Diablo 4 could end up having microtransactions

[Elim Garak]

Anyone's default position should be, by principle, to be agaisnt microtransactions, whatever their nature may be, especially when they're impactful as they are in D:I.

Jawohl, mein Führer!

[Caprias]

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

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

[Vasilisa]

thank god PoE is completely without microtransactions, right?

Poe microtransactions don't include gear/power ups. Basing on Diablo: Immortal we can safely assume that D4 will have power ups available in shop.

[Scathan]

Poe microtransactions don't include gear/power ups. Basing on Diablo: Immortal we can safely assume that D4 will have power ups available in shop.

Why would you base d4 in diablo immortal? Why can you assume that?

[catalystical]

Anyone's default position should be, by principle, to be agaisnt microtransactions, whatever their nature may be, especially when they're impactful as they are in D:I.

Such predatory practices and the games in which they exist are created and directed towards the payer not the player.

The irony that escapes people in the case of D.I is that they were provided with an unfinished product. What happened was a snakesoil salesman showed up and gave you, for free, this somewhat enjoyable and fun thing. However, you can't have this thing without the incessant pop up that tells you how much better this experience can be if you just spend a little extra money.

You either make a game that has all the things that it should have and earn my trust and respect to the point that I'm willing to buy the ensuing products - read expansions/other games - or you don't and have your product denounced for the cash grab that it is.

There is nuance and middle ground on how things can be done and are done by others.

Take Fortnite for example. Other than the fact that it's a crappy building game, it's a game with MTX done properly.

MTX is fine for things that have little to no impact on the core gameplay. MTX is also fine if you want to catch up in a FTP game and have no time to grind the crap out of the starting.

What is not fine is how you don't get your money's worth with no guaranteed high end drops. Many games do it in a way that there are daily and weekly limits and they also things where you buy things in bundles you get guaranteed a certain high end drop.

MTX for a free to pay game can be done right, but Immortal is far from that ideal.

Now D4 is probably not going to be free to play. But that also doesn't mean they can't have MTX. Take the Street Fighter 6 trailers for example. If they give let us buy additional stupid facial taunts during the loading screen, I'd gladly pay $3 for them. Season passes, seasonal skins, that kind of thing counts too.

[Zelk]

Every Blizzard game released in the last decade has a shit ton of microtransactions, the question is if they're just cosmetic like Overwatch or power based like Hearthstone and Diablo Immortal.

[themortalgod]

Never heard off this or the first but after watching the trailer for POE 2, holy shit... Wow
Is it worth playing the first one now or just wait?

- - - Updated - - -

Absolutely. The first one is fantastic and if you love Diablo then I'd say PoE is the ultimate ARPG experience. GGG started from the goal of making a spiritual successor to Diablo 2 but made it bigger and larger scale than any ARPG Blizzard has ever created. The game is huge and has a massive end game after a much longer and more complete campaign than any Diablo game. It can be daunting, the game can be very complex though if you try to take it in all at once. My best advice is just to install and start playing, the game teaches enough to play the campaign. Once you have a good understanding of how the game works then start looking at videos, build guides, etc.

I'd also mention that PoE do these mini-expansions every few months that correlate with the launch of new leagues. Think of leagues as the same as D3 ladder seasons only that they also always include new content and mechanics in addition to a forest reset. Currently, they are about halfway through the Sentinel expansion. My reco is if you are really interested in the game, go play Sentinel casually to learn the game and if you really like it, lean into it for the next league.

[The Stormbringer]

Why would you base d4 in diablo immortal? Why can you assume that?

They're both (technically) PC games, they're both Diablo, and when DI has massive monetary success, why wouldn't they have D4 copy it? It's only logical from their perspective.

[A Chozo]

if diablo 4 ends up having microtranslactions and you don't like it you do the right thing and go play games without shitty mechanics, simple as that

This ain't ruining the industry, this is ruining Diablo.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

They're both (technically) PC games, they're both Diablo, and when DI has massive monetary success, why wouldn't they have D4 copy it? It's only logical from their perspective.

Diablo Immortal was marketed as a mobile game, D4 has not

[Fitsu]

The listing in question, which is for a Product Manager for Diablo 4, reveals that the successful candidate "will play a critical role in managing the Diablo 4 in-game store experience," which is described by the listing as "a key component of the game's seasonal content strategy." Whoever gets the job will also be responsible for identifying sales trends and quantifying purchase behaviors, as well as using tools to configure prices and availability within the in-game store.

https://gamerant.com/diablo-4-diablo...otransactions/

The job add in question:

https://careers.blizzard.com/global/...ager-Diablo-IV

Good. I don't expect my games to provide consistent content updates without some form of consistent moneitsation and I don't understand why people do. Most games you pay box price for are single player experience that you play for 50 - 130 hours and your done. Games over. Some form of subscription or microtransactions is the standard if you want a developer to keep adding content to the game, keep it alive for years to come, be something worth putting thousands of hours in. Your getting 10x more than you do out of those other games, why would that be free?

The important part is what sort of microtransactions and are they an integral part of the experience. The big problem with Diablo Immortal for instance is it's every game mechanic is built around the P2W shop, it's not a game. It's a slot machine in disguise. No game mechanic should be designed with the shop in mind, the game should be designed as if the shop didn't exist with fun first. I also think if I am paying a box price then my in-game gear should look good, I shouldn't need to go to the shop to not look like a villager.

