Diablo Immortal - MMO ARPG for mobile platforms - massive butthurt at Blizzcon

[J1M]

Robotron did it in 1982.



Nu-Blizzard is a joke. The assimilation by Activision is now complete.



The sting goes deeper than that. Blizzard actively refused to nurture the DotA competitive scene (by largely ignoring it), while it obviously grew much more popular than actual competitive Frozen Throne. They could have made a shit ton of money from DotA even while it was still a mod. They just didn't give a shit, they slowly watched as competitive WC3 died a slow and painful death and switched all resources to their behemoth cash cow, WoW.

Meanwhile, someone else realized that the concept was brilliant and ran away with it. And it's not one company making billions out of DotA - it's two. Riot and Valve, although that trend is also on steep decline. Blizzard released the pitiful Heroes of the Storm, which is a truly, truly wretched game that's so designed by committee and devoid of any passion that it is palpable. It perfectly encapsulates everything that's wrong with the company.

Foresight and predictive ability are very rare and valuable skills in any industry, but especially one that moves as fast as videogames. Blizzard is now and has been for a very long time (at the very least since the WoW heyday of 2008 or so) run by sales-oriented bureaucrats that are as removed from the company's target audience as possible. Extinction is inevitable, after a (possibly very long) writhing and thrashing period. They might make some big bucks out of this mobile hack, but then again they might not - the audience they've alienated in this and other instances is gone forever, and this new mobile 'audience' that they're courting is as fickle and inconsistent as dust in the wind. They'll move on to whatever the next big fad is, and Blizzard has never been - even in its prime - a trendsetter.

RIP.

The funny thing is the whole MOBA thing wasn't a fast moving trend. Blizzard had years to capitalize on that market before the release of League of Legends, they were just seemingly just too stupid to see the mode people were playing in their own game could be something on its own. They also did the same thing with Tower Defense, which was another thing that got huge in Warcraft 3 before others picked that up and made tons of money off it.

Blizzard's lack of foresight when it comes to genres spun out of Warcraft 3 is almost astonishing.

Especially considering their competence at identifying fun genres made by other companies and colonizing them. (MMO, TCG, RTS)

 

[Space Satan]

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

Time to go back to Diablo III until a new big one arrives

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

D3.... yeah like that wasn’t a offline disappointment either. Keep on sliding into the shitter.

POP some fucking balloons and burst the bubble of hope!

 

[Atlantico]

The reason mobile game is the gold mine people are rushing in is not because it is the biggest or only goldmine but it is a goldmine with relatively low cost for investment with acceptable profit.

I agree, the investment/profit margin is way better on mobile than on PC/console. I can just imagine the corporate PowerPoint slides they used while convincing themselves Diablo mobile was a good thing. "Look at that insane investment/profit ratio on mobile games Johnson! We can't afford not to be part of this!".

If anything, as consumerism and instant gratification prominent in younger people will result in the market growing.

The phone market is saturated, unless you're aiming for the third world but they can't be milked for whale-money (or any other kind) which is why I consider this moment to be way too late to join the goldrush. It's over, now it's vicious competition and sharks in the water. Of course there's plenty of *potential* profit, with great margins, but actual profit is more questionable - because these dumbasses Activision/Blizzard will try for the top, nothing less will do.

Putting the Diablo IP into mobile and receiving lukewarm reception and decent profits, that's complete failure. There's no growth there, there's no exploitation of the IP and there's no future in it.

If Diablo mobile reaches medium popularity, that's simply not going to be acceptable.

That's just leaving money on the table, amirte? So expect A/B to follow the game's growth curve with a mighty marketing campaign. Development costs are low, marketing costs are high. Risk is high, potential reward is high.

Point is, even in the best of situations, this was never going to be easy and having shot themselves in the foot at the gate, this project is probably DOA.

It needed the momentum of Blizzcon, the PC fans were needed to push this off the ground, to create the critical mass. Ads alone will not make this fly.

