Is D3 mobile actually that bad and should WoW mobile be next?

[Kynario]

Diablo Immortal isn't Diablo 3, not even DLC. It is D:I Mobile.

And no, World of Warcraft shouldn't go the same way. No. Mobile gaming is a joke.

D:I has been taken away by a company that lives on making clones of other lobby games.

Agreed, Gehco. Almost everything on a mobile platform is inferior: graphics, controls - difficult to coordinate precise movements achieved via a keyboard and mouse, and mechanics - less mechanics, of course, since you're tapping on a flat glass surface with only two fingers. Overall, it's just a sub-par experience. It should be avoided at all costs.

I was very disappointed with this announcement indeed.

[Regalosh]

Diablo on mobile isn't inherently bad, it is just mind-boggling to have it as the "main-course" at Blizzcon. If they had announced Diablo 4, Diablo 2 remaster or SOMETHING, with Immortal being an extra on the side, there would be no issues, at all.

Exactly this.

Or at least give a tease for D4... just a screen of title.. or something.

Somehow I am inclined to believe after this, that there are no plans for a new Diablo game. I mean they could have easily damage-controlled this announcement by showing something to the folks about D4. I can't imagine they didn't expect this negativity at all. Maybe not to this scale, but I think they did know in advance, that most people won't like the idea of a mobile game and there will be an uproar. Yet they decided to nothing about it.

[Whitepaw]

I kinda disagree, april's fool comment was the lowest form of backlash we can expect. I can't think of a way nicer than this. Blizzard fucked up hard and they hyped the shit out of the francise for a mere mobile game.

I really love blizard to death but remember that blizzard is a company and there are some fuck ups that needs to be called out. being nice or rough doesn't matter to them nor it should matter to you.

So, your argument is that Blizzard has shown a total lack of empathy and understanding towards their fans (which I also disagree with) and then it’s ok to be a douchebag in return? And in a very direct, personal and confrontational way?

You’re wrong.

Oh, and by the way: If you REALLY think that someone at Blizzard needs to be called out, try to direct your critique at the people responsible for this kind of decision. A hint: It’s not the developer on the podium at a Blizzcon. That’s just the guy made responsible for developing the product.

How many hours of agony do you think that the guys taking the flak on stage have already had - and will have in the future? Do you honestly believe that people come away unscarred by such an experience? Talk about lack of empathy.

[Makabreska]

Not saying it isn't. I was replying to a direct comparison of Mobile and Console.

Mobile is just fundamentally different than PC or even the Console market. It's for games that can be played for 2-7 minutes, don't require "state" and most likely don't require you to follow any kind of a story. There's a reason Candy Crush and the likes are.. eh... crushing that market.

This is not D3, as we know it. This is a mobile game that has Diablo IP.
Similarly we might see (they're probably rethinking that future announcement right now) a mobile game that has WoW IP. Doesn't mean it's going to be WoW.

I honestly don't care about the game, since I'm not even the targeted audience. I just don't like playing on my phone. And apperently one of Blizzard cofounders said "you can expect to see more mobile titles from us spanning all of our IPs at some point in the future.”

[De Lupe]

But you can expect people to react in a mature and measured way. If you behave like a spoiled and entitled brat, be prepared to be called out on that.

The “April’s fool” comment was in that category. Clearly denigrating and meant as a humiliation. Childish behavior is excusable when carried out by children - grownups should know better.

Imagine spending hundreds (if not over a thousand) of dollars on travel, hotels, costumes, tickets, and merchandise to travel to what is supposed to be a big celebration and then anxiously wait for news for a PC franchise that hasn't had much of anything for six years (even longer for some since they don't play D3) all the while being hyped up on this "amazing, wonderful new game" coming out... And then they hand you a blatantly obvious, cheaply made cash-grab MOBILE game made, not by the company parading it as their own, but instead by a company notorious for paywall games.....and NOTHING else.

They have every right to be furious. "April Fools Joke" was the NICE way to tell them to fuck off. I'm not even a big Diablo fan and I sure as hell wouldn't have been that nice about it. A little humiliation will be good for them.

If Blizzard wants to act like EA, then they will be treated like EA.

[Whitepaw]

Imagine spending hundreds (if not over a thousand) of dollars on travel, hotels, costumes, tickets, and merchandise to travel to what is supposed to be a big celebration and then anxiously wait for news for a PC franchise that hasn't had much of anything for six years (even longer for some since they don't play D3) all the while being hyped up on this "amazing, wonderful new game" coming out... And then they hand you a blatantly obvious, cheaply made cash-grab MOBILE game made, not by the company parading it as their own, but instead by a company notorious for paywall games.....and NOTHING else.

They have every right to be furious. "April Fools Joke" was the NICE way to tell them to fuck off. I'm not even a big Diablo fan and I sure as hell wouldn't have been that nice about it.

If Blizzard wants to act like EA, then they will be treated like EA.

And if people behave like children, they will be treated as such - and called out for it.

I mean, the guy with that stupid april’s fool comment could just have said “I dislike mobile games - are you planning to release a new Diablo game for PC?”. How hard is that?

