“Huh? The Mobile Game Diablo Immortal is Pay-2-Win?!”

After the almost legendary BlizzCon 2018 announcement the much discussed and often postponed Diablo Immortal finally appeared on smartphones after four years of development and, as decided at short notice, even for the PC. Diablo fans can play the new part, which has nothing to do with Diablo 3 or the fourth part, but is an independent game in the series. And that’s probably the reason for the confusion surrounding the game itself and the resulting hatred that you can read in various Diablo forums right now…

On reddit and in social media, the short pastime for the smartphone does not go down well. “Diablo Immortal is unironically the worst game I’ve ever played“, “The PC version is a joke” or “Every ruthless monetization feature out there has been packed into this game. It’s like p2w exodia” people write on Diablo Reddit. The game, which is otherwise actually pretty good, gets most of the reviews because of its unmistakable pay-2-win aspect.

That can’t have seriously surprised the Diablo community

Your character has significant advantages in the endgame if you put hundreds of dollars into a gacha reward system. Offers in the shop are specially designed in such a way that an item package for a second reward is just not enough and you are encouraged to buy the second big, somewhat discounted real money package. And at the end of each dungeon run, thanks to your additionally purchased season pass, you can optionally press a button to throw 99 cents into a slot machine to get an increased chance of looting.

Diablo Immortal (buy now ) runs Pay-2-Win from the textbook, it is designed as a money printing machine, just like countless other mobile games before it. So, did Diablo players seriously expect anything else? Surely they haven’t forgotten THE BlizzCon 2018 moment when the new Red Shirt Guy asked, whether Diablo for the smartphone is a “late April Fool’s joke”.

Shortly after the announcement four years ago, players knew what quality and monetization goals Blizzard would be pursuing with it. Even then, people knew the reputation of mobile games and what goals developers are pursuing with it. The trailer for Diablo Immortal has today on YouTube 33,534 likes and 782,000 dislikes. This is a shattering result. Of course, this clearly negative feedback hasn’t stopped Blizzard from bringing Diablo to mobile and developing it with the usual pay-2-win aspects. Why should it be different again after release?

Instead of the legendary sentence “Don’t you guys have phones”, Blizzard Dev Wyatt Cheng would have can also ask on the BlizzCon stage “Don’t you guys have credit cards?” Because it was clear from the start what Blizzard intends to do with the game. The fact that Diablo players are genuinely surprised by what has become of the primarily mobile-centric Diablo game is just one side of the coin.

Just hate Blizzard again

There’s probably really a tiny fraction of Diablo players out there who thought they were getting something of a taste of Diabo 4 with Diablo Immortal. And hey, who can blame people who, with the game’s umpteen shifts and overhauls, don’t took every update to the development. On reddit users write that the expectations were too high.

Blizzard influencers like Bellular or Asmongold are of course happy to jump on the hate train that the community has set in motion.

Yes, that the expectations were too high is somehow a nice thought. Rather, however, I get the feeling that most simply once again found the opportunity to vent their hatred towards Blizzard. Now hating Blizzard for the fact that their new Daiblo mobile game is blatantly pay-2-win, though, is like watching a chocolate cake being baked, then having the cake and later yelling at the baker why you were has increased. You know what a chocolate cake is, you know what’s in it and you know what happens after you taste it.

“Vote with your wallet” LOL

In addition to the allegedly surprised and hateful Diablo fans, there is a third category of players who write “Vote with you wallet” – i.e. “vote with your wallet”. They think criticism on forums is secondary, but making a mark now and not buying anything from the free-to-play game’s store would show Blizzard that they don’t condone pay-2-win content like this will.

Holy Mackerel, that’s even more naive than the approach “The expectations were too high.” Oh my sweet summer child, Blizzard isn’t going to change their outrageous pay-2-win model in their mobile game just because you call for a boycott. As you type these lines, Blizzard probably already has Earned millions of dollars from orbs, gems and 99 cent loot rolls. Not participating or uninstalling the game will not turn the monetization aspect of the mobile market upside down.