Poll of the Day > Diablo Immortal made 24 million in its first week despite a 0.3 rating.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Because reasons.

Yeah, 24 million turds because that game is ass.

Unfortunately, predatory monetization schemes that manipulate people into spending large amounts of money tend to be very profitable. This isn't going to stop without strict, decisive regulation, and that isn't going to happen so long as governments get their entire understanding of video games from industry mouthpieces that tell them it's all fine.

Strict regulation is happening, just very slowly at a country by country basis. If only Belgium and the Netherlands could convince the EU to make it EU law, that might speed things up a bit.

Even then, the decision not to bring the game to Belgium and the Netherlands was announced very late in the game and explicitly framed as a matter of "these countries' unreasonable laws mean we can't release the game there," all of which amounts to a thinly-veiled effort to piss off their fanbases there and assign all the blame to the government for the sake of generating public pressure to remove those laws. In fact, there's no reason they couldn't have monetized the game differently (even just removing the gambling aspects entirely and leaving the game a broken, grindy mess without access to them), taken those laws into account from the beginning of the game's design process, or announced that they had no plans to bring the games to those countries as soon as the decision was made (it was presumably made as soon as those laws came into effect 3-4 years ago), but no, they want to blame the rules instead of their decision not to follow them.

Then they can take on the parents who lost their children as a result of gambling debts, I doubt even Blizzard could win that collision.

people will complain all over the internet about this which is just fuel for the algorithms and free marketing for the game

Blizzard's currently doing a pretty decent job of surviving a lawsuit that stemmed from one of their staff members committing suicide after facing routine sexual harassment and assault, with extensive allegations claiming that abuse to be extremely widespread and pretty indisputable evidence that pretty much every level of management knew all about it and has done nothing, and that's something they're directly responsible for. I doubt they'd have too much trouble dealing with something they can easily blame on the victim's mental illness, given that most governments aren't taking them to task for deliberately preying on such illnesses.

Mostly, ActiBlizz is just a terrible company. Through and through. I've categorically stopped buying their games and encourage everyone else to do the same. That's not going to make enough of a difference to their bottom line to change any of their behaviour, but it's really all I can do. Even if, by some miracle, loot boxes and their ilk are properly regulated like gambling, I fully expect they already have other manipulative monetization strategies waiting in the wings to be deployed and pick up the slack almost immediately.

adjl posted...

Even if, by some miracle, loot boxes and their ilk are properly regulated like gambling, I fully expect they already have other manipulative monetization strategies waiting in the wings to be deployed and pick up the slack almost immediately.

*cough*NFTs*cough*

And this is why no one at Blizzard cared about getting clowned at BlizzCon. 99% of Diablo fans bought D2R and will buy D4, and they've got enough whales pumping cash into DI. :/

Nah, NFT's are pretty much done in gaming, despite Squenix's decision to sell several of their major studios to help fund further investment into them. As it turns out, gamers are smart enough to not buy something just because a publisher told them they wanted to, and the torrent of "look at all the great features NFT's can offer your games that totally weren't already in those games last year" didn't actually convince anyone. One of Ubisoft's higher-profile attempts to cash in on the idea resulted in a grand total of like 90 of their NFT cosmetics being purchased (out of somewhere in the realm of 100,000) and they quickly abandoned the game as a dismal flop.

For a change, the gaming community did actually push against a really stupid idea that cost them money but offered nothing of value. It was a refreshing change of pace, even if it indicates more about just how unfathomably stupid NFTs are than about the gaming community's commitment to rejecting toxic business practices.

Nichtcrawler X posted...

Then they can take on the parents who lost their children as a result of gambling debts, I doubt even Blizzard could win that collision.

You're vastly underestimating what major corporations can get away with when there's enough money on the line.

There are always ways to reframe the narrative.

I just mean, especially in Britain, those parents are extremely organized. Only a matter of time before more of Europe considerably changes laws regarding minors and gambling and the acknowledgement that loot boxes are gambling.

If Blizzard really wants to be on the wagon that those children were to blame for their own deaths and not the companies that facilitated their gambling and debts, then I suppose that is as nice as any a hill they are going to find to go out on.

Honestly this isn't a new concept. All things considered I've heard the game is actually good (for a mobile game), it's just the monetization is very very predatory and makes it so it's not worth playing. These kinds of games don't need a lot of players or a lot spenders, they just need that 1% or maybe even less of people who try the game to be "whales" who will spend thousands upon thousands of dollars each.

