Diablo 4 could end up having microtransactions

[LordVargK]

Could? D3 had Microtransactions. D4 WILL have them.

[unbound]

And where is the problem?^^ Modern games usually have some kind of microtransactions anyways.

There is a difference between smaller, less consequential microtransactions of a game like WoW compared to the massive microtransaction approach in a game like Diablo Immortal. If Blizz is going down the D:I path, that is something that is indeed a major problem.

I think Josh Strife Hayes explains it best -

[BeepBoo]

Which is a bit .... exaggerated by certain people like Bellular, that's all. No sane person would pay 10k dollars for some boring gems, and they are not meant to be maxed out ... the game is supposed to live on for some time, you shouldn't have "bis" gear on day one lol.

If people quit your game because they cap out a character (as opposed to finishing the content) your game has other problems and DESERVES to be dropped.

"But chasing power progression is content!" No, it's a goal. Two different things. Content is the stuff you're doing to achieve your goal. Now, yes, they're trying to extend the life of the content by making you have to repeat it 10909712736 times like that somehow makes the content good.

Nah.

I'd rather cap out something, then just... not play it again until they release more content. Why developers are so scared to let this happen is beyond me. "But people will move on if it isn't part of their daily routine!" Bullshit. The dedicated fans come back time and again. It's more like "but we want MORE than just the dedicated fans to be hooked on our game!" and to that I say fuck you dev.

[Ghost of Cow]

If people quit your game because they cap out a character (as opposed to finishing the content) your game has other problems and DESERVES to be dropped.

"But chasing power progression is content!" No, it's a goal. Two different things. Content is the stuff you're doing to achieve your goal. Now, yes, they're trying to extend the life of the content by making you have to repeat it 10909712736 times like that somehow makes the content good.

Nah.

I'd rather cap out something, then just... not play it again until they release more content. Why developers are so scared to let this happen is beyond me. "But people will move on if it isn't part of their daily routine!" Bullshit. The dedicated fans come back time and again. It's more like "but we want MORE than just the dedicated fans to be hooked on our game!" and to that I say fuck you dev.

Dang, me and Beep agreeing on shit, look at this.

[The Stormbringer]

Really? Based on a F2P mobile game you can safely assume a B2P PC game will have p2w elements?

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If you've played it, you'd know it's not even a port. It's emulation. They just decided to let people play it on PC through their platform instead of Bluestacks or whatever people are using. So no, it's not a PC game.

The rest of my point still stands. It's a Diablo game, it's making them tons of money. They will absolutely cram Diablo 4 through as much pay-to-win bullshit as they can.

[MoanaLisa]

Quite simply, the fact that Diablo Immortal has already been shunned to death for an immoral practice of increadably pay to win qualities, the moment you add that to Diablo 4 its going to heavily affect peoples want to preorder, or play.

10,000,000 installs in just a week or two. That's some shunning. Just about every game studio on the planet would kill to be shunned like that.

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Was marketed, until they decided it was also going to be a PC game.

Worth noting that they added the PC port due to a storm of bitching about how D:I wouldn't be available on PC. I'm sorry now that they did it.

[Exkrementor]

Blizzard already said in an interview that D4 will have some kind of microtransactions. They didnt say what kind but its safe to assume it will be bad.

[crusadernero]

Comments like this really make me think we didn't deserve Elden Ring.

I dont usually swear here, but let me say this;

Thank FUCK we have Elden Ring and game creators that produce such quality content. 60 bucks for a game I have already logged 100+ hours into and im faaaaaaaaar from done.

Elden Ring is a pure masterpiece, its god damn artwork. Every dev out there should be inspired and create games like this.

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Blizzard already said in an interview that D4 will have some kind of microtransactions. They didnt say what kind but its safe to assume it will be bad.

Of course it will. Top streamers are suckers for this scheme and the average gamer out there is willing to shell out money for digital goods that has no meaning nor value besides *insert random timeframe*.

[Vasilisa]

Really? Based on a F2P mobile game you can safely assume a B2P PC game will have p2w elements?

