Topic: Diablo: Immortal (for mobile only)

[MysterD]

Gematus - Diablo: Immortal announced at BlizzCon, developed by NetEase & Blizzard...and is going to be only for mobile platforms.
VG 247 - Diablo: Immortal is an online-only game.
Diablo: Immortal - Cinematic Trailer.
Diablo: Immortal - Gameplay Trailer.
YongYea - Diablo: Immortal facing furious protests from fans.
YongYea - Blizzard deleting comments and dislikes from Diablo: Immortal trailers & threads on Youtube.
Polygon - Blizzard broke unwritten rules of Blizzard and BlizzCon.
PC Gamer - Blizzard was going to announced Diablo 4 at BlizzCon, but cancelled at the last minute.

[gpw11]

Seems to be a lot of blow back on this move

[PyroMenace]

It's mainly the fact they did this at blizzcon. A convention that blizzard is known for announcing huge stuff and getting everyone excited about it. Sure some Blizzcon's are generally less exciting than others, but usually they have something decent to show in the works. I have no idea why they thought porting Diablo to mobile is such a big deal to them when they have already literally ported it to consoles and even the Switch recently, and even did so outside of blizzcon which is what they should have done with this. Its definitely something I think they should do because why not? Those types of ARPG have been on phones for a while now, why not Diablo? But it's nothing as grandiose as they somehow think it should be. So yea they fucked up there, they do deserve a lot of the heat for it, even though it is a bit on the cringe side but its definitely not unfounded. What I found the most surprising was an article that quoted one of them saying they found the reaction completely unexpected, which is a fucking awful thing to say and only makes them look worse and completely out of touch with their fans.

[scottws]

I hate to say it but the industry has moved past what OGs (Original Gamers), mainly the tail end of Generation X and the first Millenials, expect. Everything is about multiplayer, microtransactions, mobile, easy to pick up and play. Sure, there are still people in these generations that still avidly play games, but less and less as the responsibilities of adult life tend to take over.

Just yesterday I saw some sort of add for a charity called "Extra Life" and thought to myself that today's core gamers probably don't even have any idea what that really refers to.

Games have moved on.

[Cobra951]

A mobile knockoff of Diablo by a Chinese company known for Diablo-like knockoffs, reskinned with official Diablo assets at the behest of ActiBlizzard, announced at the climax of of an event hardcore Diablo fans paid to attend, and were hoping for the announcement of Diablo 4.  What could possibly go wrong?

Blizzard is no more.  What has replaced it is so far out of touch with the fanbase that they're still blaming their victims in this fiasco.

[MysterD]

A mobile knockoff of Diablo by a Chinese company known for Diablo-like knockoffs, reskinned with official Diablo assets at the behest of ActiBlizzard, announced at the climax of of an event hardcore Diablo fans paid to attend, and were hoping for the announcement of Diablo 4.  What could possibly go wrong?

Blizzard is no more.  What has replaced it is so far out of touch with the fanbase that they're still blaming their victims in this fiasco.

Blizzard died when Mark Kern and The Shaefers left, which was after Diablo 2: LOD (2001) and before Diablo 3 PC (2012).

[MysterD]

IGN - Blizzard is saying they did not pull any games from their BlizzCon 2018 line-up.

[PyroMenace]

I hate to say it but the industry has moved past what OGs (Original Gamers), mainly the tail end of Generation X and the first Millenials, expect. Everything is about multiplayer, microtransactions, mobile, easy to pick up and play. Sure, there are still people in these generations that still avidly play games, but less and less as the responsibilities of adult life tend to take over.

Just yesterday I saw some sort of add for a charity called "Extra Life" and thought to myself that today's core gamers probably don't even have any idea what that really refers to.

Games have moved on.

I really don't understand what you just said or what you are trying to say. Games have moved on? Everything is going mobile? Our generation and the younger generations are still playing the core games we did when we were younger? What?

[Quemaqua]

I definitely don't think all the doomsaying is quite warranted. There are still hosts of good games made that appeal to a huge variety of people. This is just a dumb cash-grab from a company looking to expand its IP to something that will reach a wider audience. It's dumb, and of course anyone at Blizzard that didn't see this as being the kind of thing everyone would hate is a fucking moron, but I mean ... that's the business end of things, right? People are generally more mobile-positive these days, but this is not a franchise that has catered to those people. This should have been expected. And honestly, who cares, they tanked anything worthwhile in the Diablo IP with 3. Which ended up being a fun game, but they kinda ruined the world and characters. I'm sure this will be a middling game that will do okay, and they'll come back with another big one at some point down the road once the dust settles. And it'll probably be weird and everyone will hate it and then they'll patch it and everyone will think it's okay.

[Cobra951]

I really don't understand what you just said or what you are trying to say. Games have moved on? Everything is going mobile? Our generation and the younger generations are still playing the core games we did when we were younger? What?

My reaction was similar.  I didn't express it because I sometimes feel I'm out of touch with where things are going.  I'm glad it wasn't just the old guy thinking real games are far from dead.

I definitely don't think all the doomsaying is quite warranted. There are still hosts of good games made that appeal to a huge variety of people. This is just a dumb cash-grab from a company looking to expand its IP to something that will reach a wider audience. It's dumb, and of course anyone at Blizzard that didn't see this as being the kind of thing everyone would hate is a fucking moron . . .

That's what baffles me.  The presenter, Wyatt Cheng, is a senior game designer.  Didn't he feel in his gut what was going to happen before it did?  Or was he ordered to take one for the team, after better plans for BlizzCon fell through?  There are some indications that ActiBlizz was at least considering announcing Diablo 4, may have even had a video on it, but something made them decide to pull back.