But instead, he chose to show his childish feelings of entitlement for the whole world, while clearly doing his best to humiliate the devs on stage.

Your EA line is relevant. I don’t play FIFA anymore. But let’s wait until Blizzard actually do stuff like EA does. You’re just assuming they will. Right now, Blizzard is delivering more content than ever before, at an extremely high pace. Just this Blizzcon, they announced WoW Classic, paid within the WoW subscription. A clearly non-money grabbing business model. The work going into WoW Classic is gigantic when compared to the monetary gains - and the whole idea was born by fan pressure.

[nekobaka]

While there have been some jabs before from devs about such I still do not see a WoW mobile next. A Warcraft mobile would be more likely before a WoW mobile.

[ldev]

WoW Console - I'd play that. WoW already has so few skills they wouldn't even have to dumb down the game. Just chill on couch in front of a TV and play WoW, nice.

[Deleted]

We have both D3 and WoW on PC and both are performing brilliantly, lots of fun and you can literally spend hours playing these games and having fun...

Now we add D3 on the mobile and that can not be anything but a great move for all players, especially casual people who can't commit as much time.

Once people realise how good D3 mobile actually is, will the demand for WoW mobile increase and we could see that late 2019 or 2020? I'd happily wait an extra year for the next expansion to see this!!

Praise the devs, not constant QQ... this is a brave, great move!

Diablo on Mobile is not a bad thing. How they handled it was.

The game was aimed at a market that is unlikely to pay for Blizcon tickets, travel and accom so they should not be surprised the reaction was negative.

I'm sure we all have gamed on Phones before, even possibly game now and then now, but is it really our platform of choice when the main game we're here for is PC only.

This announcement should have been kept for another show, Gamescom for example, where the fans are from all platforms and are interested in varied titles. It definitely should not have been kept as the last item for the opening show of Blizcon, the place traditionally kept for the biggest announcement.

[pyro989898]

But you can expect people to react in a mature and measured way. If you behave like a spoiled and entitled brat, be prepared to be called out on that.

The “April’s fool” comment was in that category. Clearly denigrating and meant as a humiliation. Childish behaviour is excusable when carried out by children - grownups should know better.

So you expect a person to behave normally when someone plays with their emotion ?

Saying curse word on company social profile or in blizzcon when other party hasn't,it shouldn't happen. In diablo case blizz knowing played with hardcore fan emotion.Each and every question raised on that event was justified even april fools joke.Even dev deserve negative feedback,because no one forced them to present the game.On top of that trying to upload trailer again and again in order to avoid down vote was really pathetic.
Six year nothing happens, then they created hype among people that they have something to release to their diablo hardcore fans(PC fans).They created a hope for Diablo 4(or something relevant) and many people spent their money to attend event, some even took day off and some even traveled from far.And then they release something which is not their preferred mode of gaming.
Their is nothing childish behavior about "april fool joke" comment.

[Deleted]

I mean, the guy with that stupid april’s fool comment could just have said “I dislike mobile games - are you planning to release a new Diablo game for PC?”. How hard is that?

But instead, he chose to show his childish feelings of entitlement for the whole world, while clearly doing his best to humiliate the devs on stage.

Your EA line is relevant. I don’t play FIFA anymore. But let’s wait until Blizzard actually do stuff like EA does. You’re just assuming they will. Right now, Blizzard is delivering more content than ever before, at an extremely high pace. Just this Blizzcon, they announced WoW Classic, paid within the WoW subscription. A clearly non-money grabbing business model. The work going into WoW Classic is gigantic when compared to the monetary gains - and the whole idea was born by fan pressure.

Like it or not, red shirt guy was pretty much only saying what the majority of the crowd was feeling. Blizz really dropped the ball on this one, how could they possibly no known that trying to tout a mobile version of the franchise to probably some of the most hardcore fans, i.e those who attend the con and are overwhelminly real gamers. Just one mention of the up coming plans for D4 would have smoothed things out, thats all that were there wanted.

It was the most awkward panel that i think i've ever witnessed, you could see in the Dev's eyes and body language that they themselves do not believe in it and know its just a re-skin of Crusaders of Light; bit of an insult to the fanbase that they thought we would not see through that if you ask me.

As to your comment that Classic is a "non-money grabbing buisness model", your statement is not only false but rather nieve and short sighted. Firstly what buisness model isn't based around getting money????? It's called a non profit charity otherwise i would imagine, however i digress, this is indeed just a buisness model and a very smart one. They wholey understand that they are going to have a large ammount of people wanting to try Classic, alot of those will be unsubbed legacy players to return to the game.

However there is also going to be a massive ammount of people who are currently subbed to retail who also want to try or indeed make a permenant switch to Classic. So having two separate subs only hurts retails numbers, which is the main game. By having both games come under one subscription, blizz can then report those numbers as World of Warcraft subscriptions for the main game since there is no differentation between the two. Also if you have two separate subscriptions you can bet your left nut that people will cancel their retail sub to take up a classic sub, again hurting retail numbers.

