The market is reacting... Negatively

[jakeic]

Enjoy your victory while it lasts. Blizzard is giving up on Diablo for PC PRECISELY because it does generate enough revenue these days. The lower the stock, the more Blizzard will be motivated to replace non-profitable Diablo with profitable Diablo-Immortal.

There are two realistic ways to keep Diablo financially solvent: One is for Diablo to have a monthly subscription fee. The other would be pay to win, such as : For $0.25, you buy a Power Boost for G Rifts: 50% outgoing damage increase, 10% incoming damage decrease. These last an hour worth of play time in G Rifts. You can stack up to 5 of these. The timer starts when the G Rift begins, and ends when the G Rift is finished.

These are your two options. And if the pay to win (or subscriptions) does not generate enough income, then Diablo:Immortal it is. If you noticed, Activision stock is down. And it sounds like Activision is taking drastic steps to rectify this. Financial underperforming assets are being replaced with assets that they hope will change their financial future.

Diablo 3 generated over a billion dollars in revenue.

[Omega10]

Diablo 3 generated over a billion dollars in revenue.

Activision seems to be forecasting that Diablo:Immortal will do even better. They voted with their wallets

[Coldkil]

Make diablo 4, it sells 10mill-15mill units anyway. Most sales any studio would dream for.

Then have a comestic shop where you can buy angel wings for $15 each. There you go, billions a year. You're welcome activision financial officer

Yeah, that's basically the road they have to go. I'm not against cosmetic shop - hell, look at PoE, that generates revenue like a madman and gives you everything for free. But i'm REALLY afraid that they're gonna go down the lootbox road because it's just more revenue than a shop.

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Diablo 3 generated over a billion dollars in revenue.

Which isn't enough for long term sustainability. You just recover the investment and make a little profit, while subs/shops/etc make money evry time consistently. The reason why eveyone looks at "player engagement" it's just because the more time one stays and plays your game, the more are the chances he's gonna buy something off the shop.

[jakeic]

Activision seems to be forecasting that Diablo:Immortal will do even better. They voted with their wallets

They forecasted 300 million a year from Diablo: Immortal, it will take at least 4 years to catch Diablo 3, which is basically the life span of Diablo 3.

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Which isn't enough for long term sustainability. You just recover the investment and make a little profit, while subs/shops/etc make money evry time consistently. The reason why eveyone looks at "player engagement" it's just because the more time one stays and plays your game, the more are the chances he's gonna buy something off the shop.

Estimates for game development put the cost of developing brand new IPs on brand new engines between 30 and 100 million dollars, if your game generates a billion dollars in revenue you have far more than a little profit.

[Misuteri]

Any time I see IAP for a mobile game I check the price list.

If it’s X for another chapter, disable ads, unlock all features I give it a try.

If I see $99.99 for a stack/stash/mountain/pile etc.. I never download it.

Which do you think Blizzard will do for their business model????

Rest my case.

[LiiLoSNK]

It may be a cash grab, but immortal will still have it's place in the world to keep people busy as a time killer. Many people often have time in their day where they are just bored and not at home. This is where it will shine.

It's better than heroes of the storm and other baby pc games meant to keep children occupied.

For people with adult brains, DI will still be useful for killing time when you have literally nothing better to do for a few minutes every day, like pokemon-go.

Obviously, it's not going to fill the spot of an immersive diablo game, but it's better than nothing or a pc game that is rushed and sucks like diablo 3 for the first year that it came out.

Ready to get banned again for "TROLLING" with these clear and simple facts.

[Tenjen]

It may be a cash grab, but immortal will still have it's place in the world to keep people busy as a time killer. Many people often have time in their day where they are just bored and not at home. This is where it will shine.

It's better than heroes of the storm and other baby pc games meant to keep children occupied.

For people with adult brains, DI will still be useful for killing time when you have literally nothing better to do for a few minutes every day, like pokemon-go.

Obviously, it's not going to fill the spot of an immersive diablo game, but it's better than nothing or a pc game that is rushed and sucks like diablo 3 for the first year that it came out.

Ready to get banned again for "TROLLING" with these clear and simple facts.

eh i dont doubt it. the business model works and generates huge profits. I've seen it work dozens of times. I'm just sad they sacrificed the Diablo franchise to it. It hollows out franchises and creates shallow products, once it reaches the end of its cycle (these things only last for so long) those franchises ussually do not come back after the treatment.

[Aleksej89]

As long as netease is involved it will be a garbage game just for cash-grab.