But anyways yea not a new idea, how much shit do Madden, or CoD or any of the other formulaic trash that gets released every year and gets shit on for being terrible and cutting out old features for no reason... and despite all the legitimate criticism those games print money because the vast majority of consumers are not educated and do not care.

Apparently PEGI 16 and ESRB 17+, I supoose that is a half-decent start.

That's a rather low figure, expect it to shut down next year.

Veedrock- posted...

That's a rather low figure, expect it to shut down next year.

I don't know the metrics... but I think it's the biggest mobile first week of all time by about 8x the previous or something

Other countries are much more open to this type of monetization too, and they dont post on metacritic.

The thing is, is $24 million actually a lot? Like if you look a Genshin Impact, it earned $14.24 million for September 2020, despite launching on 9/28. October 2020 it made $175.91 million. Now they don't list out what regions it was available in at that time and we know that Diablo isn't in China yet, but that is still a SUBSTANTIAL difference in earnings between the two.

Figures are from App Magic, which is the same source quoted for Diablo so it should be fairly apples to apples as far as that goes.

I'm not saying it won't end up making them money, but currently we just have one month without a lot of context as to how it compares to other games.

rjsilverthorn posted...

The thing is, is $24 million actually a lot? Like if you look a Genshin Impact, it earned $14.24 million for September 2020, despite launching on 9/28. October 2020 it made $175.91 million. Now they don't list out what regions it was available in at that time and we know that Diablo isn't in China yet, but that is still a SUBSTANTIAL difference in earnings between the two.

Figures are from App Magic, which is the same source quoted for Diablo so it should be fairly apples to apples as far as that goes.

I'm not saying it won't end up making them money, but currently we just have one month without a lot of context as to how it compares to other games.

In the world of mobile games they don't always hit peak profitability early on, Candy Crush for instance was making a lot more on their game years down the line then they did in their first year.

Mobile is nothing like normal video games where typically most of the sales will come in the first month or so.

Sure Metacritic has a 0.4/10 based on 5.6k reviews. However, it also has a 3.6/5 score based on 618k reviews on the Play Store and a 4.5/5 score based on 98.9k reviews on iTunes.

Metacritic is just a loud minority bitching. Like it or not they're irrelevant.

Loads of Streamers have been activeley spending money on the game, Asmongold has spent dozens of thousands, lowest I seen a streamer pay was like $20k. And the best part is they all still decry it as predetory after dropping enough money to save dozens of lives.

So yeah not a surprise it's still profitble when the game has whales like this.

Monopoman posted...

In the world of mobile games they don't always hit peak profitability early on, Candy Crush for instance was making a lot more on their game years down the line then they did in their first year.

Mobile is nothing like normal video games where typically most of the sales will come in the first month or so.

That can be the case, but it isn't always. That October 2020 figure for Genshin is the most profitable month overall. September 2021 and January 2022 are close but the rest are substantially lower. The other thing to consider is downloads. Diablo is estimated at 8.5 million downloads over the same period that it earned 24 million. Genshin Impact had 6 million downloads for the two days of September 2020 it was out and 18 million for October. Again, that second month is the highest by far with every month since then averaging around 5-6 million.

So I think what will be telling is what the next month's numbers look like.

rjsilverthorn posted...

That can be the case, but it isn't always. That October 2020 figure for Genshin is the most profitable month overall. September 2021 and January 2022 are close but the rest are substantially lower. The other thing to consider is downloads. Diablo is estimated at 8.5 million downloads over the same period that it earned 24 million. Genshin Impact had 6 million downloads for the two days of September 2020 it was out and 18 million for October. Again, that second month is the highest by far with every month since then averaging around 5-6 million.

So I think what will be telling is what the next month's numbers look like.

Well Genshin is a unique case I remember people being hyped as fuck when it came out, I heard stuff like Breath of the Wild but with Gacha or the first big time AAA game on Mobile. You have to remember when Candy Crush hit the scene it wasn't some huge game changer it was Bejeweled sorta but with a few unique changes.

Genshin was one of the most hyped Mobile games I have ever seen and to be fair their Waifu factor is off the charts, Genshin has some of the best looking characters in all of gaming. Even if you think Waifu shit is dumb millions around the globe care about it a lot.

Lokarin posted...

Because reasons.

Which means the 0.3 rating wasn't legit.

Count_Drachma posted...

Which means the 0.3 rating wasn't legit.

I think it actually means a bunch of people got it because name recognition and not because of quality

Count_Drachma posted...

