BlizzCon has always been about celebrating the works of Blizzard Entertainment the multitude of fans that made them popular. Cosplay, talent shows, in-depth panels – these events and more have always served as a reminder to that Blizzard has created amazing games that have cultivated a fanbase that is second to none. The tens of thousands that attend BlizzCon and the millions watching via the Virtual Ticket are testament that everything Blizzard does is watched with upmost attention. That level of devotion served as both a positive and negative this year as Blizzard sought to bring important portions of its history to its current age of fans while simultaneously dabbling in new markets that have established themselves as the future gaming.
On the historical front, Blizzard shed some additional light on the World of Warcraft Classic Edition that fans felt were ‘owed’ to them after unofficial classic servers were shut down a few years ago. WoW Classic should serve to scratch that itch that many of its fans have for playing the game from a much, much simpler time (while introducing newer players to a world that they haven’t been able to really touch in quite some time). Its summer 2019 launch window was met with some disdain but otherwise players seemed mostly satisfied with what will be offered when it eventually launches as a free service for anyone that already maintains a WoW subscription.
Blizzard’s second announcement in this vein was one which was met with a dutiful amount of enthusiasm. Warcraft III: Reforged is a title that was predicted to debut this year, but the specifics as to just how this venerable classic would be remastered finally debuted. As a huge fan of Warcraft III, I’m completely stoked to reply this classic in a new form and a lot of other fans seemed to share my interest. Considering that Warcraft III set the stage for everything that happened in World of Warcraft, I think this release will be a bit more popular than some may predict.
Both WoW Classic and Reforged are excellent examples of the rich history that Blizzard gets to enjoy with the gaming giant that it created. I believe that these kind of remasters are appropriate and necessary when desired by the fans as long as they are balanced with an influx of new content. It’s in this area where Blizzard decided to both play it safe and take a chance, and was met with a lukewarm reception on the former and downright rejection with the latter. Sure, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and Overwatch all got their standard content refreshes, but the fans seemed to be wanting something more, something new.
Blizzard hoped to satisfy this itch with its announcement of Diablo: Immortal. On the onset, you’d think this would check all the proverbial boxes. After all, it was a new game in the Diablo series that would tell expand the lore during the time between Diablo II and Diablo III. In addition, Immortal would be poised to reach a bigger audience than ever before by launching as a mobile title. The ability to play a full fledged Diablo game anywhere where your phone had reception sounded like a great idea.
Unfortunately, the initial reaction by some BlizzCon attendees was decidedly mixed and downright hostile in certain circles. Recalling stereotypes of freemium games and unfair pay-to-win monetization, fans quickly attacked Diablo: Immortal for a variety of different reasons – many of them based on assumption or downright irrationality (being upset with Immortal because that took resources away from Diablo IV? Please.). Blizzard hasn’t even made an announcement or commented on Immortal’s potential monetization and some have already written it off for those yet unannounced details. While experienced mobile aficionados met the news with the usual hopeful excitement reserved for AAA entries onto the platform, others instead decided to resort to trolling and half-baked memes full of half-truths or downright misleading information. As someone that has enjoyed both Blizzard and its fanbase for decades, this kind of reaction to a new game truly disappointed me in more ways than one.
This isn’t the only Diablo related event that took place during BlizzCon, as the Nintendo Switch version of Diablo III debuted on the first day of the event. However, while the Diablo fans seemed to be satisfied with that game being ported to a new console that satisfaction seemed to come solely from the fact that it was a console and not the “evil” mobile machine.
This reaction to Blizzard’s newest game seemed to cast a bit of a shadow on the rest of BlizzCon. This truly was a shame, as all the aforementioned community events were as great as ever. Blizzard eSports remained exciting through the championship games and the panels continued to offer useful and cool behind-the-scenes information on the other Blizzard titles. BlizzCon’s core tenets remained intact, but not before taking some blows from some of the fans that once held the event so dear.
As someone that enjoys both mobile gaming and Blizzard titles, I’ll probably never understand the sheer hostility displayed by some of the fans towards Diablo: Immortal. Yes, based on what we’ve seen before, there are better and worse ways for a PC company to debut their mobile offerings (and this one probably wasn’t executed as well as it could have been). But, if you’ve at least read TouchArcade for a reasonable amount of time, you’ll know that we understand the business of mobile games including what works, and what doesn’t. Maybe it’s this lack of understanding that led to the utter hate I experienced this BlizzCon. Maybe it’s the fact that some gamers will never want to understand or realize that gaming is a business like any other entertainment venture.
Regardless of the reason, the proverbial Pandora’s Box has now been opened. Blizzard’s fans will have to come to grips with the fact that mobile is a legitimate gaming platform and no amount of irrational hate is going to change that fact. Blizzard will have to understand that embracing the future with a still relatively new platform will require a level of patience and teaching that wasn’t necessary before. Only in this way will the company survive and continue to celebrate everything it’s accomplished in the past while ensuring that it will still exist for quite some time in the future.
