Oh Blizzard, how you have fallen (Diablo Immortal).

[xenogear3]

Nah people will never get tired of killing monsters and improving their character. If there's a better hack 'n' slash MMOARPG loot pinata game then we'll switch to that game, but for now Diablo Immortal is the best, imo.

If you have no money, PoE, Diablo 2/3 are better option.
If you have too much money, Genshin Impact and Lost Ark are the way to go.

Blizzard is in panic mode now and ask people to sign up for Diablo 4 beta.

[PC2]

Blizzard is in panic mode now and ask people to sign up for Diablo 4 beta.

Eh that's probably just what you want to be the case and not what is actually happening. I get the feeling that a lot of the Blizz/Diablo haters are just engaged in gaming politics and they don't even really care about whether a game is fun or not.

[uuuhname]

Eh that's probably just what you want and not what is actually happening. I get the feeling that a lot of the Blizz/Diablo haters are just engaged in gaming politics and they don't even really care about whether a game is fun or not.

weather the game is fun or not is not contingent on it being a shitty gacha game. like, how juvenile do you have to be to think those things are mutually exclusive.

also great job mind reading the rest of the forum, that certainly could never lead to you looking foolish, not that the threat of that has ever stopped you before.

[Jerot]

It was very easy to reach Legendary Rank in Hearthstone - it's a PvP game.

You also as easily can finish Diablo Immortal. Because it's a PvE game. You don't need "legendaries"

Tell us you don't play either of these games without telling us you don't play either of these games.

[Elim Garak]

Tell us you don't play either of these games without telling us you don't play either of these games.

Tell us you have nothing to say by saying something that has nothing.

[P for Pancetta]

They could easily fix this, all they need to do is add some items for f2p players to make it more fun. Like a special spear you can throw at other players. this slows them down, if you have enough f2p players you can slow a player down enough to be able to take parts of their gear.

Ofc this wouldn't be entirely fair for people who spend so much, so to make up for that every player spending over 1k should get an ability to help them defend from the f2p hunters, an ability to help them detect those dangers, like a sonar.

[PC2]

They could easily fix this, all they need to do is add some items for f2p players to make it more fun. Like a special spear you can throw at other players. this slows them down, if you have enough f2p players you can slow a player down enough to be able to take parts of their gear.

Ofc this wouldn't be entirely fair for people who spend so much, so to make up for that every player spending over 1k should get an ability to help them defend from the f2p hunters, an ability to help them detect those dangers, like a sonar.

It sounds like you want class conflict... Which is irrational.

[MoanaLisa]

Blizzard is in panic mode now and ask people to sign up for Diablo 4 beta.

Blizzard is not in "panic mode" because big studios like Blizzard don't do that. They're watching and likely drawing up some proposed changes to D:I which they'll spend a few weeks or months talking about to get consensus. You don't go into panic mode over 10,000,000 downloads in a week and likely an avalanche of money that's come in.

They will certainly make some adjustments: some public, some less so.

[Gaidax]

Blizzard is in panic mode now and ask people to sign up for Diablo 4 beta.

Ye, they don't know what to do with all that money they shovel, it's full scale emergency there.

I mean lets be real, commercially D:I is going to be insane success.

[Mamut]

If you have no money, PoE, Diablo 2/3 are better option.
If you have too much money, Genshin Impact and Lost Ark are the way to go.

Blizzard is in panic mode now and ask people to sign up for Diablo 4 beta.

Lol, this is good one. So Blizzard is in panic mode for like 20 years now? Because there always were betas for new games and expansions.

[Popastique]

Lol, this is good one. So Blizzard is in panic mode for like 20 years now? Because there always were betas for new games and expansions.

Yeap, *Panic Mode* on at all times

[Witchblade77]

so I have finally joined the shadows after amazingly enough winning a signet in a lottery few days ago ( apparently if you join a clan of adventurers prior, that already has 5 signets submitted but has not converted.. you cannot join the shadows and literally have to leave the clan to do so - fabulous design decision there...) did some shadow contracts, and bunches of other shadow stuff. ran the vault raid. well... there's another activity cap right there. looks like the vault is at the very least one of the best ways to reliably and quickly farm hilts and gold (currencies that are essential to earn if you are f2p at least from my experience so far)... and its only open a total of 4 hours, twice a day. good luck if your schedule doesn't allow you to play during those times... WAS kind of fun though.

the dichotomy of this game simultaneously having very fun gameplay loops AND all these design decisions that keep getting in a way of those gameplay loops are just... fascinating.

P.S. I don't watch streamers (even if there are twitch boxes involved, I don't actualy watch, I just have a muted tab open in a background to get those free goodies) and only watch gaming youtubers occasionally. of the ones mentioned, I only watched Josh's videos because I enjoy his content and style of presentation in general. and even that - days after I started played the game and started encountering... lets call them monetization roadblocks. I went to see if Josh had anything BECASUE of those roadblocks (same as posting here, while I was enjoying the game, there was no point... it just surprised me just how quickly and how soon into the game, the issues started to crop up)

[xenogear3]

Yeap, *Panic Mode* on at all times

Blizzard was sold to Activision.
Now, both Blizzard and Activision are sold to Microsoft.

The company is clearly not making enough money.
If it does, it will buy Microsoft instead.

[everydaygamer]

If you have no money, PoE, Diablo 2/3 are better option.
If you have too much money, Genshin Impact and Lost Ark are the way to go.