Which means the 0.3 rating wasn't legit.

It's absolutely legit. The monetization is incredibly predatory.

Monopoman posted...

Well Genshin is a unique case I remember people being hyped as fuck when it came out, I heard stuff like Breath of the Wild but with Gacha or the first big time AAA game on Mobile. You have to remember when Candy Crush hit the scene it wasn't some huge game changer it was Bejeweled sorta but with a few unique changes.

Genshin was one of the most hyped Mobile games I have ever seen and to be fair their Waifu factor is off the charts, Genshin has some of the best looking characters in all of gaming. Even if you think Waifu shit is dumb millions around the globe care about it a lot.

Right, but this is a Diablo game so it isn't exactly an unknown franchise that nobody knew about. That is why I went with GI...well that and because I don't follow mobile games so I didn't really know anything else to compare it with.

In a related story, ActBlizz says there's no sexual harassment problem and they're keeping Bobby Kottick as CEO

How much of that 24 million is from China?
China doesn't even understand the concept of business greed so yeah, makes sense.

Most of its from stupid streamers trying to prove a point for more views. Real great calling out their predatory practices while enabling that behavior idiots. Someone made a simulator of the endgame if you want to experience how scummy it is for yourself without wasting any time or money.
https://dimi777.github.io/diablo-rift-simulator/

Alpha_MaIe posted...

Most of its from stupid streamers trying to prove a point for more views.

I highly doubt that a select few popular Youtube/Twitch streamers paid 24 million dollars for Diablo Immortal.
I'd like to see what sales in China are like.

Ferarri619 posted...

How much of that 24 million is from China?

Ferarri619 posted...

I'd like to see what sales in China are like.

Zero. https://www.engadget.com/diablo-immortal-china-delay-weibo-netease-blizzard-200834353.html

Count_Drachma posted...

Which means the 0.3 rating wasn't legit.

It's legit, it just doesn't reflect the fact that the general public tends to be ignorant of how incomprehensibly predatory and manipulative these monetization schemes can be and how horribly Immortal epitomizes that. These practices are specifically designed to obfuscate just how much money they squeeze out of players, and as much as we Very Intelligent People (tm) pay enough attention to games media and can identify and object to these practices, most of the market does not pay such close attention and the manipulation works.

I'm not sure what you're even trying to say with this post. Do you think charging $80-120k to max out a character in an ARPG isn't a disgusting display of unbridled avarice? That those charges aren't buried under a sea of intermediate currencies and processing steps that are deliberately designed to trick people into not noticing how much money they're gambling away until their credit card bill shows up? That Actiblizz isn't making billions off the backs of mentally ill people and literal children because governments are too spineless and ignorant to regulate this nonsense like the formal gambling after which it's modelled? Or are you really going with "the general public doesn't seem to mind, so it's okay"?

Down to a 0.2 rating... and China banned Blizzard

Lokarin posted...

Down to a 0.2 rating... and China banned Blizzard

China banned it but they aren't doing it due to the monetization, apparently Blizzard had some tweets recently that made China look bad so they are punishing Blizzard by banning certain games like Diablo Immortal and maybe some future games.

lol it's about 500,000 to max out a single character, if you get lucky

people thought it was around 100k, but uh, then it got even worse once someone did that

Monopoman posted...

China banned it but they aren't doing it due to the monetization, apparently Blizzard had some tweets recently that made China look bad so they are punishing Blizzard by banning certain games like Diablo Immortal and maybe some future games.

It may be for the wrong reasons, but Blizzard is still going to miss out on billions for it, so I'm comfortable applauding.

People can spend there money how they like just cause its not something you like doesnt mean its wrong

ArvTheGreat posted...

People can spend there money how they like just cause its not something you like doesnt mean its wrong

that's true, you can totally beat the game without paying anything...... right?

ArvTheGreat posted...

People can spend there money how they like just cause its not something you like doesnt mean its wrong

Sure it does. If they're spending their money on something that makes my life worse, I have every right and reason to criticize and/or object to that.

More than that, though, the issue isn't people spending their money how they want, it's companies producing games that manipulate people into spending more money than they want to or sometimes even can. That's a pretty serious problem with a lot of innocent victims.

Monopoman posted...

China banned it but they aren't doing it due to the monetization, apparently Blizzard had some tweets recently that made China look bad so they are punishing Blizzard by banning certain games like Diablo Immortal and maybe some future games.

Someone made a Winnie the Pooh reference on the official Diablo Immortal Weibo account.