Current Events > Did Blizzard respond yet to the Diablo Immortal MTX catastrophe?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I havent played the game. The game was dead to me after that infamous reveal years ago. Even though I havent downloaded the game, Ive heard the news about it. Apparently it can cost you $100K to $500K to max out a character? I know this has been news for over a week. Maybe 2 weeks. Has Blizzard responded to this at all? Are they just keeping their head down and waiting for it to blow over?

They won't say a thing.

They're too busy swimming in pools of whale bucks to give a shit

Fucking NPR had a whole-ass segment on it yesterday, talking with a journalist from Polygon about how it's basically gambling and shit.

@swaym come shill to get your .5 blizzard bucks deposit

There isn't really anything to respond to, they monetized the game aggressively, even by mobile game standards. If they walk it back now they burn all the people who already put money in.

If you think about it, what's the point in maxing out a character in a game like this? The journey to max out the character is the whole game basically. I can almost bet the intention was that people wouldn't spend the money to upgrade their characters outside of the few whales and the grind to upgrade your character is supposed to be the games content for the next 5 years.

AldousIsDead posted...

They won't say a thing.

Jesus Christ. I guess putting their head in the sand is their strategy. There is no way they didnt think the community wouldnt figure this out. The video game community figures these things out all the time

DepreceV2 posted...

Jesus Christ. I guess putting their head in the sand is their strategy. There is no way they didnt think the community wouldnt figure this out. The video game community figures these things out all the time

Why should they, making money was what they intended, and it appears to be working. If they indeed get banned from China it will be a failure, but only then, and I suspect only just. It's disgusting, certainly, but watch capitalism in action.

AldousIsDead posted...

Why should they, making money was what they intended, and it appears to be working. If they indeed get banned from China it will be a failure, but only then, and I suspect only just. It's disgusting, certainly, but watch capitalism in action.

I thought it already got banned in China

DepreceV2 posted...

I thought it already got banned in China

And Netherlands and Belgium

The game will have paid for itself by the end of the year, and their reputation is already in the gutter, so this is basically the best thing they can do. There's no point in apologizing, because this is exactly what they always intended to do and they're not going to change it. There's no point in defending it either, because that will just make people angrier.

With the Microsoft acquisition underway, they basically have a blank check to wring their fan base for as much money as possible between now and the acquisition being completed. All that will get swept into a pre-microsoft pile and collectively forgotten.

The what

Irony posted...

The what

MTX = microtransaction

DepreceV2 posted...

I thought it already got banned in China

I wasn't sure if it was going to stick.

"Do you guys not have credit cards?"

AldousIsDead posted...

I wasn't sure if it was going to stick.

It's gonna stick pretty hard. Rumors are license is suspended for 3 years and blizzard might be forced to change their partner Studio.

DepreceV2 posted...

I thought it already got banned in China

Why? Isnt it originally based on some shitty mobile game from China?

DepreceV2 posted...

Jesus Christ. I guess putting their head in the sand is their strategy.

That's kinda been Blizzard's strategy about a *lot* of things these last several years.

DepreceV2 posted...

I thought it already got banned in China

I don't think so, I think it was just being delayed

Tyranthraxus posted...

It's gonna stick pretty hard. Rumors are license is suspended for 3 years and blizzard might be forced to change their partner Studio.

Nice.

Take it away, Nelson!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/5/9/AAWLQcAADY9T.jpg

Flauros posted...

Why? Isnt it originally based on some shitty mobile game from China?

IIRC one of the devs on it called Xi Jinping Pooh Bear or something

Flauros posted...

Why? Isnt it originally based on some shitty mobile game from China?