We just keep going on this merry go round.
Listen, I’m a mobile gamer first. I used to be a console gamer but thanks to rsi it’s mobile or bust. Even then it can be challenging. I played games on PC occasionally, including the first diablo a fair amount and briefly diablo 2. I loved the games. I loved the loot. I found wow and got the loot with some extra cool things and I played the crap out of that. In fact I think wow was really my last pc game. I hate the virulent PC gamer fanbase as a whole for pretty much everything.
So with that established when immortals was announced I was thrilled. I don’t follow BlizzCon but I enjoy blizzard games. I’ve been having fun playing diablo 3 with my family so the thought of the creation of a mobile diablo game was very enticing.
But the few things that raised some red flags are still raising red flag. Blizzard thinking that announcing a mobile game based on an existing to their entirely PC Focused fanbase at a conference that people spent a lot of time and money getting to was just pure stupid all around. Add onto that the fact that there’s almost 100% certainty that this will be free to play and seriously, a 6 month old child could have looked and said “that’s a bad idea dude”. Yet they did it anyway.
Had they announced it later in the week or just as an aside like “yo, we are making a FTP diablo clone check it out” it would have still gotten backlash but not nearly as much.
So that out of the way, the biggest issue with the game is if you compare what the gameplay trailer shows against an existing NetEase title called Endless of God (the name people were throwing out before wasn’t a diablo clone, but a WoW clone) and you can’t see how close those are, then you have some thick rose coloured glasses on. Just google it and watch some gameplay videos. So many of the actions are carbon copies of those in immortal.
Do I believe they built the game from the ground up? Sure... sort of. But they used the existing bones and foundation of NetEase’s other diablo clones to do so. Buttons operate and look the same, skills look very similar and the battles are very reminiscent of those people have talked about who have played the demo. But they also mentioned just a few months ago that they started development and it was in the early stages. How do you build a game for scratch and have this much available after only 3 months unless you’re using more of the existing foundation? It’s a fair question.
That said, the problem with that isn’t that they are building off a similar foundation. If they were building off a foundation like, oh, Diablo 3 then maybe you’re going to hook into the hearts of diablo loyalists. And let’s not forget the ire they had about diablo coming to consoles, sheesh. Or the auction house. BUT the thing was the spirit, the soul and the heart of diablo was still there. diablo 1 and diablo 3 are dramatically different games in every single way, HOWEVER you can still just watching the videos look and say “yes, that’s diablo through and through”, but I don’t see that when I watch the gameplay video. I expected to and was looking forward to scoffing but it just felt... off. I showed my wife, who has no skin in the game and just enjoys diablo as a series. I asked her what she thought, having told her nothing about the drama, and while she thought visually it was interesting, she also felt there was just something not diablo about it. I then showed her the endless of god gameplay and she was surprised with how much overlap there was.
I know blizzard did a great job with hearthstone. But they had a different angle with that. It was new IP and a new style of game. There’s no base that they’re building on outside of nostalgia for the characters. It was wholly new.
But diablo isn’t. It exists and has had a tenuous relationship with the majority of the world as it’s grown up. But they’ve consistently been good, premium experiences on whatever device they’re on.
Immortals is being developed from the ground up by a company whose explicit goal is to make gatcha/MTX games that rake in a ton of money.
They are also catering to China, which means massive censorship of the game. From no blood, to no witch doctor to who knows what else come time for release. But worse than that is the change in tone. Diablo lore has always been dark and Lovecraft-ian. It’s the centrepiece to the diablo universe. But NetEase has made a statement that they’re not going to have as dark a story, that it’s going to be designed to appeal to as many people as it can.
This makes sense from a financial perspective but NOT from a customer perspective.
I know the game will ultimately do incredibly well. It’ll make NetEase and blizzard so much money in the mobile market because I’ll eat my hat if it’s not heavily FTP.
But I think the most frustrating thing is that although I see a lot of unnecessary hate, I also see from game journalists this weird stance where it’s like you’re afraid to criticize the game or anything that blizzard mentioned. You don’t comment on the similarity to the other game NetEase has made and just shrug it off.
I don’t expect you to be completely negative, but the complete positive spin without any critique is disappointing for someone like me who has been coming to TA for close to a decade now.
You can be effusive, but without criticism what’s the point? It’s not as if there aren’t valid points from the opposing side, yet it seems few main journalists are willing to take the risk and discuss them. It’s strange. And frustrating.
Thank you!
Great article.
“you’ll know that we understand the business of mobile games including what works“
If you’re saying that the only viable businesses model is the rampant exploitive gambling mechanics pervasive in mobile games then you’re the reason that all those games hated that announcement.
The fact is mobile is a lesser platform for a variety of reason the current popular monetization model is one, the limited controls is another.
It’s really hard to trust anybody who looks at this announcement and not acknowledge the legit reason it could turn out bad. Being hopeful is fine but everyone knows the likelihood of a fair monetized game( pc fair) is close to zero