Blizzard Responds to Diablo: Immortal Backlash

People at the top are frequently out touch. Their immediate subordinates got to where they are by being yes men. People who develop have no power. That's probably the whole story.
I feel bad for the subordinates saying no and it's off with his job
 
Dont get me wrong I love playing mobile games. But I do not want to play an action game on my phone...Thats just me....I will give diablo immortal a try on a PC emulator and use my kb/mouse, but fuck playing it on my phone.

I think it was the iPhone 4 or 4s there was a really great add on that sandwiched the phone with physical buttons. Very similar to the Switch layout. It was awesome. Unfortunately back then phone shapes/sizes were varying quite a bit year to year and Apple in particular had lackluster gamepad support so they never went anywhere. Despite that Galaga and a few other games that were made for that controller played amazing. If you have physical buttons, there's no reason you couldn't do action games. Thankfully phone shapes/sizes seem to be coalescing around the same slab shape so perhaps things like the Microsoft mobile controller profiled earlier in the week on [H] can get some traction and change things.
 
I think it was the iPhone 4 or 4s there was a really great add on that sandwiched the phone with physical buttons. Very similar to the Switch layout. It was awesome. Unfortunately back then phone shapes/sizes were varying quite a bit year to year and Apple in particular had lackluster gamepad support so they never went anywhere. Despite that Galaga and a few other games that were made for that controller played amazing. If you have physical buttons, there's no reason you couldn't do action games. Thankfully phone shapes/sizes seem to be coalescing around the same slab shape so perhaps things like the Microsoft mobile controller profiled earlier in the week on [H] can get some traction and change things.

Eh use Memu or Nox and call it a day. People already use them to play mobile action games. Ever wonder how people stay tops in games like Pubg or Fortnight on mobile phones? Yea they use an emulator lol.

Either way they SHOULD at least release it on PC....Blizzard is being lazy and offing the work off to another company.
 
They are crap, ports of games better played elsewhere. Sorry you like them, really it's everyone else's loss that this market exists.

Spoken like someone who hasn't played very many then, especially if you are going to label all as ports. Far from it. Your loss and your loss alone. If you want to go down the "mobile draining resources from PC games" path, consoles are of far more relevance to that line of thought.

Which is still silly and irrational. People feeling sorry about the "state" of PC games might want to back up and get some perspective. Compared to the 80's and 90's what we have today for choices and yes, even quality, is frankly unbelievable - hardware and software. I'm not a console gamer but I don't consider myself at a loss because consoles exist.
 
Nothing. You just don't hint something is coming for intellectual property that has near cult status at a conference that predominantly PC gamers pay to attend or stream and then spring a mobile game on them.

If you do, you get the fiasco that was this week. Mobile games are fine for some, but not the traditional audience of Blizconn. If I had paid for a ticket and they didn't talk about anything else Diablo related I would be a little pissy too.

Which is why it's dumb to pay for corporate events like that, but that's probably another thread :)
The announcement literally said that big thing we all know you're waiting for won't be ready yet but come join us to learn about the other cool things we've got going on... And then immediately highlighted the switch.
 
Obviously Activision acquired King (candy crush bullshit) a couple years ago, but I had no idea how big their MAU's (monthly active users) was - 270million, vs Activision/Blizzard's combined 80 million. In Act/Blizz's last earnings call, "mobile" was mentioned 23 times -- clearly Kotick has a major hard on for it and its pretty obvious what's going on.

They want a piece of an already baked pie. This reskin is going to have to be heads and heels better than the competition to gain traction.

But then again, it's a reskin, their investment should be minimal... should be.
 
kWUahZS.jpg
 
What is wrong with a mobile game? I’m kind of excited for more AAA mobile games. Right now I’m no where near my computer and am bored!

Nothing, A real Diablo experience on a phone could be awesome. However, this really isn't even a AAA mobile game. Go look up NetEase's previous mobile titles. They're low-effort junk made solely to capitalize on popular trends. They make a shit load of money off them, but they're nothing spectacular. This just looks like NetEase reskinned one of its already generic looking games and called it a day.
 
The only thing I have good to say about this, is atleast the Diablo Artwork and persona is back on track


Diablo_Bone.0.jpg



Other than that, this "game" is an absolute piece of garbage.
 
Last edited:
What I posted on the D3 forums yesterday.

"I have put well over $25k into various Blizzard products, gear, lore books, Blizzcon trips, tournaments to NASL/IPL/MLG, etc...I'm way beyond fanboy status at this point.

The way they released this information was idiotic and full of hubris. They honestly thought the Diablo community would embrace this. You don't leave the last major announcement of the opening ceremonies for a mobile only game that is so far removed from what the community wants and what the game represents. They are completely oblivious, and their comments during the What's Next panel immediately following just showed that.

