"Free-to-play" Diablo Immortal is excellent, but you'll have to sell a kidney to max out your character.
We Knew It - Diablo Immortal Microtransactions Bleed Fans Dry
Written by Ollie Bradley at 06/06/2022, 06:08 AM
Back in 2018, Diablo Immortal experienced one of the most notorious reveals in gaming history. When Blizzard made the controversial decision to take one of their most beloved PC IPs and turn it into a Diablo mobile game, fans were not happy, to say the least.
"Do you guys not have phones?" Came sacrificial lamb Wyatt Cheng's now infamous response to the realisation that hell hath no fury like a fanbase scorned. And sure, the vast majority of fans did and do have phones. But they feared what this new direction could mean.
And what do you know, they were right. Diablo Immortal is a free-to-play mobile MMORPG, an all too lucrative model that Blizzard just could not pass up. And while we expected microtransactions galore (that, after all, is the whole point), nobody expected them to go in quite so hard.
Diablo Immortal, it seems, is P2W. Getting one's hands on top-tier legendary items in the endgame will require money to be spent on loot boxes. Which is so far, so standard for the gaming industry in 2022.
But according to YouTube channel Bellular News, as reported by GameRant, maxing out a character in the end game will end up costing players $110,000. And it is here that we see why fans reacted so vehemently to the announcement in 2018. The shame is further compounded by the fact that Diablo Immortal is a stellar mobile game. And is unsurprisingly the top game on the App Store right now.
But for all its positives as a Diablo mobile port of a beloved game franchise, we can't help but lament the fact that many gamers would probably have been willing to drop an initial payment on the game - or even a subscription - in order to avoid having to remortgage their house because of the predatory monetization system.
While we hope that the backlash against the inordinate amounts of money that Blizzard are hoping to extract from their fans will cause a U-turn, we won't hold our breath. After all, amid the uproar is a slew of positive reviews that rightly commend the gameplay. And while a vocal few may keep their wallets tightly closed, we've no doubt that the majority will relent and start spending cash in no time.