Why was the Diablo Immortal backlash so severe? Why didn’t Blizzard see it coming? Today on Kotaku Splitscreen, we discuss.
Kotaku‘s Maddy Myers returns to the show this week, joining me and Kirk to chat about last week’s big Diablo disaster. First we talk about some of the games we’ve been playing, including Assassin’s Creed Origins, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Red Dead 2.
Then we get into the news of the week on Nintendo removing a racist animation from the new Smash, BlizzCon announcements, and the big Diablo controversy. We talk about why Diablo Immortal frustrated fans and offer some theories as to why marketing is such a large part of video game culture.
Finally, off-topic talk and Kirk’s Music Pick Of The Week.
Listen here:
Get the MP3 right here, or read an excerpt:
Jason: I can promise everybody that Diablo 4 is in development. I have talked to many people who have worked on it, or seen it, or played it. The game is being made right now. That’s not to say the game won’t be cancelled, because we have no idea what’s going to happen in the coming years, but the game is in development. So to the people who freaked out, and many many people freaked out about Diablo Immortal, thinking it was going to replace Diablo 4, don’t freak out any longer.
So yes, there was a lot of fan backlash to Diablo Immortal, for many, many reasons. Everybody saw that guy who got on line at the Diablo Q&A afterwards and asked, ‘Is this an off-season April Fool’s joke?’ Everybody saw the rage, the YouTube downvotes, the Reddit comments. And so there are a lot of questions about this rage. Here’s a question I want to ask you two, and Maddy I’ll throw it to you first.
Blizzard has created this atmosphere where they hold BlizzCons every year, and they say, ‘Hey, Blizzard family, get together.’ And they always ask the same questions at the beginning — How many of you is it your first BlizzCon? Your tenth BlizzCon?
Maddy: And they started out with that trailer showing everybody’s smiling faces in the audience saying, ‘Welcome home!’
Jason: So here’s the question. And I don’t say this to justify any of the awful reactions I’ve seen from some people online. But do you think Blizzard has facilitated this type of rage by creating this atmosphere where the fans think they’re part of the Blizzard family and they should be getting whatever they want because they’re part of the Blizzard family and they’re coming to BlizzCon every year? Do you think that’s part of this conversation?
Maddy: I think so. I don’t know if I’d say, ‘Well Blizzard deserves this because they have been facilitating these kinds of cons,’ because Blizzard is not the only organisation that does stuff like this with games and encourages this kind of mentality.
I think they’re a good example, because it’s a convention that’s PAX-esque but it’s run by Blizzard and it’s only Blizzard games, and there’s a sense that if you’re there you are really only a Blizzard gaming fan, and you can walk from the StarCraft bar to the Hearthstone-themed bar. ‘You’re only playing these games’ is sort of the vibe of that convention, so it’s unique compared to PAX.
But it does call up that sense of, well then how much are the fans socially permitted to ask? And is it OK for them to voice those opinions directly at a Q&A where they can literally speak to the developers and insult them to their faces? And that is I guess socially normalised enough now that people feel confident about doing it and they think it’s funny and they can be on a Twitch clip and share it with their friends, and that’s rewarded.
That’s a little bit different but also kind of the same as tweeting at somebody to drag them and getting upvotes and stuff like that, but now it’s in person at a Q&A so it’s a little uncomfortable.
Jason: I think that because people feel like they’re part of this extended Blizzard ‘family,’ because of the way Blizzard has created this atmosphere, they feel like Blizzard should be making games that’s just for them. So when Blizzard is like, ‘Hey we want to make a game that appeals to the mobile audience,’ and it’s clearly not for this crowd at BlizzCon, or for Diablo fans on the greater internet at large, they feel personally attacked.
‘Hey, I took a day off work, flew across the country to be at BlizzCon, and this is what you give me?’ And that I think is really interesting and worth a conversation — Kirk what are your thoughts?
Kirk: I have a lot of thoughts, because this captures so many parts of this discussion about video game culture that’s been going on forever. So there’s a ton to it.