Not on F2P mobile/B2P PC (besides D:I is also playable on PC) but basing on the fact that it's the same trademark game released by same company.

[Aucald]

I'm fine with D4 having WoW-level MTX that is limited to entirely cosmetic stuff with no real P2W functionality, but I would not want to have D:I's aggressive MTX with its P2W components in any capacity in D4. I'm actually fine with D:I being what it is as a mobile game in that basic ecosphere, even though I don't agree with P2W as a philosophy, that ship has kind of sailed. But in what I consider a "true" successor game in the Diablo franchise, I'd strongly prefer P2W stay well away.

[Alroxas]

Really? Based on a F2P mobile game you can safely assume a B2P PC game will have p2w elements?

I think it's relatively safe to say that the writing is on the wall that since video game prices are generally stagnant that continued monetization is key to the long term (business) success of any game (at least for Activision-Blizzard).

While MTX in the cosmetic category is generally tolerated, the question remains to be seen whether we'll have actual P2W issues. For example, PoE is F2P with a lot of cosmetic MTX but there also are a decent amount of QoL MTX (i.e. Stash tabs) that make the PoE experience much better. Similarly Lost Ark's Crystalline Aura has a lot of QoL benefits. Are these P2W? Not directly especially when compared to DI's orbs/crests system but it does make consumers wary that if Activision-Blizzard is willing to go that far with Immortal, how far might they push MTX on D4?

And it's not just Activision-Blizzard either, Frost Giant Studios' Stormgate lost a certain amount of appeal as soon as they mentioned that their game would also be F2P. (FYI Frost Giant is made up of some ex-Blizzard folks)

[Nymrohd]

I'm fine with D4 having WoW-level MTX that is limited to entirely cosmetic stuff with no real P2W functionality, but I would not want to have D:I's aggressive MTX with its P2W components in any capacity in D4. I'm actually fine with D:I being what it is as a mobile game in that basic ecosphere, even though I don't agree with P2W as a philosophy, that ship has kind of sailed. But in what I consider a "true" successor game in the Diablo franchise, I'd strongly prefer P2W stay well away.

Here is the thing. What if instead of xpacs we get a game that releases paid DLC. Clearly as content, skipping them means you fall back in power.

I honestly do not expect P2W components in D4. I find it extraordinarily dramatic that people infer that just because a mobile F2P game has them (certainly to an extreme level) that the B2P PC game also will.

[Bladesyphon]

Are people really surprised?

Almost all games lately have an in-game shop in the form of cosmetics and / or mounts at the least and maybe a season pass.
I assume the same for D4.

I can see it having a similar store front like GW2 does - Cosmetics in the form of skins, pets, and mount skins, and Account Upgrades in the form of increased stash slots, character slots, build slots, etc.

I will be legitimately surprised if they carry anything over from D:I into a full priced experience outside of possibly a Mission-Pass system for each season.

[kenn9530]

Not exaggerated, undervalued.

Josh Strife Hayes gave an even more accurate evaulation of the $110K evaulation by prooving that its not just maxing out one char but per char.

In short, it could probably cost you nearly half a million dollars or quid if your British like myself to fully upgrade every char you own.

The game also has a significant gapstop after level 35 which intentionally slows your progress to a significant crawl, making leveling stupidly slow while encouraging you to pay.

Now let me be clear, you dont have to, no, but your incentivised too.

This is literally like someone putting an AD in your video every 2 seconds reminding you that if you want ads to stop you can always subscribe.

Thats the level of irritating/exploitve and opportunistic this is.

They know its scummy, they know its wrong, they dont care.

But the chances are, given that 18 countries in the EU and despite it leaving the EU including UK have all agreed that loot box regulation needs increased regulation, there is a very real chance D Immortal will get banned EU wide, and possibly that would also mean D4 would get banned.

You are not incentivised to spend money at all, its a choice and if you choose to waste money on things you can earn ingame thats on the player themselves, banning one game would mean banning many others and thats not going to happen, D4 is mostly going to be an upgraded more openworld version of D3 with maybe some cosmetic options to spend money on.

