Diablo Immortal is here - MMO aRPG for mobile

[Socialhealer]

I'm not quite sure what kind of depth you think Diablo has. To be honest, it's always been a game where you just run in and kill shit, loot, repeat. Maybe in the builds it's had depth?? Pretty sure you'll be able to make builds here too. It's a pretty basic game...

Diablo 3 on console was great - My opinion is that it was leaps and bounds better because of the local co-op and dodge. I never felt like it was simplified and my friends, who I also played the PC version with, thought the console version was better as well. I really want the switch version but I'm not going to purchase it a 3rd time for that price.

I can't trust the opinions of people who bought Diablo 3 twice, fool me once shame on you, fool my twice shame on me.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I mean.. lets be honest I do not have a problem that a Diablo game is going to the mobile. My problem with it is that they hyped up the fan base hugely with all these announcements. You know.. 4 major products are in the works... buy a BlizzCon ticket (in person or online) and find out all the details!! Then it was "yup, we are reskinning an existing mobile game with Diablo because its cheaper to do and thus makes the investors happier with higher returns" level of stupidity.

I mean they more or less abandoned the Diablo IP on PC. Sure, I am nearly certain it will one day make its return once they find a way to nickle and dime the fuck out of it but that is what they really played upon the fan base with. That something big was coming. Instead... fuck man.. a reskin China loot box cash grab. Does it mean that the game will be horrible? Who knows. But the expectations were built really high and then it suddenly came crashing down.

Blizzard deserves what they got from this. As much as they deserved me to say this before this point in history.. going forward I know they are just about one thing.. cash grabs. I will never preorder games from them again when before it was an automatic. I will never pick up there games day one. I will always see reviews. Understand the money grab plan they are up to. Then decide to maybe purchase.

[Exkrementor]

Not playing Pay2win crap on a 5 inch screen with touchscreen controls. wasted development time.

[SirBeef]

Not playing Pay2win crap on a 5 inch screen with touchscreen controls. wasted development time.

Says someone with absolutely zero business awareness.

[Triceron]

But do i think Diablo could ever get the depth it needs on a mobile? FUCK NO, that's pure shit it has to be on a PC, anything else is just a step backwards, even putting Diablo 3 on the playstation and xbox and switch ment it had to be massively simplified compared to D2, so going mobile means it'll be lacking any depth and real Diablo gameplay it'll just be some pay 2 win, mostly automated gameplay, time-gated shitshow.

Have you played any/many ARPGs on mobile though? I don't know you personally, I don't know what you're looking for in a Diablo title, and I honestly don't know what you consider 'deep' gameplay. I get the feeling you're looking for excuses not to play the game on the basis that it's not what you want; which sounds like a PC ARPG Diablo. I'm not going to argue that DI is going to be groundbreaking fun Diablo, but it's a different game that needs to be considered its own thing.

I'm sure your reasons to play Pokemon Go aren't because of its deep RPG strategy, right? Pokemon Go isn't a hardcore Pokemon RPG. It's a different game which requires a different perspective. It has elements that are the same, but it's not standard RPG Pokemon. There's plenty of other reasons to play this game because it offers things a console RPG can't give you. That's exactly what Diablo Immortal aims to be; an ARPG for mobile that is built for on-the-go gameplay.

I think you should at least try out a mobile ARPG. Judge them on the basis of wisdom, not hearsay. I'm not even saying you have to like it, but just play to know if it's as bad as you think it really is. I'm saying this as someone who was also in your position. I was in a position where I was away from my PC for a month and I decided to give Torchlight Guardians a go. The game had ability rotations for bosses; dodging, timing attacks, and there's loot and customization. The P2W stuff was there but never in your face or necessary. The only thing that I would say it lacked was content. For what it was, ARPGs played better than I expected for a phone game.

But hey, this is just my perspective on the matter. Mobile ARPGs aren't for everyone.

[ryanmahaffe]

Says someone with absolutely zero business awareness.

Imagine defending actively mocking your customers

[Biomega]

Imagine defending actively mocking your customers

Imagine customers not caring and throwing their money at you anyway.

This game wasn't designed for the customers who're complaining now, because they've become a minority. It's designed for the customers that jump on any mobile hype, have little appreciation for the tradition of the franchise, and are not particularly discerning in general when it comes to formulaic cash-grabs.