I guess I’ll try to maybe zero in on one thing. Something I’ve noticed over the years of covering video games is that some of the most angry and intense backlash tends to be about things that are not out yet. It tends to be more like about marketing campaigns and announcements, and things people have heard about but haven’t yet played for themselves or seen. I think in this case it’s definitely a marketing failure for a lot of reasons, and the intensity of the anger around it.
Usually if people are mad about something that doesn’t exist yet — in this case it’s a mobile game that’s in development, and it’s Diablo 4 that people don’t really know about. You’ve reported [Diablo 4] is happening but people haven’t heard about from Blizzard, so they don’t know what to think. There’s nowhere for that energy to go. So it builds and lingers and gets worse.
Thinking back to things like the Witcher 3 downgrade controversy, which comes to mind because I wrote about it when it happened three years ago.
It was so similar because there was this sense of, ‘OK this game now looks worse,’ and they’re going through trailers … Basically, everyone is talking about something that isn’t [yet] real. And in this case it’s true too.
Of course there were real things here — there was a real announcement, there was a real event, there were real people on stage. But I do get the feeling that a lot of this is just a byproduct of how much of video game culture is still built around marketing. It’s a marketing event, so much of what people talk about are announcements, which are basically just marketing.
And in this case, it was clearly a marketing failure, only because, something as simple as putting [the Diablo Immortals announcement] at the end of a big opening event…
Maddy: Treating this like the big climax you’re building to.
Kirk: Exactly. And then everyone’s like, oh it’s gonna be Diablo 4, surely it is… and then it super isn’t. The whole thing relates back to how so much of game culture is about marketing: what you’re gonna buy, and what people are telling you to buy.
Maddy: To your point about how people are mad about something that doesn’t exist and also that they can’t really interact with yet, then what they’re mad about is the assumptions they’re making about what it’s going to be. And maybe those assumptions are fair, maybe it is going to be exploitative or bad or whatever.
But mostly what I’ve seen is people angry at the idea of Diablo being a mobile game. And some of it is more reasonable criticisms — this company is a known entity I don’t like — but some of it is ‘How dare they put Diablo on a phone, that makes no sense, and that’s not for me, a core gamer.’ So there’s definitely that as well, and even that is this idea of something that doesn’t exist, and so it’s your own assumptions about what it should be.
It’d be neat if this was an amazing phone game, but I don’t think it’s going to be, so maybe some of this anger will end up feeling like it was ‘justified.’ And that’s kind of upsetting to me too, because I feel like some of it isn’t founded in reasonable sentiments.
Kirk: Especially because we know Diablo 4 is getting made. When you were describing their blog post, Jason, you used the word ‘basically’ — basically it said Diablo 4 was going to be there. But that ‘basically’ is doing a lot of work, because it didn’t say that.
Jason: That’s the big concern, right? It’s not only about the fact that Diablo is on phones, it’s about the fact that Diablo is on phones and they haven’t said anything about Diablo 4. All they’ve used is this vague ‘We have multiple Diablo projects in the works.’
And if they would just say, and it’s baffling, it’s inexplicable to me that they wouldn’t say that. ‘We are working on Diablo game for PC.’ You don’t even have to say the name — save the big title for a cinematic or a teaser or whatever. But just say ‘We are working on a new Diablo game for PC.’ That’s all you need to say.
Maddy: But isn’t that setting a precedent that at the following year’s BlizzCon there will be a cinematic? Because once you’ve announced that you have a game, and it’s a Diablo game, even if you don’t say it’s Diablo 4, I feel like that then primes people to assume, OK so next year we’re going to find out about it. I feel like that’s the way expectations have been built, and part of that is the way that these events have been run for so long —
Kirk: I wonder, it’ll be interesting to see how Bethesda announcing The Elder Scrolls VI 40 years in advance plays out.
Because there could be a new norm established there, and it could be ‘Yeah, we’ll just tell people what we’re working on,’ and then next year, it’s ‘Yeah we’re still working on that, we don’t have anything to show you, sorry, but we’re still making it.’
Jason: That was brilliant, because the reason that is Fallout 76 — ‘Here’s this multiplayer survival thing, but don’t worry, we’re still making Bethesda-style games. Here’s Starfield, here’s Elder Scrolls VI, you won’t see them for a while, but this is what we’re doing, don’t worry, we haven’t abandoned our core fans.’
