Blizzard response: We have shifted our best developers over to new mobile titles

[Orby]

1994 - W1
1995 - W2
1996 - D1
1998 - SC
2000 - D2
2002 - W3
2004 - WoW
2010 - SC2
2012 - D3
2014 - Hearthstone
2015 - Heroes of the Storm
2016 - Overwatch

I believe (or hope) we are having a lull period just like we had between 2004 and 2010, and soon we will start getting new releases every couple years again.

I remember that period too. I remember people dying for SC2 during that time, which we eventually got. So you could be right. Although I am not sure I would want another 6 year gap lol.

[apelsinjuice]

In 20 or so years I can totally see Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft and others be 80% focused on the mobile market with only having a few selected games being developed for the pc market as side projects.

Everyone have a phone, so why not focus on making games for the audience with most potential customers.

[Rennadrel]

never go full immortal.

In Blizzards case, they have gone full retard

[Guardian Bob]

Oh, I don't really disagree with any of that, but Asia is well known to devour these kinds of games, it’s also where the mobile gaming market is most successful. On top of it you have the skin of a really popular franchise over it, it’s sort of like Pokemon GO, made by Niantic, Nintendo had little to do with it, yet it was more than enough to make it on of the most played mobile games in the world (not trying to compare the popularity of Diablo with Pokemon though), still, of course it’s entirely possible that the damn thing turns out in a huge failure… but I really have my doubts.

Pokemon Go isn't even near the top 20 let alone 10 games played today. It was successful cause it had the name Pokemon in it, but was too grindy and difficult to find good Pokemon. People just kept finding Rattata cause otherwise how would the microtransaction system work? I'm not sure if Blizzard will charge money for the game, but one things for sure it'll have a microtransaction system, which usually dooms games into obscurity.

I really doubt that if Asia had a choice between mobile gaming and console or PC, they would choose mobile. There maybe various reasons why mobile is big but I think it maybe due to inaccessibility, where smart phones are very accessible. Obviously the Asian market has monetization potential on mobile, which I don't think it'll last. There was a time period we were told that the tablet market would destroy the PC and console market and now tablets are hard to sell cause everyone has one.

You know the good thing that might result from this kind of shit? Is that those kind of gaming phones start becoming cheaper and more common, and we start seeing some damn proper games for them, instead of these ridiculous microtransaction systems glued together pretending to be video games as most of them are.

Mobile gaming will never be taken serious unless some serious changes are done. Like Android and iOS sucks, no they really do. Apple is Apple, but Android is probably worse. You can't update it unless the manufacturer says so and everyone is trying to copy Apple and that really sucks cause there's no innovation. Most of the new phones have no SD card slot, which is freaking retarded. Some don't even have head phone jacks, which is really dumb and stupid.

Diablo Immortal won't fix this because it'll be another shitty mobile game just like all the other mobile games. Mobile gaming has been popular for a while now but everyone expects you to use the touchscreen and like it. I want a slide out keyboard phone, but no I have to use touchscreen and like it. Slide out gamepad is like ridiculous to the phone industry cause if Apple ain't doing it then it isn't a good idea. If Apple is doing it then it's genius and I need to copy it.

If Blizzard partnered with a phone manufacturer and made a mobile phone specifically for gaming with a built in gamepad then maybe yes that would spark interest in making these type of phones. But another shitty mobile game that'll be forgotten in a month or two won't do jack.

[Metallourlante]

They have shifted their best WoW devs to mobile for sure

[XangXu]

It’s not about if Diabli Immortal will be good or not.
It wasn’t about the timing of the announcement.

It’s about integrity. The fact that this game exists is a stain on the company.

[Guardian Bob]

It's on 4th place in the top grossing games in goggle apps, considering it was released back in 2016, it’s not doing that bad, and it’s just a re-skin of Ingress.

I don't see any info that shows it to be #4, let alone anywhere on any list I find. Minecraft is the #1 bought game on Google Play, with Candy Crush Saga being #1 free game. Of the free games there's Pou, Talking Tom, and Temple Run 2. No Pokemon Go.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...y_applications

Google Play does show it to be 15th, but that doesn't show downloads. For all I know that's a random shuffle.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/c...ar_games?hl=en

""EDIT""
I just reloaded the Google Play list and yea it's a random suffle. Pokemon Go is gone from the list.

as for the Asian market, I don’t know man, but judging by their MMORPGs, they really seem to enjoy grindy shit, therefore them being more open towards mobile games comes as no surprise.