You can't downsize a world like Diablo onto a 5 in screen and expect anyone to be happy. If you want a "Mobile" experience, get a Switch. Personally, I don't like mobile gaming enough to even get a Switch. Its basically lower performance than my Pixel at this point.

I will not be buying or playing this game on my phone. Even if it was given to me, I would not. I don't want to experience this world with a kink in my neck. Mobile games are meant to be 5 minute distractions. Diablo is meant to be immersive and deep, with long play sessions. You can't do that on a tiny device.

And that's what pisses me off the most. If I want to take part in new content, I'm required to play on a tiny little screen. I have EVERY SINGLE physical collectors addition of every Blizzard game. I'm not opposed to spending money, but my money needs to be well spent. I won't support such a bad idea, just because its Diablo."
 
Spoken like someone who hasn't played very many then, especially if you are going to label all as ports. Far from it. Your loss and your loss alone. If you want to go down the "mobile draining resources from PC games" path, consoles are of far more relevance to that line of thought.

Which is still silly and irrational. People feeling sorry about the "state" of PC games might want to back up and get some perspective. Compared to the 80's and 90's what we have today for choices and yes, even quality, is frankly unbelievable - hardware and software. I'm not a console gamer but I don't consider myself at a loss because consoles exist.

You clearly don't understand the destruction that mobile gaming practices have wrought on the larger industry.
 
Starcraft was for casual players? A PC RTS with asymmetric gameplay that has a skill cap so high performance is measured in actions per minute and helped spawn an esports movement? The original Warcrafts weren't exactly click-to-move casuals either.
Well, I explicitly stated that Warcraft wasn't included in my comments but what's a good point doing if not getting lost in a conjured up shitstorm such as this?

As for whether Blizzard explicitly aims for the casual crowd, Kevin Martens (one of D3's lead devs) stated over three years ago that, Blizzard has "made a few mistakes. We forgot what made our games fun, and how we can create the best experiences for all of our fans.”

He had this to say about D3 in particular:
"We don’t want people going too long without a kill, and we’ve started gearing our systems to reflect that.” Monks, demon hunters, and more are being reworked and tweaked so that they always make their players feel powerful and that the game is simply rewarding to play — regardless of what kind of loot you have or are looking for."

On the other side of the room, StarCraft PR Manager Vanessa Vanasin had this to say about Legacy of the Void:
"Archon mode was purpose-built to introduce new players to the complexity and nuance of StarCraft II. We wanted to create a safe environment where an expert wouldn’t feel like their ability to win was compromised by having another player to take care of.”

Then the interviewer played SC2 with his female buddy and had this to say:
"From what she told me after our match, she enjoyed it, even though she didn’t have a great grasp on what she was doing. Plus we won, so that was nice."

It's difficult to see how the game could be dumbed down any more than allowing someone who has no idea what is going on to win!

All that said, it should have been obvious that my comments were directed at Diablo "fans."
I explicitly excluded the Warcraft franchise from what I wrote, but neither the RTS nor the MMO are remotely close to what they used to be (Blizzard themselves are releasing "Classic" servers to accommodate their "hard core" playerbase--but I don't know how anyone can argue classic and current are anything other than paint by numbers). If you haven't played WoW in a few years, the D3 team wholly took over design years ago and it's obvious. Players literally get the highest ilvl gear without much effort or time (the only "hardcore" feature of any of their games). BFA had catch-up mechanics within two weeks of release. Warfronts, a PVE scenario that players can literally AFK and win, drop 340-370 gear like Oprah.

I don't even think about Starcraft when I talk about Blizzard. I can't come up with all the various caveats that will make my statements seem valid to the nitpickers. The fact is SC is alive and well because of the Korean market and doesn't have any relevance to the US market except for that failed attempt to dumb it down for us a few years ago. When was the last time you heard Blizzard strumming that banjo? I don't hear them even talking about that franchise. When you go on their campus there isn't even anything on the walls or people's desk referencing SC at all. By contrast, in case you're envisioning a typical corporate cubicle setup, the employees have (life sized) swords and gear pieces and skulls and all kinds of shit from WoW/D3.
 
Well, I explicitly stated that Warcraft wasn't included in my comments but what's a good point doing if not getting lost in a conjured up shitstorm such as this?

As for whether Blizzard explicitly aims for the casual crowd, Kevin Martens (one of D3's lead devs) stated over three years ago that, Blizzard has "made a few mistakes. We forgot what made our games fun, and how we can create the best experiences for all of our fans.”