And that’s what Blizzard didn’t do, and that’s why the core fans who feels like they’re betrayed by Blizzard are freaking out. It’s been really interesting to see, and I feel like it all could’ve been easily avoided.
Comments
51 responses to “Some Theories About The Diablo Immortal Backlash”
my theory is that some let their imagination and expectations get away from them and they lose perspective that they are games, that have no bearing on human life or anything important to survival. Yet they lash out let it is. From there they lose all sense of scale and common human decency and lash out at people just doing their jobs. All because of what, the thing that a huge company wants to invest in (with high risk) upsets people with no investment in it (no risk).
I want a new real Diablo as much as the next person, but I refuse to lose my mind like just because I am not getting it, there WILL be a new Diablo, just not today. My harddrive is full of unfinished games, my world will keep turning. In the meantime people who play mobile games (for which there is a vast market) can look forward to an awesome game. Good luck to them.
Nailed it on the head. So would people rather see an unpolished piece of garbage or a game they all want to play. People just need to STFU get on with their lives and when or if a game comes out, play it or don’t play it but don’t dedicate your whole life to a single release of a game.
Telling people to STFU is rather trite, to make an impact you really should lead by example.
Yeah fair call. I guess I let my emotions get in the way of that one.
Indeed. in fact I think the big issue is not that they made a mobile game but, rather how they announced it. it was the end of the show. people expected something massive and to do with the core series. instead they got a mobile annoucement. The game itself would never have gotten the backlash if it wasn’t for placment of the annoucement. oh people would still bash it and call it money grabbing but, hardly the vitriol we’ve seen.
Honestly with some of the comments I’ve seen it really would be fair to call a lot people entitled. you didn’t get what you wanted? fine be critical. vote with your wallet. Don’t spew utter garbage at other human beings because you didn’t get the black phone and instead got a white one for Christmas, when you parents had a new car deal for you in progress.
If it’s not important why hold the convention?
In short – Blizzard are tone deaf. They don’t understand their audience or their fan base anymore, they’re out of touch. I’ve seen it in WoW and I’m seeing it in Diablo. I don’t play Hearthstone but I’m hearing similar bits of bad feedback from those circles…the only “good” I hear is about Overwatch.
Fans have let it slide for years because they love the games so much but it’s been going on for too long now and it’s coming to a head. All that pent up frustration just got released with the Diablo Immortal announcement.
Personally I’m looking forward to a new Diablo PC game but I didn’t get angry about Immortal. Just scoffed, laughed at the comments/memes and moved on. I was looking to Diablo to replace WoW, give me another solid game because they screwed up with BFA so badly and I just can’t play WoW anymore, it’s boring and has lost all the charm.
With that all combined I’m just gonna take a break from Blizzard for a while. The direction they’re going isn’t one that I like, so either they’ve messed up or I’m no longer in their target audience.
In the meantime Fallout 76 is coming out….I’m just waiting to see how prevalent hacking is before I buy in.
Truly how many times have Blizzard mistepped in terms of public relations? I personally cant think of many times at all (sure all big patches of all their games brings out a certain entitled faction of their audience, who is never happy), but honestly how many times has Blizzard ever done Ubisoft, EA, Bungie levels of bad public relation moves? Beyond Diablo III poor launch, I cant think of any.
Real money auction house.
Always online.
Release a console port which doesn’t require always online.
Release a console port which has quad splitscreen and don’t add it to the PC build.
That’s just off the top of my head, and Diablo is my only Blizzard game.
none of those beyond auction house (which goes hand in hand with my mention of the Diablo II launch) are off the scale I am talking about. Things in which the whole company has a terrible public relations nightmares on their hands. Think AC Unity launch, or the awfully broken Arkham Knight on PC at launch.
The things you mention (other than auction house) are just forum based annoyances, not dreadful PR nightmares that have costs the company dear.
Always online was a big controversy because it was obviously a major departure from D1 and D2 and didn’t add anything to the gameplay but a restrictive system to play in. Made modding difficult for some things and impossible for others.
