Diablo Immortal hasn’t been receiving the best post-launch coverage in the media. This comes as players have begun playing beyond the game’s story and into its open-world gameplay. Like Diablo III, the game brings a whole lot of additional content after its story including competitive modes, treasure hunting and more. However, it seems like Activision Blizzard has chosen to use gamers’ enthusiasm for the franchise as a means to rake in the money through microtransactions.
It’s not the first time that Blizzard has tried to take on microtransactions. In fact, the company had one of the biggest faux pas with their failed auction house in Diablo III. But that isn’t holding them back from giving it another go. This time, their attempt has them being the center of a renewed conversation about microtransactions and pay-to-win. In fact, even before it was available, it has already run afoul of gambling legislation in the Netherlands and Belgium. The list of countries in that list might grow as the conversation was already started when EA made a similar attempt a few years ago.
The Diablo Immortal Controversy – Diablo says “Gacha”
While there is nothing new about games and microtransactions, Activision Blizzard’s take on it in their first mobile Diablo game, Diablo Immortal, has fans saying that the company is Diablo incarnate. From reviews and forums, fans are claiming that these microtransactions have severely broken the gameplay in the game; at times making it unplayable particularly when it comes to PvP (Player v. Player)
So, like all Diablo games, Diablo Immortal does have a story. Apparently, the story stays true to Diablo’s roots. It builds on the story between the events of Diablo II and Diablo III. However, as players progress beyond the current story, gameplay takes a severe turn for the worst.
Instakill by Paying
Like Diablo III, players are able to take on other players to test their character build and game prowess in PvP battle. However, Blizzard has made this portion of the game severely unbalanced as it focuses on a gacha mechanic. While players don’t pay for loot or equipment, they do pay for “gems”. These gems then give them boosts to their equipment. It’s these boosts that make the game so broken. In some online game plays, seasoned Diablo players – who have not paid for these gems – are instakilled when meeting players who are paying. The severe imbalance in the mechanic has made the game unplayable for players who aren’t paying.
Pay Exorbitantly and be Rewarded
It’s not that players are against developers monetizing their work. It’s Blizzard’s implementation of the mechanic in Diablo Immortal. In Diablo Immortal, there are five gems which players can pay to roll. For each gem, players can roll a version of it with up to five stars. Free to play players can do this by completing an Elder Rift. Each run of an Elder Rift will reward players with a Legendary gem. However, if you are less willing to wait you can “enhance” these rifts with a payment of up to USD$25 (MYR110.33).
The drop rates of higher rated Legendary gems are estimated at about 1%. That said, the rate at which players are actually seeing higher tier gems are appalling. This is because players can actually pay good money to roll and re-roll gems with a slightly higher chance to get them. At the time of writing, there have been multiple estimates that place the cost of specc’ing out a single character at USD$100,000 (MYR441,303.30). This estimate excludes the cost of rolling and getting 5-star gems for each “awakened” legendary gem. Each awakened gem has five smaller gems for you to roll as well.
Still Raking in the Moolah
As much as the community has been up in arms, it doesn’t seem to have affected Activision Blizzard’s bottomline. The company has reported earned a whopping USD$24 million in the two weeks since its launch with over 5 million downloads of the game itself. It’s worth noting that the initial launch of the game has been delayed in the Asia Pacific region, including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. It will only be making its debut on July 8. So, there may be more whales waiting to jump on the Diablo Immortal gacha machine. However, the initial success of the microtransaction laden game, may have bigger implications moving forward.
Diablo IV Could Receive the Brunt of the Retaliation
The severe imbalance of game play and Activision Blizzard’s attempt to cash-grab on a free-to-play version hasn’t affected the company’s bottom-line. However, it could spell an uphill battle for the upcoming Diablo IV. While the game is one of the more anticipated titles in the near future, the controversy surrounding Diablo Immortal has all but eclipsed the release date announcement at the Bethesda-XBox showcase. If you missed it, Diablo IV is set to release sometime in 2023.
With the conversation surrounding the franchise being about the broken gacha mechanic of Diablo Immoral Immortal, excitement about Lilith and the upcoming game has been damped. Instead, long time players and fans are more concerned about the microtransactions that will plague the new game. Developers behind the upcoming title has tried to distance the two games in a Twitter reply after its release reveal.
The fact of the matter is, even with a small group of players airing their woes, Diablo IV has more to lose. With the immense coverage the issue has gotten on news sites, YouTube and Twitch, the issue is becoming top of mind when it comes to Diablo as a whole. This could result in less people purchasing the game at launch or at all. Diablo, as a franchise, is running the risk of not getting new players and losing casual ones.
Losing Momentum Early
Why is this bad? Well, casual players usually play the game to experience the story-telling that the franchise has become so popular for. They also play a part in driving the interest in the post game game-play. Hardcore fans will buy the game regardless of the press. However, they are a small fraction of the bigger picture. Activision Blizzard may cause casual players to be completely alienated by their cash grabbing in Diablo Immortal.
As die-hard fans will undoubtedly get the game at launch, the game is depending on casual gamers to thrive after the initial boom. Casual fans are the ones that will buy the game months after its launch as the hype dies down. This continued sales is what Activision Blizzard has to lose. However, if they continue to bank of gacha mechanics and microtransactions driving their revenue, they will be dealing with another failure on their hands. Just like Star Wars: Battlefront II, players – even hardcore ones – will not continue to back a company that doesn’t respect them. As a Diablo fan, this one hopes that they realise before it’s too late.
Diablo Immortal in Asia – An Opportunity to Make Good
It’s not too late for Activision Blizzard. With their upcoming launch of Diablo Immortal in Asia, they have a golden opportunity to make things right. While they claim that the delay to July 8 was to commission resources for better game-play, we can’t but wonder whether they expected the initial backlash from “western” audiences.
That aside, the company does have the chance to alter their implementation of the gacha mechanic universally to ensure the longevity of Diablo Immortal and the franchise itself. Unlike Genshin Impact, it doesn’t have that “kawaii” factor to draw in new players as it continues to fumble. Of course, this may hurt early adopters, but if Diablo is worth anything to them, they should look to the future of the franchise.
They will also need to shift the conversation to Diablo IV sooner rather than later. Making things right will help with doing that. With the initial burst of outrage or praise, player sentiment will undoubted swing in the Diablo IV’s favour. In fact, it could shift the tone for the company altogether. Something it desperately needs overall.