Blizzard is in panic mode now and ask people to sign up for Diablo 4 beta.

The appeal of Immortal is that it's a fun game you can play on your phone and there are very few Diablo style games currently available on mobile.

Also Blizzard isn't gonna panic over this because the game has been successful despite all the complaining by pc gamers on the internet.

[qwerty123456]

Blizzard is not in "panic mode" because big studios like Blizzard don't do that. They're watching and likely drawing up some proposed changes to D:I which they'll spend a few weeks or months talking about to get consensus. You don't go into panic mode over 10,000,000 downloads in a week and likely an avalanche of money that's come in.

They will certainly make some adjustments: some public, some less so.

Unless it starts making them less money I doubt they are going to do any changes. Reviews don't matter if you got whales.

[MoanaLisa]

Unless it starts making them less money I doubt they are going to do any changes. Reviews don't matter if you got whales.

The real money is in making and keeping happy the customers who are willing to drop $10 a month, 99 cents at a time. Potentially millions of those if they can get it right (it isn't now) versus a few thousand whales. Yeah, the whales get all the attention but there's more strength in numbers. It would be stupid and bad business to laugh and say "Hey, we've got whales, fuck everyone else." They will eventually start looking at how to solidify the customer base that spends but would never be considered whales as such.

[Biomega]

The real money is in making and keeping happy the customers who are willing to drop $10 a month, 99 cents at a time.

That's true, in principle - there's a reason a McDonald's makes more money than any 3-star restaurant ever could.

But time is a factor. Many investors these days are looking for strong gains in the short to medium term. They don't really care about a game's longevity - they want their money ASAP, and then move on to the next thing. To them, a rapid influx of cash during the release window is often much more attractive than the prospect of more money over a long period of time - doubly so because of the uncertainty, as it's much easier these days to have a strong release than it is to retain users over time.

It's no surprise at all to me that DI is so whale-heavy for precisely that reason. People want everything and want it now - especially people like streamers, who are willing to drop five figures on this no problem to convert into hype-fueled viewership (plus it's a tax write-off anyway), which really only works in the release window.

I think companies are entirely willing to go with the cash-upfront model over sustained user retention. It has less earnings potential, but also less responsibility - feeding users enough content to keep them playing (while also remaining profitable) has historically been one of the biggest challenges for developers. That's likely what kept games like New World from black-holing their studio, too; yeah the game basically died instantly, but it was b2p so it probably made a huge chunk of cash on release and they're okay even if it dies now (which it almost assuredly will).

I don't expect DI to be in it for the long haul. Not even close. They'll throw a couple of updates out over the first year, maybe two; and then it's going into maintenance mode with very infrequent and very cash-grabby updates from then on. The real addicts will have moved on, new players will be scant, and most of the company's efforts will already be on the next, similar project. That's the typical mobile game life cycle.

[Kumorii]

If you have no money, PoE, Diablo 2/3 are better option.
If you have too much money, Genshin Impact and Lost Ark are the way to go.

Blizzard is in panic mode now and ask people to sign up for Diablo 4 beta.

What's up with these absurd statements that supposedly indicate panic?

At this point we will soon have "A gaming company is releasing a new game that's been in normal development time for 4-5+ years because they panic".

"X company is in panic mode as they announce a new game to be released in 5 years because they need to make a product".

"X company is in panic mode because they made a fun game showing they are desperate to gain customers".

[arkanon]

What's up with these absurd statements that supposedly indicate panic?

At this point we will soon have "A gaming company is releasing a new game that's been in normal development time for 4-5+ years because they panic".

"X company is in panic mode as they announce a new game to be released in 5 years because they need to make a product".

"X company is in panic mode because they made a fun game showing they are desperate to gain customers".

"X company is asking $799.99 for the base game, and you have to pay another $99 per level to get to level 100, at which point the actual endgame begins, but, each item costs $299 and you need a full set of 12 to start the first tier of 25 tiers"

players: "if you dont like it, just dont play, but you will be missing out, its a great game!"

X company demands 1/3 of your bodies blood as payment........gamers "thats fine, your body will make more blood whats the big deal?"

The point im making is, as usual, people are making excuses for anything and everything in the name of fandom, and others will attack even the most asinine things.

[MoanaLisa]

That's true, in principle - there's a reason a McDonald's makes more money than any 3-star restaurant ever could.

But time is a factor. Many investors these days are looking for strong gains in the short to medium term. They don't really care about a game's longevity - they want their money ASAP, and then move on to the next thing. To them, a rapid influx of cash during the release window is often much more attractive than the prospect of more money over a long period of time - doubly so because of the uncertainty, as it's much easier these days to have a strong release than it is to retain users over time.

ATVI investors at this point only care that the stock price doesn't go over the $95.00/share offer that Microsoft made. They can sit pat and do nothing.

Once Activision/Blizzard is absorbed by Microsoft, Blizzard will be a very small and relatively insignificant piece of Microsoft's share price. People need to start getting used to that idea as well as the possibility that quarterly reports are likely to disappear altogether once the deal is completed. ATVI made a press release out of the last quarterly results and that seems likely to continue.

In any case Blizzard is the smallest of the three ATVI divisions with King and Candy Crush dwarfing Blizzard's revenues. That's unlikely to change and if investors are looking at anything they are looking at the pieces of the company that can move the stock price. That's no longer Blizzard and D:I is unlikely to make much of a long-term difference either way.