That was kinda the point with the always on requirement. Because they had the RMAH, being able to mod would have destroyed the game. Any mod that gave even the slightest advantage to someone meant they had a better chance at better loot, meaning more money in the AH. And you know there would have been people that would have gone for more than just a ‘slight’ advantage…
That was stated back at launch. It was a necessary restriction. Doesnt mean people had to like it, but it was necessary. Personally I hated how the offline and online experiences were separated in the previous games. Meant focussing on one or the other, and at the time I wasnt in the position to just game as much as I wanted online.
Today, its not as relevant obviously, thanks to the RMAH being gone and other reasons, but I doubt its something they can simply unwind from the PC version of the game.
They could have RMAH and a single player offline mode, they are not a one or nothing situation. Always Online has never impacted me directly in anyway as I have always had a good connection but that doesn’t mean I’ll buy weak excuses
Real ID being mandatory.
You think you do,but you dont
Morally Grey
The Horde/Alliance is there waiting for you
Patch 2.2 for the voice chat no one wanted
Patch 6.1 for Twitter intergration and the fucking selfie cam
“fuck that guy”
most of those fit under the patch category I was talking about, they were wide spread public misteps shaking the whole company. They are just disgruntled patch er ‘improvements’ that only some people didnt like. Anyone outside the game wouldnt know about them or even care. Where as this put egg on the face of the whole of Blizzard. In a massively public way.
“You think you do, But you don’t” – J. Allen 2016 Blizzcon
There’s one big one for you.
bahaha I forgot about that one.
$100 says they forced him to do the classic announcement just so he would have egg on his face.
How many games do Blizzard release each year compared to Ubisoft and EA? Different levels of scale there.
To be “tone deaf” as I put it they don’t need to have a huge scandal every time they mess something up…just mess things up repeatedly with their core fan base which has become a disturbing trend that re-occurs every time they release or announce something new lately.
They’ve lost touch with their community, they need to get it sorted out to prevent stuff like this from happening in the future. Doesn’t take much foresight to see that announcing a mobile game to a majority PC gaming audience is going to be lukewarm at best, and something like what happened at worst. Look at Bethesda with their track record – they’ve announced mobile games twice now and both times they’ve also announced other big projects because they know mobile won’t go down well with their audience.
Everyone in that room was a PC gamer. Specifically playing Diablo on PC most likely since D1.
Blizzard’s main platform has always been PC, with it only branching out to mobiles for hearthstone and overwatch on consoles. They expected blizzard to understand that the reason they were in that room was because they were expecting a diablo PC related announcement.
There would not have been anywhere near as much backlash if they had of said yeah we’re working on we’re still quite a while off so we dont really have anything to give you here, however in the short term here’s Diablo Immortal.
Instead they completely disregarded their main platform in favor of mobile games, which appeals / brings in the most money in the asian market.
Add to the fact Diablo Immortal is a 1:1 copy and paste of the game “Endless of Gods” which has been out in China for over a year. Watch a video on YT about that game even the skills are the same as what you see showcased in the diablo immortal demo.
Blizzard has gone from putting blood sweat and tears into making their own game, to allowing a 3rd party to copy and pasta their IP for a quick buck. That’s a HUGE drop in quality and standards on blizzards part. The fans have every right to be angry due to those reasons alone.
You have a point, but you have to remember that Blizzard is a company that needs revenue and like you pointed out the broader demographic is going to make them the most money. Which in turn allows them to produce great games. I am not saying that going about this way is right, but from a corporation perspective it makes the most sense.
Of all companies you could bring up the ‘but what about the revenue!’ defense for… You chose to use it for Blizzard? Really?
Ha.
It’s not a defence at all. To me for a company it would make more sense is all.
The issue has more to do with the way they announced it, and who they announced it to, than the fact that they are making a mobile game. The other concern I guess is that mobile games are very insidious in the way they make their money which doesn’t feel like something traditionally associated with a Diablo game. It raises red flags in regards to the direction of the company in general especially when you see some of the dodgy ways Activision monetize some of their other games.
Literally no one thinks diablo immortal replaced d4… No one thought that. Everyone knows d4 will be released one day. Stop making out this is the issue.