There are many games you can buy ingame currencies which could translate in P2W, why do you care if someone has better stuff than you because they spent money.

[Vasilisa]

Here is the thing. What if instead of xpacs we get a game that releases paid DLC. Clearly as content, skipping them means you fall back in power.

I honestly do not expect P2W components in D4. I find it extraordinarily dramatic that people infer that just because a mobile F2P game has them (certainly to an extreme level) that the B2P PC game also will.

I'm afraid that your naivety is taking the helm. Ask yourself one question: what in the end is the only thing that matters to Blizzard? Money. And mobile business model is the easiest (effort vs profit) way of earning them. I really hope you're right and when D4 gets released I'll be proven wrong.

[Edge-]

Disappointing, but not remotely surprising. They clearly wanted longterm monetization in D3 with the RMAH but fucked that up spectacularly. Now we have D:I showing the most extreme monetization schemes, though at least it's F2P and a mobile game.

I fully expect them to have things like season passes with cosmetic rewards and stuff since it's a natural fit with the seasonal approach of Diablo (and is sorta how PoE handles its primary monetization via supporter packs and now separate purely cosmetic battle passes for each new league). I fully expect there to be cosmetics for sale and other shit. I fully expect this to all be in a full-priced, $60+ game with multiple special editions and expected $40+ expansions.

In principle: I'm fine with this. There are plenty of ways to have longterm monetization of a game like Diablo without harming core gameplay or being grossly exploitative.

In reality: I have minimal faith/trust that Blizzard will be able to pull this off, even if they seem like they're bringing the monetization lead onto the team late in the process (arguably could be a benefit since core systems are locked and monetizing retroactively becomes more difficult, but could be bad since trying to monetize after the fact can result in some ham-fisted shit). Current Blizzard has shown me little to believe they can do this well.

Plus like, you know, Wyatt out there talking about how "Diablo: Immortal doesn't sell gear!" which like...yeah, it doesn't. Because your gear is essentially just choosing which legendary effects you want, and your actual power comes from socketed gems and crafting materials for upgrades...which are all monetized.

If this is the kinda of lawyerly bullshit Blizzard teams are going to be pulling moving forward, then I'll view everything they say in the most negative, cynical light possible accordingly.

[Khaza-R]

Here is the thing. What if instead of xpacs we get a game that releases paid DLC. Clearly as content, skipping them means you fall back in power.

I honestly do not expect P2W components in D4. I find it extraordinarily dramatic that people infer that just because a mobile F2P game has them (certainly to an extreme level) that the B2P PC game also will.

I would agree. Most AAA developers have mobile titles at this point and their own gatcha or P2W mechanics. Blizzard is actually very late to the party as usual. Other developers haven't stopped making their own normal games. Blizzard won't either. They're just diversifying.

[Aucald]

Here is the thing. What if instead of xpacs we get a game that releases paid DLC. Clearly as content, skipping them means you fall back in power.

I honestly do not expect P2W components in D4. I find it extraordinarily dramatic that people infer that just because a mobile F2P game has them (certainly to an extreme level) that the B2P PC game also will.

Wouldn't paid DLC that includes increases in power as well as content essentially be the same thing as an expansion pack? I also agree that D4 is unlikely to include P2W components, or at least I hope that's the case. D:I does have people understandably freaked out, though; because it's a fully-featured Diablo game chock full of content and story details that has a very aggressive MTX/P2W system connected to it.

[tomten]

10,000,000 installs in just a week or two. That's some shunning. Just about every game studio on the planet would kill to be shunned like that..

I installed it, played 30 min and uninstalled it. Why would any game studio "kill" for me doing that?
I'm guessing 9,990,000,000 of those installs are similar to myself.

[nvaelz]

Doubt Blizzard will infect their actual IPs with the kind of p2w Diablo Immoral has, obviously WoW has tokens and can be used to buy boost services and such but the game is very available for everyone to compete in. Please people remember Diablo Immortal is a Netease game with Diablo skins, it's not an actual Blizzard game that's why they think they can get away with it, and they will.