 

[Gerrard]

Date Open High Low Close* Adj Close** Volume
‎Nov‎ ‎05‎, ‎2018 68.00 68.30 64.00 64.34 64.34 16,394,500
‎Nov‎ ‎02‎, ‎2018 69.95 70.29 68.38 68.99 68.99 6,102,000
‎Nov‎ ‎01‎, ‎2018 69.48 69.73 67.95 69.32 69.32 5,083,500
‎Oct‎ ‎31‎, ‎2018 68.67 70.14 68.12 69.05 69.05 7,562,000
‎Oct‎ ‎30‎, ‎2018 65.69 67.50 65.34 67.48 67.48 9,243,400
‎Oct‎ ‎29‎, ‎2018 70.34 70.34 63.40 65.22 65.22 11,058,200
‎Oct‎ ‎26‎, ‎2018 68.25 70.21 67.59 68.84 68.84 6,536,300
‎Oct‎ ‎25‎, ‎2018 68.02 70.73 67.66 70.32 70.32 7,177,000
‎Oct‎ ‎24‎, ‎2018 69.13 70.09 67.24 67.25 67.25 11,245,600
‎Oct‎ ‎23‎, ‎2018 67.79 69.39 66.71 68.98 68.98 6,850,900
‎Oct‎ ‎22‎, ‎2018 70.10 70.95 69.32 69.78 69.78 5,976,700
‎Oct‎ ‎19‎, ‎2018 72.20 72.76 69.53 69.75 69.75 10,771,800
‎Oct‎ ‎18‎, ‎2018 73.97 74.58 71.22 71.81 71.81 20,153,400
‎Oct‎ ‎17‎, ‎2018 77.35 78.53 76.96 78.30 78.30 5,319,100
‎Oct‎ ‎16‎, ‎2018 76.48 78.98 76.26 78.73 78.73 7,187,400
‎Oct‎ ‎15‎, ‎2018 75.54 76.70 74.05 75.67 75.67 11,517,500
‎Oct‎ ‎12‎, ‎2018 78.40 80.25 76.55 77.92 77.92 12,696,800
‎Oct‎ ‎11‎, ‎2018 73.80 75.64 73.23 73.85 73.85 7,930,100
‎Oct‎ ‎10‎, ‎2018 77.47 77.64 73.43 73.58 73.58 9,814,300
‎Oct‎ ‎09‎, ‎2018 76.88 78.85 76.62 77.64 77.64 4,617,600
‎Oct‎ ‎08‎, ‎2018 79.02 79.25 76.33 77.63 77.63 6,106,400
‎Oct‎ ‎05‎, ‎2018 80.25 81.00 78.66 79.59 79.59 5,281,200
‎Oct‎ ‎04‎, ‎2018 82.50 82.68 79.83 80.36 80.36 7,509,500
‎Oct‎ ‎03‎, ‎2018 83.82 83.93 82.52 83.02 83.02 4,570,300
‎Oct‎ ‎02‎, ‎2018 83.02 83.75 82.20 83.39 83.39 5,374,800
‎Oct‎ ‎01‎, ‎2018 84.18 84.68 82.31 83.28 83.28 6,221,100

I wonder how many people who were at blizzcon took out their phones and went SELL SELL SELL right there and then.

 

[Seethe]

Best thing you can do; vote with your wallet.

lol. Implying most Diablo players will even consider buying this crap.

 

[Mazisky]

Best thing you can do; vote with your wallet.

lol. Implying most Diablo players will even consider buying this crap.

I want to buy the Wacraft 3 remaster but i don't know if i'll do it. I like it a lot but don't wanna give them money unless they announce something great for Diablo on PC.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

Manchildren
You will know them by their blue checkmarks

I remember when Fallout 76 was announced he was shilling the game to everyone on the Reddit subs and trying to convince them that they will like the game. Jason Schreier is a manchild and a huge faggot. So is most "games journalists"

 

[Rivmusique]

diablo seems like it would work fine on a mobile, not much to press. Don't know what the big deal is. I don't like the genre, I suppose.

I hope there's never a franchise I'm so attached to that I'd flip out if someone used it's name on a game I didn't like it.

 

[Great Deceiver]

The reason mobile game is the gold mine people are rushing in is not because it is the biggest or only goldmine but it is a goldmine with relatively low cost for investment with acceptable profit.

