The recent blog post clearly informs us that Blizzard will support D3 in the future years. This brings the question of microtransactions again. If they are going to invest more programming resources in D3, they surely have plans how to monetize the game better. I doubt character DLCs will be their main way.
Are we going to see the announcement of cosmetic microtransactions and selling of stash space in D3 at Blizzcon 2019?
D3, possible, but unlikely.
D4, highly probable.
Yeah, but what if D4 is not a classical aRPG like previous Diablo games? This leaves the door open for D3 to have support and sustain itself through proper monetization.
An actual D4 would have to be or it would bomb like Battlefront 2.
If they are going to sell cosmetics to pay for the continued support of D3, I am fine with that, just no loot boxes. Make cosmetics and sell them, enough of the gambling element.
They can bring back Devil’s Hand card game to monetize it along with usual cosmetics.
I want to be able to buy cosmetics and stash space and character slots.
Diablo 2 is still being supported, to an extent, with no microtransactions. I really don’t want to see it come to Diablo. Other games, like Overwatch and Hearthstone, sure. Here? No thank you.
You don’t have to buy any if you don’t want. Having a choice is better than no choice.
I don’t see it happening. Immortal will be their cash cow, and they could divert some resources to the PC games.
Same, I hope they do have a cosmetic shop in D4. Fine if they introduce it to D3 at the same time too. Just no p2w items.
I don’t even care if they put in “p2w” stuff. It’s nothing to win in D3. It’s all about how many rat runs you can do.
This won’t happen, simply because no reason to. If D3 is to be supported with core system updates, it has to sustain itself as long as it doesn’t hurt the monetization of DI and D4. This can’t happen when DI is a mobile game and D4 is a hybrid.
That is why I expect to see the reveal of cosmetic microtransactions in D3 at Blizzcon 2019 if D4 is different than previous Diablo games.
I just don’t see it happening that soon - maybe down the road somewhere. Makes sense (and cents) to do it, but I think 2019 is too early for it to be implemented or announced.
Maybe the last stash tabs update was directly related to it? They are testing “the ground” with it.
It’s very stupid to name it D4 then, and Blizzard knows it - WoW is not Warcraft 4 and D:I is not D4.
This is actually common in game industry with few examples - Fallout 3 is one of them but the franchise was sold to a different company, so I’ll consider it an exception.
So we shouldn’t talk about “what if D4 is not ARPG”. If it is D4, it will be ARPG. If ARPG is not dead like RTS, there will be D4.
If you want to ask “what if they’re making a non-ARPG Diablo game but not D4”, then who knows… BLZ also made RTS (dead game type), MMORPG (declining game type, no reason to have another), MOBA (failed), FPS (no resource to support another). I think ARPG is still the best choice, and even an initial failure won’t easily kill the franchise as long as they make patches.
They have to do it asap thou. While it’s still players left to buy stuff.
We just refer to next Diablo game as D4. No one knows what it is currently besides the people who have access to it…
I think D4 will be an aRPG, just not a transitional top-down aRPG like previous Diablo games. This instantly means that it does NOT compete with them for player base and you can safely continue to support D3 and monetize D3.
It’s 1 set per Season and there are 7 classes, that’s 2 years worth of new “content”. That’s basically all they are going to do for this game in the next 2 years and by then the game will be d__ as f___.
Their cheap PR trick is working, I guess. After all, they hear us.
Edit: In any case, who wouldn’t want to spend real money on reskined wings and pets, right?
This was implemented long ago in Chinese server and they only need a little migration.
On global servers, microtransaction system was tested in Nec expansion (or its ptr? I’m not sure) when you need to use a token to “buy” Nec expansion.
Not doing it in D3 is only a marketing decision, not technical.