He had this to say about D3 in particular:
"We don’t want people going too long without a kill, and we’ve started gearing our systems to reflect that.” Monks, demon hunters, and more are being reworked and tweaked so that they always make their players feel powerful and that the game is simply rewarding to play — regardless of what kind of loot you have or are looking for."

On the other side of the room, StarCraft PR Manager Vanessa Vanasin had this to say about Legacy of the Void:
"Archon mode was purpose-built to introduce new players to the complexity and nuance of StarCraft II. We wanted to create a safe environment where an expert wouldn’t feel like their ability to win was compromised by having another player to take care of.”

Then the interviewer played SC2 with his female buddy and had this to say:
"From what she told me after our match, she enjoyed it, even though she didn’t have a great grasp on what she was doing. Plus we won, so that was nice."

It's difficult to see how the game could be dumbed down any more than allowing someone who has no idea what is going on to win!

All that said, it should have been obvious that my comments were directed at Diablo "fans."
I explicitly excluded the Warcraft franchise from what I wrote, but neither the RTS nor the MMO are remotely close to what they used to be (Blizzard themselves are releasing "Classic" servers to accommodate their "hard core" playerbase--but I don't know how anyone can argue classic and current are anything other than paint by numbers). If you haven't played WoW in a few years, the D3 team wholly took over design years ago and it's obvious. Players literally get the highest ilvl gear without much effort or time (the only "hardcore" feature of any of their games). BFA had catch-up mechanics within two weeks of release. Warfronts, a PVE scenario that players can literally AFK and win, drop 340-370 gear like Oprah.

I don't even think about Starcraft when I talk about Blizzard. I can't come up with all the various caveats that will make my statements seem valid to the nitpickers. The fact is SC is alive and well because of the Korean market and doesn't have any relevance to the US market except for that failed attempt to dumb it down for us a few years ago. When was the last time you heard Blizzard strumming that banjo? I don't hear them even talking about that franchise. When you go on their campus there isn't even anything on the walls or people's desk referencing SC at all. By contrast, in case you're envisioning a typical corporate cubicle setup, the employees have (life sized) swords and gear pieces and skulls and all kinds of shit from WoW/D3.
Well first off, no, you didn't say you excluded Warcraft from your comment, you said it was the only PC-exclusive title. Fair enough, if that's not what you meant.

Second, you're talking about nit-picking comments, but you're making quite specific and absolute comments:

mope54 said:
Blizzard has always been and will always be devs for casuals.
mope54 said:
I pointed out Blizzard has always been like this

That's clear as day saying it's always been this way. That's not a great point when we're talking 7 (maybe more if you want to count Blackthorne and Lost Vikings) games under their belt that are decisively NOT casual. Hell, even the original Diablo has no problem murdering you as a new player.

Now am I arguing with you Blizzard has been casual-as-all-hell focused in recent times, Disney-fying their IP and showing NO sign of backpedaling? Not at all. Ever since Warcraft 3 / WoW, they've softened up their art direction and I feel like Diablo is almost an embarrassment to them because it doesn't fit in neatly as a cartoon like modern Warcraft does.

Anyway, you're not wrong in that Blizzard has been a lost cause for a long time now, however "always" also means more than 8 years.
 
Blizzard sees this game as an AND - you can play Diablo 3 on the PC and you can now get your Diablo fix on mobile as well. Neckbeards with an entitlement complex blew it all out of proportion.

Except that Diablo 3 is basically all but dead because it is shit. And people were hoping that they were going to anounce a diablo 4 that wasn't shit.

Meanwhile the whole Diablo franchise is getting crushed by an *actual* F2P game developed by a small studio in NZ with 1/100th of the resources....

The reality is that more people from the actual Diablo and Diablo 2 teams have worked on POE than have ever worked on Diablo 3 or this abortion of a reskinned casino lottery money grab game.
 
The backlash to this stems from these self-proclaimed "hardcore" gamers forgetting that despite dumping thousands of hours into a game they're just filthy click-to-move casuals. "Remember what Blizzard used to be?" LOL. Blizzard has always been and will always be devs for casuals.

In the other thread I pointed out that Blizzard has always been a multi-platform developer and that only Warcraft is a PC-only franchise and a few members completely lost their shit. These guys literally think they're hardcore gamers! LOL, one even tried to throw shade on me saying that I was somehow not standing up for PC gaming because I pointed out Blizzard has always been like this; yeah, BlizzCon hasn't even ever been about Diablo. The announcement to the "fans" explicitly pointed out Diablo 4 wasn't on the table yet. Once BNet pulled in the Activision clowns this company managed to gather two of the most toxic player bases in gaming and when you deal with trash tier players you're going to get a dumpster fire.