I agree, the investment/profit margin is way better on mobile than on PC/console. I can just imagine the corporate PowerPoint slides they used while convincing themselves Diablo mobile was a good thing. "Look at that insane investment/profit ratio on mobile games Johnson! We can't afford not to be part of this!".

If anything, as consumerism and instant gratification prominent in younger people will result in the market growing.

The phone market is saturated, unless you're aiming for the third world but they can't be milked for whale-money (or any other kind) which is why I consider this moment to be way too late to join the goldrush. It's over, now it's vicious competition and sharks in the water. Of course there's plenty of *potential* profit, with great margins, but actual profit is more questionable - because these dumbasses Activision/Blizzard will try for the top, nothing less will do.

Putting the Diablo IP into mobile and receiving lukewarm reception and decent profits, that's complete failure. There's no growth there, there's no exploitation of the IP and there's no future in it.

If Diablo mobile reaches medium popularity, that's simply not going to be acceptable.

That's just leaving money on the table, amirte? So expect A/B to follow the game's growth curve with a mighty marketing campaign. Development costs are low, marketing costs are high. Risk is high, potential reward is high.

Point is, even in the best of situations, this was never going to be easy and having shot themselves in the foot at the gate, this project is probably DOA.

It needed the momentum of Blizzcon, the PC fans were needed to push this off the ground, to create the critical mass. Ads alone will not make this fly.

I don't doubt that they'll make a lot of money out of this mobile crap, but the issue was never how much money they'll make, but rather the PR disaster and the absolute, savage disregard of their historical consumer base - the people that have stuck around with the company and who have made it what it is, who are invested in the franchises on a personal level enough to pay for plane tickets and to travel to the horribly overpriced Blizzcon - an entire conference based on the company itself.

Think about that for a second. People travel from all over the world to an event whose sole purpose is to glorify the products of a single company. If this mobile trainwreck had been quietly announced as a bookend of some panel discussion, then there would have been little to no blowback or drama. There's nothing wrong with a company diversifying its portfolio, especially onto a potentially hugely lucrative market. This is all fine and good for ActiBlizzard's financial department and the sweaty-palms Bobby Kotick underlings running the show.

However, the fans on the show floor don't really give a shit about the company's bottom line. They care about what is being shown, and how they are being satisfied as customers. How they are perceived to be valuable assets by the people making the games. How the games being displayed reflect what they want (or think they want) to play. They want to be hyped up with that mixture of nostalgia and novelty that often characterizes the feeling you get when a new game by your favourite company is announced.

Headlining an event of this magnitude, populated solely by the people who have historically supported your business, with a Chinese sweatshop mobile reskin using a venerable franchise that has been part of millions of people's lives for over two decades and which is part of their emotional memory, is one of the worst PR disasters I've ever seen.

Blizzard built up Diablo for this year's Blizzcon. They hyped it up. For this.

It's fucking hilarious. The damage control is even funnier: "Hey you guys! There's actually a Diablo 4 in the works, we swear!"

The most absurd thing is how easily this entire snafu could have been avoided. All they had to do was have a nod - even a no-gameplay, cinematic trailer - to Diablo 4, to close the show. That's all. A 3 minute clip.

It's peak ineptness and being out of touch. It's Wii Music-tier of bad. It's the financial people running the show, and it's never been more obvious. People felt conned, and that feeling will never go away.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

diablo seems like it would work fine on a mobile, not much to press. Don't know what the big deal is. I don't like the genre, I suppose.

I hope there's never a franchise I'm so attached to that I'd flip out if someone used it's name on a game I didn't like it.

Actiblizz kicks a franchise with surprisingly rabid fans to a Chinese gachashit dev, reskins one of said dev's ARPGs, presents it to a room of rabid Blizzfans expecting something else entirely. OK. Everyone makes mistakes, some people can't see writing on the wall.

But the big deal is: ActiBlizz gets downright pissy that it's poorly received because for once in their fucking lives, that picture of the Blizzfan happily eating shit that I posted a while back is NOT TRUE for once.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

D3.... yeah like that wasn’t a offline disappointment either.

at least is not diablo immortal

 

[InD_ImaginE]

The reason mobile game is the gold mine people are rushing in is not because it is the biggest or only goldmine but it is a goldmine with relatively low cost for investment with acceptable profit.