Think about all the money and time off work and travel people do to go to blizzcon… And they build up this huge announcement… For a mobile game… That they themselves aren’t even making… At blizzcon.. An event about blizzard made games.
but…but…the narrative…
How can I paint gamers as Literal Nazis if I allow facts into the conversation?
Gotta keep those publishers happy or we’ll lose ad revenue and exclusive access.
Now where did I put that article about certain randomly selected developers who don’t employ crunch time?
Careful, your tin-foil hat is showing.
It’s not tinfoil hat stuff when we see the same shit every day on this site.
Journalists have tried their hardest to make this a problem about ‘entitled gamers’ when it’s quite obvious blizzard just stuffed up.
I’ll give Blizzard credit where it’s due though, the Switch D3 port is absolutely glorious.
No one else here came close to mentioning nazis. And while I sometimes tire of Kotaku’s tendency to “throw back” to other articles repeatedly, suggestion of running stories with a progressive spin to appease sponsors and there being a biased agenda to the crunch coverage is some A grade conspiracy reaching.
A lot of it comes down to the state of the industry today, especially when you use the word “mobile”. How many mobile game announcements have we had that have resulted in a game that have been generally regarded as quality and enjoyable? To use a few recent examples, Command and Conquer: Rivals flopped and Dragalia Lost charmed a few but was ultimately found to be a familiar gacha game grind under the surface. Before that we’ve had a constant flow of mobile announcements for established game franchises, (mostly RPGs) each one turning out to be a disappointing cash grab in the form of familiar f2p formulas.
Blizzard should have known from the start that they’d need to work hard to generate hype for a medium that has a general negative public opinion. Their major misstep though was showing something that was a reskin of an existing game, the result of outsourcing. That was a death sentence in terms of getting their core fanbase on board and should have been foreseen.
Really, it feels like Blizzard, more than anyone else should have known what their fans wanted. There’s an entire internet out there with a very vocal public who have no issue with voicing their opinion on these things. We’ve been down this road long enough that companies should be well aware of how their products are going to be received.
I think the only positive mobile announcement in recent years was Fallout Shelter, which worked because:
a. it was released with no fanfare or prehype
b. it was timed to be something to tide gamers over until the release of the actual game.
I refused to believe Blizz didn’t see this backlash coming. They’ve made the annoucement knowing it will piss off the core fans, the fans that made the company what it is, because the exposure will get it noticed in China. They don’t care about fan expectations, only whale hunting.
I think the comments to now have all hit on it in one way or another. Its not going to be just one thing, but a combination of being the wrong product at the wrong time to the wrong audience, or something like that.
Looking at all the big announcements of the opening, I’m not sure any of them would have saved that day. A new Overwatch character, a WC3 remaster, WoW Classic, a Hearthstone expansion, and a mobile Diablo.
There was no jaw drop in any of those, and that audience was expecting one. As the likely party to get one was Diablo, and the last announcement was a Diablo product, pitched to the wrong audience, I think all those ingredients came together to start this backlash.
Which has continued on for days now, mostly from people throwing their two cents in, me included. I don’t know it could have been saved though, without something they clearly weren’t willing to commit to and announce.
So what’s funny for me here, as everyone was processing Diablo Immortal and Blizzcon was going on, was this was exactly the same conversations I was having with people at the time.
When you spend so much time telling fans that they’re not fans, but they’re family and friends, it makes everything that much more personal. And when you announce that you’re producing something for people who aren’t them, it’s received personally. Especially after those fans have paid money to be treated like “more than a fan”, if that makes sense.
That doesn’t mean the booing and jeering from the crowd was reasonable – it’s not like a new Diablo isn’t in the works. But the nature of Blizzcon and Blizzard’s messaging has led to something like this, and as the company diversifies more, I think Blizzard is going to have a vastly harder time managing it than other studios might.
It was entirely reasonable though. You ask people to shell out cash, to come see the games they know and love expand or have new releases. By all means, announce a mobile game. But do so similar to Fallout Shelter, wherein you announce Fallout 4 AND the mobile game, and the mobile game is immediately available.