This really doesn't deserve a reply, but here we are.

The Diablo community has been one of the most hardcore of communities in all of games. WoW follows in a close second place.

Saying "click to move" is over simplifying the game in a way that I can't even describe. While you do you have casuals in every genre except for maybe city builders, the Diablo community is very much hardcore. Hell, you confirmed that yourself with mentioning the hours played. That really is where the pub/casual|hardcore line is drawn. On top of that, you have the very fine min/max that happens when trying to push GR100+. That is not a zone for casual players by any stretch of the mind.

Either way about it, your bias shows. I bet you still play CS
 
The backlash to this stems from these self-proclaimed "hardcore" gamers forgetting that despite dumping thousands of hours into a game they're just filthy click-to-move casuals. "Remember what Blizzard used to be?" LOL. Blizzard has always been and will always be devs for casuals.

In the other thread I pointed out that Blizzard has always been a multi-platform developer and that only Warcraft is a PC-only franchise and a few members completely lost their shit. These guys literally think they're hardcore gamers! LOL, one even tried to throw shade on me saying that I was somehow not standing up for PC gaming because I pointed out Blizzard has always been like this; yeah, BlizzCon hasn't even ever been about Diablo. The announcement to the "fans" explicitly pointed out Diablo 4 wasn't on the table yet. Once BNet pulled in the Activision clowns this company managed to gather two of the most toxic player bases in gaming and when you deal with trash tier players you're going to get a dumpster fire.

There were console versions of Warcraft 2. Doesn't change the fact that between Starcraft 64 in 2000 and Diablo 3 in 2013, Blizzard released zero console games. And Starcraft 64 was a bad port on a dead system. You'd have to go back to at least 1998 to find an in-house Blizzard console game.
 
There were console versions of Warcraft 2. Doesn't change the fact that between Starcraft 64 in 2000 and Diablo 3 in 2013, Blizzard released zero console games. And Starcraft 64 was a bad port on a dead system. You'd have to go back to at least 1998 to find an in-house Blizzard console game.
In fairness, they tried to have Starcraft: Ghost during that time.
 
If they had worked with anybody other than NetEase this would have gone over a lot better. But they worked with NetEase because they are specifically targeting they VERY lucrative Chinese mobile game market. The game very well may be good, let’s see how they manage to reintroduce the Auction house with this launch then I will judge.
 
Kind of confused as to why they would prioritie a mobile version of diablo which will only acquire a remote, tiny fraction of its current fanbase.

What about creating a better MMORPG on an engine that's not 20 years old?
Diablo 4?
Starcraft 3?
Warcraft 4?


No....let's just get into the casual gamer market.
 
They are really fucking up. They are somehow deleting dislikes off their YouTube trailers. Also negative tweets and YouTube comments. They are not just sticking their head into the sand but also trying to silence all hate. Their shit stinks and this mobile shit needs to be taking behind the shed. Buried and forgotten.
 
Kind of confused as to why they would prioritie a mobile version of diablo which will only acquire a remote, tiny fraction of its current fanbase.

I wouldn't call China a tiny fraction fanbase. And if you're still confused, just look in your wallet.
 
That comment really shows show how out of touch they are. No-one gives a shit about a mobile title - the fans of D1 and D2 want D4! ON A MOTHERFUCKING PC YOU RETARDS. Jesus. Give me a mouse and keyboard, some awesome skills and a shit ton of loot and I'm happy. It ain't complicated Blizz.
 
Kind of confused as to why they would prioritie a mobile version of diablo which will only acquire a remote, tiny fraction of its current fanbase.

What about creating a better MMORPG on an engine that's not 20 years old?
Diablo 4?
Starcraft 3?
Warcraft 4?


No....let's just get into the casual gamer market.
They stated it's a tentpole franchise. In entertainment lingo that means a sure money-maker to fund other projects.
 
That comment really shows show how out of touch they are. No-one gives a shit about a mobile title - the fans of D1 and D2 want D4! ON A MOTHERFUCKING PC YOU RETARDS. Jesus. Give me a mouse and keyboard, some awesome skills and a shit ton of loot and I'm happy. It ain't complicated Blizz.

The Diablo 1 & 2 players are in their mid 30's now & have kids or have moved on from gaming. Blizzard chose to fish in the 12-24 year old pond. It makes sense from a business standpoint. But it doesn't make it right or less irritating.
 
The Diablo 1 & 2 players are in their mid 30's now & have kids or have moved on from gaming. Blizzard chose to fish in the 12-24 year old pond. It makes sense from a business standpoint. But it doesn't make it right or less irritating.
Some of us are a little younger than that, but not much.