Diablo 2 Producer Slams Blizzard for Failing to Foresee Diablo Immortal Outrage  This video goes much further than its headline suggests.  I think YongYea fairly covers the conversation here, including Scott's depressing comment.

[MysterD]

The biggest mistake here is when the dude at BlizzCon asked "Is this coming to the PC?" and Cheng responded along the lines of, "Do you guys not have cell phones?"

He should've responded: "Do you guys want this on PC? That's interesting feedback. I should go ask the team, if this is also going to go there; or if we should bring this there."

Yes, a lot of people DO have cell phones. But the thing is: at BlizzCon, you are talking to a PC CROWD. Blizzard was always PC-centic and often released stuff there first, so....they expect whatever announcement to be likely for the PC.

But even Bethesda, of all companies, had enough common sense to know, along the lines of this at that E3: "Well, this mobile ES: Blades games; well, we're gonna release ES: Blades on everything - PC, mobile, PS4, X1." Just like they did w/ Fallout Shelter. They didn't open or close the show w/ ES: Blades, either; it was somewhere in the middle.

Not bringing Diablo: Immortal to PC, it sounds like they are tone deaf to their audience, their PC audience that been w/ them since the original Diablo 1.

Positioning Diablo: Immortal b/t D2: LOD and D3 is also interesting, as this could fill in some gaps in stories and characters b/t the two games.

I am curious about ES: Blades b/c it's a ES game and b/c it's gonna be everywhere. If it comes to PC, and especially even more so if F2P or it's dirt-cheap to buy a fair amount of content - I'm gonna give it a shot. Especially if it does evolve, get better and/or good over time, like some other on-going games getting more & more content over the years have done; especially in the MMO space (think FF14 Online MMO). Some games release and are....meh out-the-gate - but b/c it's living and breathing, they expand on it constantly, revamp, improve, and deepen the game.

Worst comes to worst, PC gamers play ES: Blades and say, "Nope, not for me." Best outcome is: "I can play this on mobile and/or PC; I like this."

Right now, all I can say about Diablo: Immortal is: "Well, this ain't coming to the PC. Maybe I'll go check out Titan Quest: Raknarok expansion, Path or Exile, and/or Grim Dawn."

[scottws]

I really don't understand what you just said or what you are trying to say. Games have moved on? Everything is going mobile? Our generation and the younger generations are still playing the core games we did when we were younger? What?

My point is that the companies make games are targeting people other than us. There is more money in it for them if they do so. And what these younger games like is a lot different than what we grew up with.

Am I saying that there are zero games with the complexity and difficulty that we grew up with or zero single player games that appeal to us older gamers? Of course not. But look around at the gaming landscape. In general, it's nothing like what it was 15 - 20 years ago.

Everything I seem to see these days is multiplayer and pay-to-win. Or multiplayer with repetitive, tedious grinding for better items. Or even if it is some IP that I used to love, it's bastardized in some way.

[Quemaqua]

I don't really see that at all. Like yeah, there are a lot more of those types of games, but how much bigger is the games industry now than it was 15 years ago? It's not even comparable. Sure, there are a billion pay-to-win shovelware cellphone games, but I don't see any real reduction in the amount of good stuff to play. There are more games I want to play than I could even conceivably have time for even if I was still 15 and doing nothing but playing games. There are new games markets that are opened up, but I'm not actually sure that read of the young people is even accurate. I know a bunch of younger gamers, and they all play the same kind of stuff I do for the most part. I think those markets are pretty distinct things, honestly.

[Cobra951]

Now ActiBlizz has said that their "best developers" are working on mobile games for all their IPs.  Smacks of the final nail in this coffin.  They're not just out of touch.  They're deliberately ignoring their (former) fanbase.  Nothing else explains this exposition right after the overwhelming backlash over Diablo Immortal.

[MysterD]

I really do think we'll see more mobile games, across the board from AAA pub's/dev's. If there's $ to make there, they will definitely bring titles/IP's there.

But, I do think it would be in the best interest of a lot of these dev's/pub's doing this stuff w/ well known "core" game IP's to release these "mobile" games across PC, consoles, and mobile - you know, like ES: Blades is doing.

I won't be surprised w/ laptops getting so close to desktops now, phones getting better hardware these days, and consoles likely going to get more powerful - we'll see more of the same games across PC, console, and mobile....like ES: Blades is doing.

Don't be surprised if we see a WarCraft mobile game & StarCraft mobile game at some point also.

[Quemaqua]

It's not a surprise that Blizzard is getting into the mobile market. Hearthstone has been huge for them, and that has a big mobile presence. I also don't really give a shit if they make a Diablo mobile game. I won't play it, but whatever. It doesn't mean there won't be a Diablo 4. And if there isn't because this mobile game makes them all the money (which I doubt, there are already a thousand Diablo clones on phones), whatever, it wasn't likely they were going to do justice to it anyway. Diablo 3 ended up being fun, but it ruined whatever potential that universe had without a hard left turn Blizzard was never and is never going to take.

[Cobra951]

Diablo 4 is real work, with a return on investment that won't come close to matching the easy mobile money from international markets.  I hope you're right and that it gets made properly, without monetization ruining it.  We'll see.

[Quemaqua]

I mean there are plenty of bigger-name IPs that end up getting mobile games. You're right, it's easy money, but it's not like pumping out a continual stream of Diablo games on mobile is going to be a sustained money stream. One might make them money, but unless it does amazing and they have amazing ideas for another (and what amazing ideas can you have for a mobile Diablo game?), it's probably a one-off.

[MysterD]

GameSpot - Blizzard is planning mobile games for ALL of their IP's:
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzard-is-working-on-mobile-titles-for-all-of-it/1100-6463105/