What not to do: Announce a (barely even started) mobile game as a main stage announcement to a beloved franchise. Show footage and gameplay where clearly it (at this stage of development) actually _is_ just a reskin of their last game. Approach it with next to no information (how do loot drops work, will character skin change based on loot, etc) and even go as far as to say it may not be out in 2019.
The people who paid to attend didn’t do so to get a future mobile game announcement, and will not look forward to said game for 1+ years. Alright, maybe (big maybe) the game didn’t deserve the boo. But the announcement, conference, and condescending attitude of the presenter certainly did.
Hell yea it was reasonable. Especially with how Wyatt came out on stage and trotted out his spiel, ‘I’m excited, I’m super excited, you’re excited, Diablo, DIABLO ….MOBILE! You love Diablo right?? You’ll love mobile coz it’s Diablo!! What, don’t you guys have phones??’. Came off like a ineffective second hand car salesman trying to pawn off a lemon, shocked that the fan base wasn’t just gonna lap up anything with Diablo stamped on it. It was both insulting and embarrassing. What they did with the trailer and gameplay video comments and vote manipulation was the gasoline to the fire. Bottom line is Blizzard took their fan base for granted and treated them like Kotaku treats a lot of my posts. By the same token just as I don’t blame Wyatt Cheng for the decisions of Bobby Kotick, I also don’t blame a front lines mod like Alex Walker.
Questions:
1) When is it ok to boo?
2) If we can’t boo, why can we cheer?
3) How can you say they are making D4, when all they have said is that they are making multiple Diablo projects (which could just mean immortal and immortal DLC)?
We’ve got previous reporting on this. I’d recommend going back to that, and carefully reading what Blizzard did and did not challenge.
I know that jason is as close to 100% spot on with his sources, but until its been offically announced by blizzard ( and they still refuse to announce it), it just isnt happening. Its already rumoured that Blizzard have been working on it for 4 years and have already gon through 2 project leads, while also being rumoured as to be shown at blizzcon but dropped at the last minute.
BUt it is simply this, You dont go and announce a Mobile game as the main event toward a crowd of hardcore PC gaming and Console Fans. Especially when you then have 2 panels afterwards that you cant really talk about anything because nothing has been discussed. Wyatt even let slip that Diablo Immortal has only been in development for 3 months.
This Blizzcon will change how they think about their messaging, absolutely. I don’t think you can’t say something isn’t happening just because it’s not officially announced – it just means the project isn’t quite over the line.
Great example is Titan. It was mentioned earlier that it was never officially announced, but it absolutely was in development. One of the Overwatch devs I spoke to mentioned on the record that he worked on Titan before the team transitioned into Overwatch (they built the Overwatch engine from scratch during that time). So it’s one of those things where I get the scepticism, but some things are too much of an open secret or people are talking about too much – just not officially, in case they have to pull the plug. And it seems like D4 has been running into that issue. But we’ll find out more in time what’s gone on, as we did with Andromeda, Inquisition, Star Wars 1313, and so on.
People never want years of their life’s work to vanish into nothing. Especially game developers, who give up so much for this industry to begin with.
You(Media) keep saying Diablo:4 is coming/in the works but there is literally no official announcement. Until such announcement, that line is pointless because Blizzard can just say they never promised it or announced it and get away with it. We knew for a decade Titan was in the works but it never came to fruition just like D:4 could be scrapped.
Pretty much. Following the “family” metaphor, Blizzcon is basically the kids’ birthday. Imagine being a kid and for your birthday gift being told that your parents are adopting another kid, and not a thing more. The issue is not the adoption; the issue is the betrayal of expectations they themselves have created.
I have another theory.
PC gamers currently find ourselves caught within a perfect storm of video games becoming (very) big business, some of our favourite old developers now being part of huge publicly listed corporations with newfound shareholder pressures, the discovery of lootboxes and microtransactions (as unregulated gambling) and their immense profitability, and finally, developers making their games more “casual” to suit a wider audience on multiple platforms.
PC gamers are, as a whole, a fairly hardcore bunch. Have a look at the comment section of every gaming website when a new AAA game is revealed with microtransactions – despite the reviewing journalist generally not minding – there’s a significant element of us who rebel.