[Dhrizzle]

lets look at it then:

the ENTIRE user interface is a copy/paste from many netease titles,
as mentioned the art assets used are just a recycle with 'diablo like' artwork placed over the top of them
the way the game plays (from the demo at blizzcon) is the exact same as many games in the same genre from netease

and like i said, if this was a project built from the ground up then the dev time needed to make it possible is significantly more than the few months before blizzcon and the time since blizzcon, so in order to bring that down the amount of reused and re purposed parts of the game are plain to see when you do a side by side comparison (which was done by many people across news sites and youtube) when this 'game' was announced.

So it's a standard UI (pretty much like using standard mouse+keyboard controls on PC, or a controller on consoles,) the art are recycled but also they're changed to Diablo artwork - how does that work - isn't it different artwork and not recycled Netease assets then?

Which Netease game do you think it looks like? The one usually cited is Crusaders of Light but that is nothing like Diablo at all, more like WoW.

The game started development in 2016 or 2017, are you saying 1-2 years isn't long enough to get a mobile ARPG up and running when Blizzard already has the art assets and the other dev has experience with mobile gaming?

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Digging this thread from the sands of time to just link this.

https://mmoculture.com/2019/03/diabl...unch-schedule/

So it seems Blizzard is waiting for D:I release while the game sounds like done and ready to ship. Maybe it's market analysis, maybe it's damage control, maybe it's waiting for the hate to die down a little more and avoid even more damage.

Maybe they're just not sure about what they're doing.

Quote from a Kotaku article - https://kotaku.com/the-past-present-...blo-1830593195

Three Blizzard sources told me that the original plan for Diablo Immortal had been to release it only in China at first for a few months or maybe a year, in large part to test it out among Chinese fans before releasing it in the west. “The quality bar in the Chinese market, especially for framerate, is extremely low,” said one. “You can release something that’d be considered alpha footage here and it’d be a finished game there.” Later, those sources said, Blizzard decided to take more time to polish the game and prepare it for a simultaneous global announcement and release.

So possibly NetEase consider the game to be in a release-worthy state and Blizz still want to "optimize and enhance" (NetEase quote from your article) to make sure they don't get crucified again for a game that doesn't live up to their quality standards.

[Lurker1]

Not playing Pay2win crap on a 5 inch screen with touchscreen controls. wasted development time.

Your doing it wrong then im going to get a sweet tablet thats 11.5 inches ftw!and a built in keyboard.

[lokithor]

Your doing it wrong then im going to get a sweet tablet thats 11.5 inches ftw!and a built in keyboard.

ill just play it on PC with Bluestacks lol

[Mormolyce]

I don't get it at all really. I have no interest in a mobile Diablo game either. So I'm just not going to play it.

Diablo Immortal coming out has zero bearing on whether there is a Diablo 4. It's like getting mad that Metal Gear Portable Ops existed back in 2006, because that means no more Metal Gear games on non-handheld platforms.

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Imagine defending actively mocking your customers

To be honest I kind of like the fact that the guys on the panel threw that line out there. Would you prefer all your interactions with them were carefully worded press releases parsed through the Legal and PR department? Might create some bloopers like "don't you guys have phones" but at least they're talking to us off the cuff from time to time. You react too badly to that and the company will decide that genuine interaction with the fanbase costs more than it's worth.

[Jonnusthegreat]

Your doing it wrong then im going to get a sweet tablet thats 11.5 inches ftw!and a built in keyboard.

11.5 inches? Bruh I have a black one that's 13 inches.

[ryanmahaffe]

11.5 inches? Bruh I have a black one that's 13 inches.

Can't tell if this is a penis joke or I just have a dirty mind

[Ranaas]

Well , I will be happy to play a diablo game in my spare time at work, at travels and such

Only thing is the implemention of mobile gaming. If they can make a mobile version of current diablo 3 experience and character progress feel, I will be more than happy. I have enough games on my computer anyways, I need something else than Hearthstone to play on my mobile ^^

[Coldkil]

So possibly NetEase consider the game to be in a release-worthy state and Blizz still want to "optimize and enhance" (NetEase quote from your article) to make sure they don't get crucified again for a game that doesn't live up to their quality standards.

Yeah, entirely possible. I'm actually playing the early access of ES:Blades on the phone and it looks quite enjoyable - for now. I can see already the lootbox/premium currency combo that will destroy it in no time. But again, lots of people just swiping their credit card because reasons and they'll make loads of money.

[Kallisto]

I mean.. lets be honest I do not have a problem that a Diablo game is going to the mobile. My problem with it is that they hyped up the fan base hugely with all these announcements. You know.. 4 major products are in the works... buy a BlizzCon ticket (in person or online) and find out all the details!! Then it was "yup, we are reskinning an existing mobile game with Diablo because its cheaper to do and thus makes the investors happier with higher returns" level of stupidity.