Still have plenty of time to game and I’m juggling as much as anyone.
 
What I posted on the D3 forums yesterday.

"I have put well over $25k into various Blizzard products, gear, lore books, Blizzcon trips, tournaments to NASL/IPL/MLG, etc...I'm way beyond fanboy status at this point.

The way they released this information was idiotic and full of hubris. They honestly thought the Diablo community would embrace this. You don't leave the last major announcement of the opening ceremonies for a mobile only game that is so far removed from what the community wants and what the game represents. They are completely oblivious, and their comments during the What's Next panel immediately following just showed that.

You can't downsize a world like Diablo onto a 5 in screen and expect anyone to be happy. If you want a "Mobile" experience, get a Switch. Personally, I don't like mobile gaming enough to even get a Switch. Its basically lower performance than my Pixel at this point.

I will not be buying or playing this game on my phone. Even if it was given to me, I would not. I don't want to experience this world with a kink in my neck. Mobile games are meant to be 5 minute distractions. Diablo is meant to be immersive and deep, with long play sessions. You can't do that on a tiny device.

And that's what pisses me off the most. If I want to take part in new content, I'm required to play on a tiny little screen. I have EVERY SINGLE physical collectors addition of every Blizzard game. I'm not opposed to spending money, but my money needs to be well spent. I won't support such a bad idea, just because its Diablo."

I'm sure if they cared to respond it would go something like this,

Blizzard: "Thank you for your loyal support to our brand". ($$$)

"Here is a 5% discount on your first order of Tyreal Tokens that you can use to resurrect your Hero!".
 
The Diablo 1 & 2 players are in their mid 30's now & have kids or have moved on from gaming. Blizzard chose to fish in the 12-24 year old pond. It makes sense from a business standpoint. But it doesn't make it right or less irritating.


D2 player here since launch, 32. D2 was the reason I bought my first video card (A Voodoo 4 4500 iirc) because the game would basically turn to death when playing with the overlay map due to lack of hardware T&L with whatever was in the first gen P4 Vaio that dad bought. I still make time for 20+ hours a week of gaming and that is with 60hr+ work weeks and a wife.

I really would have been ok with a mobile D2. I think the controls are simple enough for it to work. I would have been excited for it. Sadly, this was just a cash grab by the Activision folks to get in on the Chinese market. I'm also ok with that. I'm just not ok that Blizzcon was the chosen venue to release it. This would have been better received had it been at Gamescon. FFS, they could have given us a short CG scene with a shadow of whatever the new/old evil is gonna be in the next Diablo game, and the famous Blizzard Soon® and I think we would all have been cool with that along side some fun teasers during Q&A.

Also, fuck their new community manager, pending on which of the following is true. Either that bitch knew about this mobile shit and was trolling us all over, or she didn't know and just did what Activision said to do.

Oh well. I guess next year© we will get something useful...or they'll try and save some face at Gamescon. I am glad now I didn't buy the streaming pass. I feel bad for the folks that paid to go for the Diablo news and this was all they got.
 
D2 player here since launch, 32. D2 was the reason I bought my first video card (A Voodoo 4 4500 iirc) because the game would basically turn to death when playing with the overlay map due to lack of hardware T&L with whatever was in the first gen P4 Vaio that dad bought. I still make time for 20+ hours a week of gaming and that is with 60hr+ work weeks and a wife.

Diablo 1 got me into PC gaming. Use to play it on my friends moms E-Machine. Just had to build one to play D1 & PK people :)

Sadly, those days have long passed. I think its better that we just hold D1&2 to the highest standard & use it as a memorial for a franchise & time period that was once great and ignore whatever Actiblizzion tries to sell us from here on out.
 
Why they wanted to do it this way, I have no idea. Like I get it that mobile gaming is becoming dominant by some measurements, but that’s only if you take a holistic picture that factors in people playing Candy Crush while taking a dump. Diablo gamers are not the mobile “gamer” demographic. Blizzard’s past success was defined by their ability to produce exactly what their target audience wanted. I’m amazed that Blizzard, of all studios, is the one who made this error.
 
As someone mentioned, Bethesda did it the right way, make the mobile game announcement a small one, alongside something the fans really want.

It's that simple I don't know why Blizzard couldn't figure it out.
 
I love how the bill the game as a phone based MMO, yet all of the character names are just class names. Yea, that's hard core MMO for you. I don't even know who I group with. That and the flagrant reskin. Just makes me ill to see a company of talented developers outsource their IP to another company to write something for them.

That and the company they selected I hear has a TRASH reputation in China of all places.
 
Back
Top