We grew up with real games – and now we are being force fed games packed with morally objectionable practices. We’re stuck thinking “does this game include a grind because it’s part of the core game play loop – or did they do it to sell us experience boosts”. Having to think like this all the time makes us tired and angry. And we no longer look at these developers with any fondness as we used to.
Diablo Immortal was simply a reaction to all of this due to Blizzards original status as a bit of a golden boy within the PC scene. Some us us grew up with Blizzard North… a company who developed some of the most significant video games of all time.
But now they seem like a mere shell of their former selves… developing increasingly casual games and finding ways to stuff them with as many unethical microtransactions as they can get away with.
I understand why this is happening. Because in the short term, it will work. And it’s what the shareholders want.
But as a long time fan of Blizzard, it is a little heartbreaking. Their brand no longer means much to me. I can’t help but wonder what losing their core audience will mean anything to them in the long run.
All I can say is that Blizzcon this year was a big waste of time/money. No new info regarding games, very little in the way of useful vids. I’ve been paying to get access via the net for several years and this has probably been the biggest waste of time I’ve ever seem them cause. They should have just cancelled the event like they did a few years ago, or just offer free online coverage for people with wow accounts. (Blizzard appear to just be eating money from people regarding anything anymore (which failed in D3)).
1: Some of us don’t even get the opportunity to GO to Blizzcon so yeah whine on about that.
2: Anyone else that’s as old as me knows how Blizzard operates – and we know to get excited only when the games are actually released NOT before.
3: Why wouldn’t they release a mobile game as part of the series? Some people only play games on their mobiles – go go new market.
4: It seems the whingeing gets worse every year – because every year more entitled, sooky members of the Me Me Me! generation enter the gaming arena. Just STFU and go play outside or something you tossers.
5: As a previous poster said – get some friggen perspective – they are games – anyone that gets angry about games needs to have a good hard look at themselves. Grow up ffs.
I personally thought the reveal was going to be the rumoured animated series, i never thought we were getting D4.
And yet, it was all for a reskin of another mobile game.
I disagree with alot of the games journalists who believe they didnt deserve to be booed.
I understand why you want to take Big Buisnesses side here and have a go at the audience instead.
But they deserved every single boo.
It’s so weird that the media was against the boos because how else can a large group of unknown individuals in a crowded room get their point across. I think if you find cheering and clapping acceptable then the opposite should be true, they are both metrics to gauge audience acceptance.
I keep seeing people throwing around the idea that it’s a re-skin. Hasn’t this been debunked and it’s just using the same control style as many other games in the genre? Last I read was that it was being built “from the ground up”. I’m happy to be proven wrong, but I like for criticisms to be actually based on fact.
nope, but then again its only been indevelopment for 2-3months according to wyatt cheng in ainterview with IGN which is enough time to do a simple asset flip. Also every single question asked was basically given a cant say answer during the Q&As
“Blizzard, in partnership with NetEase, has built ‘Diablo Immortal’ from the ground up for iOS/Android,” a Blizzard spokesperson said, noting it is being built from scratch.
The company confirmed that “Diablo Immortal” is an entirely new game in the face of concerns from some fans on Reddit who, in the face of fan backlash surrounding the game, suggested “Diablo Immortals” was simply a reskin of the game “Crusaders of Light.”
Source: https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/diablo-immortal-clone-reskin-1203019345/
That’s the quote I read. It seems to me like it would be a catastrophically bad idea to lie about this sort of thing when they’re already on the back foot. Who knows, their handling of the announcement and lack of transparency at the Q&A as you mention doesn’t instil much confidence, but I’d be surprised if they’d lie point blank about this, especially when people are already looking for holes to poke in it.
I think the funniest theory i saw was that apparently, the blowback was because of toxic male gaming. Because supposedly according to this joke of a journo only women play mobile games so the only reason people didn’t like immortal is because they are all toxic men.
Funniest thing ive ever read.
The average Kotaku reader could have predicted that there would be a nasty backlash as a result of announcing a Diablo mobile game and absolutely nothing else. The length and intensity of it was a little weird but you could put that down to there being no other negative news – Black Ops IV is apparently decent and Battlefield V hasn’t made any announcements to trigger the manbabies recently – that the memefactories didn’t have anything else to focus on.