Also, ofcourse I don't think I should be able to buy gear. Everything in the game should be earned via playing the game. There shouldn't be a huge advantage for spending money. That being said I am not against services or quality of life stuff. Maybe a couple weeks into a new season you can pay for a max level boost, or you can buy extra stash space etc. I'm fine with such things. One could argue Diablo 2 had this, you could buy the game again for more stash space.

Microtransactions aren't the problem, their implementation is.

[Vasilisa]

Why would you base d4 in diablo immortal? Why can you assume that?

Because constant updated and keeping servers alive aren't free. Game price will cover it for some time but if the game is popular (and D4 will be popular no matter what) people will expect constant updates. So there are three choices: expansions (costly and take a long time to make), subscription (wow-style) or in-game shop (Diablo:Immortal style).

With D:I / mobile game style, the company gets the most profits with minimum efforts. Last few days have proven that even with so much PR there are people who spent ridiculous amount of money in D:I shop. Developers will surely notice that and will calculate how much money D:I earned and how much effort it took to develop it.

That's why I believe that we can forget dreaming about Poe-type shop with skins only or B2P game where you buy a game and get full package. I hate this but as it was stated few times in different thread, profit is the only thing that matters in the long run.

That's why I assume that D4 will be fueled by real cash, in-game shop.

[Eosia]

Micro-transactions in and of themselves are not necessarily "bad". It's how they're designed that is they key. As much as people complain, WoW's are not that bad in the grand scheme of things. They're either cosmetic items like mounts or services like the level boost. None of these really offer a competitive advantage. The exception are the Pets which could be debated, especially if there are other pets obtainable in game with just the effort of finding and leveling them with the same abilities. People like to claim the level boost is "Pay to Win!" except it's not. It's a shortcut to skip leveling another character if you do not want to spend the time and effort to do it the old fashioned way. Additionally, Blizzard started including one for free with expansions because it allowed a brand new player to immediately jump into the expansion they just paid $40+ for without having to go through content that is years old first.

If they add transmogs for sale in Diablo 4, then it's really no big deal. If they do what is apparently the case with Diablo Immortal, then we got issues.

[Nymrohd]

They somehow seem to forget that they have to compete against PoE 2

Which will also have MTX?

[Puzzony]

Asking full price for a game then chokeload it with MTX is not fine. And all of you saying "they have to maintain the servers": When they sell 30M copies of the game, the price of development AND keeping the servers up should be calculated in that selling price (also servers are penny cheap nowadays). The problem with companies like Blizzard and the rest is basically they dont want to think over financial quarters:
Quarter A: game sells 30M copies, it generates X million in profits.
Quarter B: game sells 5M copies, it generates X/5 million in profits.
Quarter C: games sells only a low amount since most people bought it who wanted: OH NO THE GAME IS LOSING MONEY FOR US LETS SHIT IT FULL WITH MTX AND P2W.
The small fact that the game is still in 200 times profit compared to the costs of making it and maintaining the servers doesnt matter to the developer because that was another financial quarter.

If the game is full buy to play, they should release smaller patches, like Dying Light did, or actual expansion pack(s) (Dying Light again) and selling them for sensible prices, and then BOOM you have a sustainable and moral system. But hey, the easy route is putting it full of shit because the """""development time"""" is a fraction compared to actual content and the sheep will eat the shit up anyways. Not the right route, but the easy one.

[StillMcfuu]

Pretty sure cash-shop and mtx relates to visuals were already confirmed.

[AcidicSyn]

I'd rather MTX not exist at all, I miss the days where 99% of any and all content was obtainable only through gameplay. With that 1% being some random cosmetic cloak or a pet for preorders. Heck once upon a time there wasn't even that and everything was in game.

But MTX aren't going anywhere, so I'll begrudgingly accept a cosmetic only shop if I want to play the game badly enough.

[Khaza-R]

As long as its cosmetic only, I don't see why anyone would really care.

PoE has a very robust shop for cosmetic and it doesn't detract from the game whatsoever.

[Osmeric]

So glad I never touched any Diablo game. So sure I never will.

[Delekii]

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.

But than again, I don't play for "playerpower" anyways so I couldn't care less about the crest thing.

Many, many rich people DO spend 10k on "boring gems", which is literally the point. Because those people do that, the game is made in a fashion that begets making money first, and making fun game systems second.

Bellular hasn't exaggerated at all; the game exists in the state described. The fact that you "can" just ignore the p2w aspects and "just play the game" is missing the point, which is that the game design is, in every way, serving the purpose of channeling people into paying continuous money, and thus has not made the game the best it can be, with players in mind, as per the Blizzard statement of intent. You cannot play DI without the influence of the p2w aspects of it, they are intrinsic to the game even when you don't directly interact with them.

The last point is by far the most important; Blizzard has completed the transition from a successful game development company to a successful profiteering company that makes games. The transition has been a long time in the making, starting before even Activision's involvement, but DI is the culmination. Their old purpose statements and behaviors (as far as developing games, not as far as being decent human beings) no longer exist. There is no "make fun games first", there is no "wait until it is ready" - everything is entirely profit driven and the games don't matter at all besides in that context.