WoW is still the largest sub based MMORPG and one of the reason it continues to draw more people into trying it is that it is so popular, those numbers dropping rapidly will only further hurt the game in terms of attracting new players. They would be stupid to create a situation that makes the main game look bad or less popular so this way they win on both fronts. It's called clever marketing nothing more, they would love to have a separate Classic sub if they knew it would make money, which it dam well would, just at the cost of retail which is their main cash cow so the net effect of having one subscription in the financial long run far far far out wieghs the initial cash injection of Classic, which will dwindle off rapidly after 6months and only leave the neckbeards who actually know what Classic is.

[Ausr]

It's odd. Like obviously I get the anger, I'm angry too. At the same time, those that have actually played the demo at Blizzcon were oddly happy with how the game played. Course, none of the microtransactions and stuff were in.

[Deleted]

lol you are day dreaming if you think WoW can be made into a mobile. Not with the current phones. Or a watered down version with super small servers and much less areas, detail,....yeah to sum it up a shit mobile game.

There is a reason lot of gamers are growing tired and wary of the mobile trend, its not just some "nice for casual" genre, its a fucking cashgrab for 99% mobile games. They aren't good games in general, too much paywalls, too much grind (only grind and nothing fun), its just a blatant attempt at making cheap games for bigger revenues. If you can't see how this is bad for the future of games if even big studios like Blizzard and EA (lulz) are catering to this then you must not have high standards for video games

[Albert the fish]

its a fine and very natural idea.
their only only problem was hyping up their Diablo information to the point of this being billed as a Diablo heavy Blizzcon when this was their major information for that franchise.

that and seemingly the playerbase is touchy touchy whiny people, but we knew that.

[Deleted]

Also the diablo immortal presentation was this: guys this game is amazing, we are excited...blabla...excited..blabla...excited.

Thats basically the extent of what they said about Diablo immortal, even the developers don't believe in what they say before even the crowd started booing. What does it tell us about Blizzard? Its not the developers fault, I'm pretty sure themselves must be pretty tired of the upper management of blizzard-activision telling them to only do cheap non ambitious cash grabs nowadays. As a developer, you don't want to take the cheap route if you have any passion for what you do and sadly they are forced to do this.

Blizzard is a shell of its former self since 10 years, its no coincidence

[unbound]

We have both D3 and WoW on PC and both are performing brilliantly, lots of fun and you can literally spend hours playing these games and having fun...

Now we add D3 on the mobile and that can not be anything but a great move for all players, especially casual people who can't commit as much time.

Once people realise how good D3 mobile actually is, will the demand for WoW mobile increase and we could see that late 2019 or 2020? I'd happily wait an extra year for the next expansion to see this!!

Praise the devs, not constant QQ... this is a brave, great move!

Utter BS wrapped up in reasonable sounding words...I assume this is going on your resume when you apply for Blizz PR...

[Deleted]

Mobile gaming is pure Cancer, it's entirely built upon exploiting people out of as much money as possible via microtransactions.

Yes.

Free to play is a nice fancy word to hide the worst business practices in video games. Also mobile games are often shallow and mediocre because they are limited due to the mobile capacity and gameplay. So no mobile will always be cheap cash grabs, even those that are better designed.

[greatmefisto]

And if people behave like children, they will be treated as such - and called out for it.

I mean, the guy with that stupid april’s fool comment could just have said “I dislike mobile games - are you planning to release a new Diablo game for PC?”. How hard is that?

But instead, he chose to show his childish feelings of entitlement for the whole world, while clearly doing his best to humiliate the devs on stage.

Your EA line is relevant. I don’t play FIFA anymore. But let’s wait until Blizzard actually do stuff like EA does. You’re just assuming they will. Right now, Blizzard is delivering more content than ever before, at an extremely high pace. Just this Blizzcon, they announced WoW Classic, paid within the WoW subscription. A clearly non-money grabbing business model. The work going into WoW Classic is gigantic when compared to the monetary gains - and the whole idea was born by fan pressure.

Tell me, how Classic and reskinned WC3 is new content? You've already been there and done that.

[klepp0906]

There would be no room on the screen for the actual game. Pass, thanks.

uh, sure concessions would have to be made, but devs have made some of the most ingenious ui modifications to make mobile work in mmo's since... mobile devices. Have you never played one?

Totally doable. Obviously wouldnt be running a +14 or doing any type of mythic raiding, but for playing in general, doable with quality and relative ease.

i tinkered around streaming it to my iphone several times and thats with the clunky old default UI. Worked fine for questing.

[Whitepaw]

I can say with 99% certainty that it will have microtransactions. This is the only way to survive the mobile market.

No it’s not. Take a look at the Baldur’s Gate EE for iOS. Or Minecraft. There are loads of really great games for iOS, where you buy the entire game with one payment. They are great games, in my opinion the best on the platform. They also sell a lot of copies.

Will Diablo Immortal be a great game? I have no idea. But I'll reserve judgment and refrain from prejudice until the game is actually released.

I do know this, though: The future of gaming - moneywise - is in mobile gaming. The computational development is in mobile devices, the money is there, the talent is moving there. I sincerely hope that Blizzard is able to succeed there as well. That will help them keep a high quality in all their projects, including their PC gaming titles.