I agree, the investment/profit margin is way better on mobile than on PC/console. I can just imagine the corporate PowerPoint slides they used while convincing themselves Diablo mobile was a good thing. "Look at that insane investment/profit ratio on mobile games Johnson! We can't afford not to be part of this!".

If anything, as consumerism and instant gratification prominent in younger people will result in the market growing.

The phone market is saturated, unless you're aiming for the third world but they can't be milked for whale-money (or any other kind) which is why I consider this moment to be way too late to join the goldrush. It's over, now it's vicious competition and sharks in the water. Of course there's plenty of *potential* profit, with great margins, but actual profit is more questionable - because these dumbasses Activision/Blizzard will try for the top, nothing less will do.

Putting the Diablo IP into mobile and receiving lukewarm reception and decent profits, that's complete failure. There's no growth there, there's no exploitation of the IP and there's no future in it.

If Diablo mobile reaches medium popularity, that's simply not going to be acceptable.

That's just leaving money on the table, amirte? So expect A/B to follow the game's growth curve with a mighty marketing campaign. Development costs are low, marketing costs are high. Risk is high, potential reward is high.

Point is, even in the best of situations, this was never going to be easy and having shot themselves in the foot at the gate, this project is probably DOA.

It needed the momentum of Blizzcon, the PC fans were needed to push this off the ground, to create the critical mass. Ads alone will not make this fly.

I don't doubt that they'll make a lot of money out of this mobile crap, but the issue was never how much money they'll make, but rather the PR disaster and the absolute, savage disregard of their historical consumer base - the people that have stuck around with the company and who have made it what it is, who are invested in the franchises on a personal level enough to pay for plane tickets and to travel to the horribly overpriced Blizzcon - an entire conference based on the company itself.

Think about that for a second. People travel from all over the world to an event whose sole purpose is to glorify the products of a single company. If this mobile trainwreck had been quietly announced as a bookend of some panel discussion, then there would have been little to no blowback or drama. There's nothing wrong with a company diversifying its portfolio, especially onto a potentially hugely lucrative market. This is all fine and good for ActiBlizzard's financial department and the sweaty-palms Bobby Kotick underlings running the show.

However, the fans on the show floor don't really give a shit about the company's bottom line. They care about what is being shown, and how they are being satisfied as customers. How they are perceived to be valuable assets by the people making the games. How the games being displayed reflect what they want (or think they want) to play. They want to be hyped up with that mixture of nostalgia and novelty that often characterizes the feeling you get when a new game by your favourite company is announced.

Headlining an event of this magnitude, populated solely by the people who have historically supported your business, with a Chinese sweatshop mobile reskin using a venerable franchise that has been part of millions of people's lives for over two decades and which is part of their emotional memory, is one of the worst PR disasters I've ever seen.

Blizzard built up Diablo for this year's Blizzcon. They hyped it up. For this.

It's fucking hilarious. The damage control is even funnier: "Hey you guys! There's actually a Diablo 4 in the works, we swear!"

The most absurd thing is how easily this entire snafu could have been avoided. All they had to do was have a nod - even a no-gameplay, cinematic trailer - to Diablo 4, to close the show. That's all. A 3 minute clip.

It's peak ineptness and being out of touch. It's Wii Music-tier of bad. It's the financial people running the show, and it's never been more obvious. People felt conned, and that feeling will never go away.

Nah I dont't disagree in any way that what Blizzard did in the con is a major fuck up. They think Diablo name, which mind you already has its fanbase split over Diablo 3 and various decision around it, was enough to support the shitty announcement.

If anything having an entry in mobile gaming should be a side announcement. More like: "Hey you know we are working on Diablo 4! Here is the teaser trailer! While you are waiting for it we are doing this mobile game you can also play now!" instead of having Diablo Immortal as main attraction for Diablo series announcement.