It's not based on any existing mobile game from China or otherwise. Anyone making those claims clearly doesn't play mobile games. D:I plays pretty much exactly like Diablo 3. It seems far more probable that Blizzard just handed over the D3 source and said "make a mobile game out of this"

Its a free mobile Diablo game. Why are people still mad about pay to win being unviable again?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/06/19/diablo-immortal-has-made-24-million-in-two-weeks-because-of-course-it-has/?sh=514fd50b3dbb

It may be pay-to-win, but many players, indeed, are paying. New mobile estimates from AppMagic seem to indicate that Diablo Immortal has earned at least $24 million from its microtransactions during its two weeks since launch, despite pushback from fans about the monetization in the game.

While I don't agree with it, gamers have voted with their wallet. Get used to it.

Jerry_Hellyeah posted...

Its a free mobile Diablo game. Why are people still mad about pay to win being unviable again?

for some reason there are people who feel like they need the best gear in the game ASAP even though the game is explicitly designed so it takes forever to get the best gear

A good mobile game will let you still be stong if you grind enough. Events and smart saving of currency makes these games playable without paying.

seriously diablo is a grindfest. Why are you mad about having to grind or being able to pay to have good gems.

It confounds me that there are people willing to defend the practice of microtransactions

It's not a catastrophe. It's not something that requires a response. It's a specific, on purpose design philosophy. I'm pretty sure the only response they're ever gonna give is the one they gave 4 years ago when everyone immediately saw this shit coming a mile away.

"Don't you guys have phones?"

A month (or longer) from now they will apologise and say there was too much MTX and dial it back a little bit. But of course they already have your money and its just a PR stunt.

That's what I'm wondering lol, I think they're just going to sweep it under the rug lol

It generated $24 million in two weeks, what catastrophe are you talking about?

it's not a catastrophe

for them.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/4/5/AASbboAADZd5.jpg

UnholyMudcrab posted...

It confounds me that there are people willing to defend the practice of microtransactions

I don't think anybody's defending it. More like people simply don't care anymore. P2w mobile games aren't anything new, so it comes off kinda funny watching people act like this specific game is going to ruin the gaming industry somehow.

Ubergeneral3 posted...

A good mobile game will let you still be stong if you grind enough. Events and smart saving of currency makes these games playable without paying.

seriously diablo is a grindfest. Why are you mad about having to grind or being able to pay to have good gems.

If you want the best insight into DI from someone that wants to like the game, watch these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SymO1Svvsk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6qwS0qNxYM

I don't particularly have a problem with the monetization. As a mobile game, DI sucks because they don't reward F2P's enough. You get $0.50 of platinum a day, 1 free crest, 1 legendary gem roll from ash every 1.5 weeks, and 1 legendary crest every month. Roughly $24 in "value"/month.
The monthly passes have poor value, the bundles have poor value, even the $2 crests have pretty weak value in the short term. And there's no way to grind to attain these, it's basically a path only available to whales.

If you want to grind, you can grind paragon levels for decent incremental progress. But it doesn't increase your resonance (and I don't think it even affects CR), it's just linear growth so it tapers off. As far as paragon is concerned, you're better of botting or using easy afk tricks.

Worst of all, the funnest content is all social content but forced social content that's often by-appointment. You can only PvP in the hours designated by the game. If you want to run regular dungeons, where you get all your set equipment, you have to gather 1 other player for Hell1 and 3 others for Hell2 (higher difficulties = better loot). It's not optional, you CANNOT run those dungeons without other players, for no reason other than to promote social pressure.

The monetization is ultimately just penny slots (that cost $2 and have no monetary return), plus some sketchy pay-to-go-faster style systems like Legacy of the Horadrim (open boxes to empower your character, pay money to open more boxes to a limit). Penny slots are known to be highly addictive, but it's not like they hide the fact that the value is barren. It probably should be regulated, just like a casino, but the "max out your character" numbers are 99% BS and ignore the rest of the gameplay. The problem is that the rest of the gameplay is either strictly P2W (PvP) or too shallow (raids, farming open world, elder rifts).

As for China, Diablo Immortal is officialy "indefinitely delayed due to optimize the game for device support." That's just corporate talk for "the CCP won't let us release the game and we are legally obliged to provide a BS reason."