaming experience partly because of the physical constraints of a phone, namely the battery life and small screen. This leads to the notion that Diablo Immortal is a dumbed down Diablo game.
3 - Being a mobile game, it is very likely to be infested with loot boxes, pay-to-win microtransactions and other in-game purchases. This is where the real money is made and this would be the #1 reason why Diablo Immortal even exists in the first place.
What’s wrong with these purchases? Games with these things tend to sacrifice the integrity of the design in order to squeeze money out of players in the name of greedy profits and it can be predatory in nature.
What’s wrong with making profits? Nothing inherently, everyone is entitled to it. The problem is that greedy companies, particularly the executives and shareholders, want to make ALL of the profits they can get their hands on and they want more on top of that, by any means necessary.
Games are business driven nowadays; less to do with the art of making games as an enjoyable form of entertainment.
4 - The idea of Blizzard dipping their toes into the mobile market suggests they have their priorities elsewhere. After all, the mobile market makes more money than PC and consoles combined. It has the look and stink of Blizzard, or rather Activision, chasing the market for quick profits rather than giving a crap about what the gamers think or say.
5 - The fact that Blizzard did not foresee the backlash at all suggests there is a serious disconnect between them and the gamers. That’s the last place you want to be; being out of sync with your customers will only end in one way.
It’s a multi-faceted problem with factors that compounded each other that resulted in explosion of anger and disappointment. It’s not like entitled gamers are throwing a tantrum as some would claim it is.
The fans are not to blame; Blizzard created this mess and it blew up in their face in the most spectacular way that couldn’t be scripted.
You’re 100% right on this. That’s why 90% of videogames released in the last 10-15 years have sucked so terribly - They’re designed by marketing experts now, not dev teams. Funny how that seems to have backfired on everyone too.
you mean since the original post nearly a year ago, nah they wont give a single care. the only reason the blitzchung climb down (and its only a partial one) has happened is due to bad press and the chance it could lose them money.
end of the day actiblizz cares about money and nothing more.
Given how terrible the last 12 months has been for Blizzard, I’m betting Mike Morhaime is thinking that his departure wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
yep, blue posts but not in the important place where it’s wanted.
Almost in the famous words of Jay Wilson, ‘fvck those losers’, 1 year and nothing but fake words to ‘shut us all up’.
I despise their attitude taken towards d3 since release (awful game, already dumbed down for the masses and to appeal to a casual audience), and even more so with how they’ve handled this sh1tstorm since their D:I announcement
because riot is 100% owned by tencent (yes the same one that owns a chunk of actiblizz and many others) and its expected, also blizzard got the grief they did thanks to the forges burning video hinting at big diablo news last year and the expectations that at a pc based gaming convention where blizzards next to the main stage with a demo area we where getting diablo 4 not a cash grab pay to win mobile game.
blizzard would have been fine just dropping the news as a surprise and having no diablo 4 news if they hadnt done the video and didnt make a big thing out of immortal, least we forget wyatt “dont you have phones” talking down to people and generally being an idiot over people not jumping for joy for it.