Whats even worse is the fact: 1. they works with Tencent. Let''s face it, Tencent is not really a company known for quality games whatsoever. 2. Even worse THE GAME IS A FUCKING RESKIN. And is virtually indistinguishable from 90% of action rpg crap in the Playstore. They basically promotes a Chinese Shovelware RESKIN as canon and to-be celebrated new entry on Diablo series.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

https://www.pcgamer.com/rumor-blizz...at-blizzcon-but-cancelled-at-the-last-minute/



That's funny.

Update: Blizzard says they never had any plans to announce Diablo 4 at BlizzCon. Also said they have multiple teams working on unannounced Diablo projects. (At this point they might not want to be so vague about how many of those are and aren't games) Kotaku says they know the video is a thing but maybe Blizzard never really fully committed to showing it at BlizzCon. Although making a video kind of sounds like plans for an announcement, and Blizzard is saying not only did they not pull anything but they never even had plans for anything else.

Looking at that original Kotaku article I see it was written by that guy who thinks he leaked Fallout 76 shortly before its reveal...despite the game being leaked on 4Chan at the end of last year and everything he said about it being reworded stuff from the 4Chan leak. He's also in that wall of embarrassing tweets that was posted in here.

 

[Morgoth]

Quite frankly I find these teasers like Bethesda did with TES VI silly anyway. I prefer proper announcements with all that gameplay and release date guff.

 

[Rahdulan]

Quite frankly I find these teasers like Bethesda did with TES VI silly anyway. I prefer proper announcements with all that gameplay and release date guff.

I don't mind it when it's a real shocker of an announcement you don't see coming. You know what Bethesda's working on anyway - it's either TES or Fallout. I guess Starfield was their big tease.

 

[Keppo]

they said Twitcher3 was inspired by Skyrim so you're not far from truth.

Bullshit, they never said it because its not true. Skyrim and Witcher 3 are different genres, there are 0 similarities between them. Doesnt matter if person like one or another, but Skyrim is focused on exploration and fucking around the world doing random stuff. Witcher 3 is story heavy with focus on quests, characters and C&C.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

And isn’t one more of a mod sandbox than the other?

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

It's clearly that Skyrim inspired The Witcher 3... About what shouldn't be done while designing an open world action RPG.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

It's clearly that Skyrim inspired The Witcher 3... About what shouldn't be done while designing an open world action RPG.

I never looked at it that way. But it makes sense

 

[aweigh]

BTW, guys, you know when I posted earlier "You little manbabies, the people who have dedicated their lives to entertain us don't deserve this"?

I didn't make that up, that's actually from a tweet of the Kotaku guy.

EDIT:

This is true face of "game journalists". There is no middle-ground here.

 

[ZeniBot]

diablo seems like it would work fine on a mobile, not much to press. Don't know what the big deal is. I don't like the genre, I suppose.

That's not why people are pissed. Most people would've been fine with an IOS port of Diablo 2. The point is NO mainline Diablo titles, NO PC titles, This games not even being made by Blizzard and its going to have a fucking boatload of micro-transactions. People don't give a shit about Mobile, they care more about the fact that now Mobile has hijacked what was a PC dominant title and now has phased PC entirely out of the franchise. I make the point that Xcom (2013) ported to mobile fine with next to no compromises on gameplay or UI complexity. It can be done, but dear god if this isn't the worst possible way of going about it, they should have just copied the firaxis method.

 

[aweigh]

Everyone knows that ZeniBot, except for SJWs/Game Journalists.

The real issue lies with the fact:

- They're selling a vehicle for gambling in order to get kids hooked. There's a reason south korea bans "freemium" games like this.

- The eventual success of Diablo Immortal means that the share-holders will want to expand on mobile and eventually this will have repercussions for real gamers.

- People were expecting D4, but this is truly the least important part of this.

- Companies that make gambling-vehicles like this one, such as the Chinese company they hired to reskin one of their games into D: Immortal (yes, it's a reskin of an already existing game!), are literally the scum of the earth and by doing this game Blizzard has shown that they only care about money and will harm their audience in order to get it.

 

[ZeniBot]

Yeah they're just using Blizzards reputations and IPs to sell Tencent garbage, its a complete bait and switch, not a single person fell for it going by the photos that came out of blizzcon.