The western audience was like this too with WoW and other types of games. Then we became aware of these unnecessary game mechanics and just stopped playing them. Why you think BfA is falling apart? Because of a lack of content or something? It's the infinite grind they put into the game. If the Western Audience became desensitized to this then eventually so will the Asian audience. If a matter of when not if.

[babyback]

In Blizzards case, they have gone full retard

They’ll most likely make millions on Diablo Immortal. So wouldn’t exactly call it retarded.

[Puzzony]

And they have already lost millions on it, something that all whiteknights are forgetting..

[glowpipe]

Just friendly reminder. If Reforged sales will be disappointing, investors and management will understand this as "You see? Noone wants PC games and remasters anymore. Told YA!"

Yeah. but if we buy Reforged, they see this as "Oh we don't have to make new games, we can just remaster our old stuff and they still sell really well" We can't win here

[Radaney]

We might even see a company fuck up to rival Konami, it's going to be glorious.

[GreenJesus]

We don't know if the sales in Asia is even going to be receptive to Diablo Immortal. It is a reskined mobile game that already exists with a Diablo theme thrown on it. None of the Blizzard employee's seem to be working on this at all, except for the trailer movie. Even though Diablo 3 on the Switch is of great success, at least the Switch has physical controls where some games on mobile don't allow you to use a gamepad cause it's cheating. You need 13.3GB free space on the Nintendo Switch to install Diablo 3, but most phones don't have that kind of free space unless you buy a $600+ phone. Fortnite on mobile phones doesn't look anywhere near as good as it does on PC unless you buy the iPhone X or better, and that's $1000+ phones. People don't have that kind of money.

If phones were like the Sony Xperia with a built in gamepad and cost less than $400, then maybe Diablo Immortal has a chance to make excellent money.



Because Activision's business model is to push for micro-transactions and DLC's, which Blizzard is certainly doing more nowadays than before. Look at Destiny 2 which is not doing as well as Activision hoped for. What happened Destiny 2? Grindy game mechanics which is inherit to micro-transations, and people today HATE this with a passion. Same problem with BfA as it's an endless grind. People want to be rewarded for skill, not for time spent. People don't want to be stuck in a loot cave all day farming to play the game.

If you look at Activision's games you'll see that this is exactly what they do, and will likely push Blizzard to do the same. After all, more money is more money, even though it really hasn't been working for Blizzard as their audience is not that blind.

Exactly. I have an iPhone 5 from like 5 years ago and it only has 8GB of storage.. I don't even have room for hearthstone. How the hell would I put diablo on my phone? I neglected getting a new phone because it works and I don't game on it. I'd rather spend the money getting a new phone on upgrading my Pc. No Wyatt "I don't have a phone"

[Powerogue]

"That explains so much." -My inner cynic

Why would I boycott the games that I do like, though? If a restaurant has one sandwich I like and one full of old nails and tinfoil, I'm just going to eat the one I like.

[Guardian Bob]

As I said, on the TOP grossing list:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/c...grossing?hl=en

I didn’t say it was the “most popular”, it was, back when it was released.

I see. The list is interesting though, cause if you look you'll see the games are aimed at children. Unless Blizzard makes Diablo Immortal a child friendly game, it won't do as well as those games. Satan doesn't come across as something parents want their kids playing, though I'm sure the Asian audience doesn't care about western folk lore.

It’s also not about the amount of download it has, it’s about the amount of money it makes, that’s my point, even if it’s not on the top of the list, it’s still just an outsourced re-skin of an already existent game, it’s cheap, relatively easy to develop compared to other kind of video game and it’s very, very profitable, every fucking company will want a slice of that pie, it comes out no surprise that Blizzard is jumping on it, I just think it was just very stupid to present it to a crowd that had no real interest in it as the only announcement for Diablo franchise.

This shows that the audience that Blizzard caters too is no long as profitable as they hoped. They're older and smarter with money, and general play on PC, which PC gamers don't spend as much as console gamers do on micro-transactions and DLC's. So it makes sense for Blizzard to go after an audience that isn't as aware of these practices like the Asian market and children. Does making cheap quick profit making games make sense? That depends on how stupid you think your audience is. It's something that Blizzard has made the mistake more than once. They think they know what you want, while BfA is crashing and burning.