But for months and months and months and months before blizzcon they said over and over there was NOT going to be any D4 or Diablo mmo. Blizzard own self said this.

You know who did say it Kotaku, polygon. Shit places that wouldn't know a fact if someone said 2+2=4 to their face.

How the hell is "There's no D4 temper your expectations." hyping the hell out f things?

[Verdugo]

To be honest I kind of like the fact that the guys on the panel threw that line out there. Would you prefer all your interactions with them were carefully worded press releases parsed through the Legal and PR department? Might create some bloopers like "don't you guys have phones" but at least they're talking to us off the cuff from time to time. You react too badly to that and the company will decide that genuine interaction with the fanbase costs more than it's worth.

Only thing we were shown was that they were so embarassed for their own product that they went out of script to defend it.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

But for months and months and months and months before blizzcon they said over and over there was NOT going to be any D4 or Diablo mmo. Blizzard own self said this.

You know who did say it Kotaku, polygon. Shit places that wouldn't know a fact if someone said 2+2=4 to their face.

How the hell is "There's no D4 temper your expectations." hyping the hell out f things?

Because for months they did hype up expectations. Then a week or two before Blizzcon they threw out the old temper your expectations card. So when It was a big sales push on virtual tickets they didn't have a problem letting things spin out of control. Once it got close to delivery they pumped the breaks. Not to mention I think they really thought they had a winner here. One, Diablo was the hype. Two, panel right after opening. Three, wtf you don't have phones? Don't lie to yourself. They hyped it up as the next coming and it bombed like a mother fucker and you could even see the staff melting down on stage from the heat.

A lot better things to white knight for out there. Pick a winner man. All this will be is a revenue stream from those that can't help themselves from spend big money on loot boxes. If you want to play the game its already out. Its just getting a coat of paint and a Blizzard tag to rope in a few more can't help themselves players.

[SirBeef]

Imagine defending actively mocking your customers

How are they actively being mocked? By having a mobile game being developed? By the fans working themselves up into a frenzy over an announcement that Blizzard said wasn't going to happen? Or the do you guys not have phones comment?

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Because for months they did hype up expectations. Then a week or two before Blizzcon they threw out the old temper your expectations card. So when It was a big sales push on virtual tickets they didn't have a problem letting things spin out of control. Once it got close to delivery they pumped the breaks. Not to mention I think they really thought they had a winner here. One, Diablo was the hype. Two, panel right after opening. Three, wtf you don't have phones? Don't lie to yourself. They hyped it up as the next coming and it bombed like a mother fucker and you could even see the staff melting down on stage from the heat.

A lot better things to white knight for out there. Pick a winner man. All this will be is a revenue stream from those that can't help themselves from spend big money on loot boxes. If you want to play the game its already out. Its just getting a coat of paint and a Blizzard tag to rope in a few more can't help themselves players.

All they did was mention big Diablo news. They misread the room big time. They were hyped for a mobile announcement. They didn't realize it would flop so hard. And yes they didn't handle the aftermath so well and it all could have been avoided by saying we are currently working on D4, got nothing to show at this time but we have thi side story on mobile. It's OK for Blizzard to be excited about all the games they bring to the table, even if they are on mobile. For the recoed, they never mentioned anything about D4. That was all fan speculation.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

How are they actively being mocked? By having a mobile game being developed? By the fans working themselves up into a frenzy over an announcement that Blizzard said wasn't going to happen? Or the do you guys not have phones comment?

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All they did was mention big Diablo news. They misread the room big time. They were hyped for a mobile announcement. They didn't realize it would flop so hard. And yes they didn't handle the aftermath so well and it all could have been avoided by saying we are currently working on D4, got nothing to show at this time but we have thi side story on mobile. It's OK for Blizzard to be excited about all the games they bring to the table, even if they are on mobile. For the recoed, they never mentioned anything about D4. That was all fan speculation.

The issue with being on the record with no D4 is I never mentioned them saying D4. So are you getting that recorded for a no bullshit moment, an attempt to spin, or just an error? They just left wide open hype speculation train run wild. Nor did I say they shouldn't be excited for new products. But when you let hype run out of control and then do nothing to counter it because hey.. its selling tickets... and then when you bomb on stage it might be what they deserved. The moment fan sites started pushing D4 they should have nipped it. But they let it run until the VT bubble busted and they wanted to temper things. Although It was obviously to late. No reason to defend them on this one.