I still don't doubt they'll make money, but will it make up for the massive drop in consumer confidence as well as the massive drop in stock value? Probably not. And I think Blizzard is basically creating ET for gaming, cause this is not something 100% on Blizzards hands but the entire gaming industry fault. But when you have games like Assassin's Creed and Fallout 76 that are pushing for micro-transactions and the last bastion of PC gaming... Blizzard decided to put their resources into making another quick cash grab. More than one from the sounds of it. That's a very dangerous move to push for mobile gaming when most of those top games are accidental success's and you're hoping that the demographic you're aiming for is stupid enough to buy into it. All because you're too lazy and profit driven to make good games.

[Boricha]

Although it's kind of bizarre for Brack to make that statement in the wake of Diablo Immortal's initial reception, it at least shows a level of sincerity on his part. Mobile is a direction they intend to go down, but I just hope it doesn't become too big of a focus.

[Hinastorm]

Old people having troubles to sit at Desktop for longer period of time, reasonable. Don't enforce your life to everyone else. You think you do but you don't.

Haha, funny you say this. I'm only 31, but I fucked up my back from constant PC gaming, and can't sit down for 10 mins now without getting pretty bad pain.

I now play my computer in bed, lying on my back or side. Healthy? no Sad? yes

I still do 90% of my gaming on PC, PC is just astronomically better than the alternatives.

[gobio]

To be honest, you need your best people to work with shaddy shit like NETEASE.

[Guardian Bob]

Oh but I don't think it will make as much money as Pokemon Go, I mean Pokemon is one of the biggest franchises in the world...

I'm just saying it will make them a fuck ton of money for a relatively small investment despite this huge shitstorm around it.

Money in money out, yea they'll make a profit. I mean they're paying a company to reskin a game they already have. Not exactly putting a lot of effort into that. But I'd like to see what their next Blizzcon will look like? Are people still going? Are people going to be buying Blizzard games now that they feel the company is purely profit driven at the expense of gamers? What about BfA? Will more people quit the game after being pissed off from this? They'll make money off Diablo Immortal but at what cost to their other games? They'll barely make up the loss from their stock dropping.

Blizzard employees are too far out of touch of what gamers want to play that I'm not even sure the company will survive another 5 years if they go full mobile. Also the amount of damage control is sad. Blizzard doesn't want to admit they screwed up, but instead wants to point the blame on the consumer.

[ZebrasRule]

I mean I wasn’t going to buy Warcraft reforged but seeing all the people making such a big deal out of nothing makes me kinda want to.

same tbh

the more people whine and cry because of mobile gaming the more I think I'll play it

as if PC gaming is the pinnacle of human achievement or something? hardly. it's all just time filling nonsense, with very little meaning outside that insular "world". every year more and more of that time filling nonsense is being done on phones rather than PCs. PCs become less and less relevant every year. They'd be absolute fools to not read the writing on the wall.

All the "PC master race, I'm never giving a cent to Blizzard again" types are basically just the millennial version of the old man who yells at cloud.

[Rennadrel]

same tbh

the more people whine and cry because of mobile gaming the more I think I'll play it

as if PC gaming is the pinnacle of human achievement or something? hardly. it's all just time filling nonsense, with very little meaning outside that insular "world". every year more and more of that time filling nonsense is being done on phones rather than PCs. PCs become less and less relevant every year. They'd be absolute fools to not read the writing on the wall.

All the "PC master race, I'm never giving a cent to Blizzard again" types are basically just the millennial version of the old man who yells at cloud.

Actually, that's pretty untrue. How many NEW games has Blizzard released in the last decade for the PC? Star Craft and Diablo 3 are the only new games, WoW is still the same old game it was when it came out and still has the same graphics and gameplay. Of course people have grown tired of that game. Star Craft was great but I think their try hard e-sports model for online play really hurt the longevity of the game for casual players like me. Also, D3 was rife with bad design decisions that pushed players like me away really quickly. Me and my friends stopped playing it because of the ridiculous amount of grinding required to get through the harder difficulties was annoying. That isn't really the best design decision, if you can't make a game long enough without inflating play time with grinding, the game isn't very good. Don't forget the real money auction house.

Warcraft 4 would probably sell well if Blizzard actually put the effort in to making a great PC game. They dropped the ball big time with D3 and SC really doesn't have much if you aren't a ladder player, so those issues can lead to reduced sales. The PC gaming market is plenty healthy enough, Blizzard just needs to make great games in order to get good sales numbers, because there's a lot more competition for your money now than there was 15 years ago.