Blizzard Responds to Diablo: Immortal Backlash

It's Trumps fault

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Wow.

The truth is that Activision stuck it's hand up the ass of Blizzard's rotting corpse and used it as a puppet to hype and pump ad dollars into a godamn cash-grab loot-box P2W cookie-clicker. I don't even play diablo and I'm pissed.
 
Rathor said:
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!
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people who are diablo fanatics who play diablo as a way of life on the PC flew to blizzcon to get told their franchise is coming out with their version of candy crush. I can understand the audience being pissed. I kind of want to point and laugh a little. Regardless, Blizzard dicked them hard. If they had hinted there was no PC game coming out this year, it would have been fair but they didn't.
 
SilverSliver said:
It's Trumps fault
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I love that his tweet was complete nonsense, top to bottom. First: blames Trump right off the bat and compares him to the "rhetoric of the Blizzard community." And then says, "it hasn't been this bad in years." Now I want you to think how utterly, ridiculously out of touch the owner of Blizzard Watch (him) is - I've been playing Blizzard games from the start and I was a veteran WoW player from the get go. Anybody who played during that time knows how ridiculous the WoW community (e.g. forums) were, and remain. People are absolutely crazy about the IPs. What he said literally makes no sense.

Then he rambles about normalization of hard line (no compromise) speech...which is hilarious to me since there's clearly one side that has had a bigger problem accepting things. Unless he's saying SJWs are to blame for this overreaction, but we all know he's not. Yet even if there was any validity to bringing politics into it - and there isn't - that doesn't change the fact that Blizzard, whether the marketing guys or accountants or executives or whatever, are insanely out of touch with their fanbase if they had ANY expectation that this would go well.

Let's be honest. All the major studios are blundering with this. EA - obvious. Ubisoft? Working on it, between their diversity A Clockwork Orange videos and now kowtowing to China over RB6 (not to mention lootboxes). Even Activision messed up with Destiny 2. Well, it's Blizzard's turn, they've gone full retard.

All I have to say: next game I'm buying is Farming Simulator 19.
 
Krenum said:
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.
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The ones that go to blizzcon haven't moved on from gaming, and never will. Were they expecting 12-24 year old pokemon go fans at blizzcon?

The problem is not that they're making a mobile game aimed at china, or whoever. It's the when and how they announced it. It shows a complete disconnect from their following. Or if not that, then a complete disregard of them.
 
I just love the bullshit about "from the ground up".
They partnered with a company that produces mobile Diablo knockoffs.
And the current version is little more than one of their knockoffs with a reskin.

I mean, I don't begrudge them the right to produce the game.
I don't even begrudge them the microtransaction cash grab that it'll be.

I do begrudge them their bullshit though. And their lack of tact.
 
Krenum said:
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.
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Late 30's actually, wife, couple kids, mortgage and all that. Not only haven't I moved on, but I spend most of my free time gaming with my kids now. Also I would argue that the Diablo community is as tight know as ever and those like me are far from the minority in that player base.
 
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I think this shows how little they understand or care about their Diablo fan base.

D3 has captured more hours from me than I care to admit. It’s funny to read the BNet forums to see how many people are quitting and call the game dead even before this announcement.

Maybe the new mobile game attracts a different player and they make money on it. I can’t see people rushing out to play Diablo on a phone though. Not for very long or in any serious fashion. But okay if they believe there is money there...

I think though they had their head up their ass on this being a good idea to announce it this way. I think the fan base is rightly upset.

However it won’t change anything. Us hard core Diablo players will still play. Will still criticize Blizzard and they will still ignore us. D4 will happen in the future and we will still complain it’s not d2, 3 etc and the game is dead.

In short shitty decision by Blizzard. Won’t change a lot though.
 
Making the major announcement at a convention of hardcore, mostly PC, gamers that paid ridiculous amounts of money to attend the Blizzard event a generic casual mobile game that is being developed by a third party is an epic marketing fail.
 
Jagger100 said:
people who are diablo fanatics who play diablo as a way of life on the PC flew to blizzcon to get told their franchise is coming out with their version of candy crush. I can understand the audience being pissed. I kind of want to point and laugh a little. Regardless, Blizzard dicked them hard. If they had hinted there was no PC game coming out this year, it would have been fair but they didn't.
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They did hint that they weren't going to be announcing anything like D4. Well, more than hint--Blizz literally stated they weren't ready to announce the thing "many are hoping for" and people showed up anyway to bitch about the thing they were told they weren't going to get. It's manufactured anger that's been brewing for 6 years and this is just the latest reason to beat up on the Diablo devs. Same group of people that have been un-appeasable since D3 launched.
BlizzCon 2018 is almost here and we’ve seen a lot of rumors flying around about our plans for Diablo at the show. These are very exciting times—we currently have multiple teams working on different Diablo projects and we can’t wait to tell you all about them . . . when the time is right.

We know what many of you are hoping for and we can only say that “good things come to those who wait,” but evil things often take longer. We appreciate your patience as our teams work tirelessly to create nightmarish experiences worthy of the Lord of Terror.

While we won’t be ready to announce all of our projects, we do intend to share some Diablo-related news with you at the show.

November 2 will be an especially diabolical date—not only is it the first day of BlizzCon, it’s also when Diablo III arrives on the Nintendo Switch. If you’re planning to pick up the game (the digital download will be available starting at midnight on launch day) and are joining us in Anaheim, be sure to bring your console. We’d love to slay some demons with you on the show floor.

Again, we want to thank you for your patience and support. We are eternally grateful to you and the millions of other Diablo fans around the world whose passion for this franchise inspires us and keeps our fires burning.

We’ll see you in hell . . . and at BlizzCon!
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Immortal wasn't even their main announcement. The hype was all about the Switch, which was known since at least September.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/blizzcon/t/diablo-3-switch-at-blizzcon/248
 
Just want Diablo 3...but with more fun (and a map that changes every replay).
 
Here is one of my main problems. My phone is mainly a work tool. If I get any gaming done on it it is a Puzzle game or something. When I have time to game and really sink some effort into it, I am at home. Why would I ever sit down in front of my 43" 4K monitor and gaming keyboard and mouse and get out my mobile phone and start gaming on that... This kind of game that is? I will never get my hands on this mobile game, because it is utterly ridiculous to me to have a game like this on the mobile phone. I refrain from using my laptop even for games like this.
 
Look at the top selling mobile games of 2018. I don't think this is going to go the way Acti-Blizz hopes its going to go. This is not a Nintendo Switch situation.
 
aaronspink said:
I find it funny that so much of Blizzard's Diablo team does PR for Path of Exile....
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www.playdiablo4.com goes to the POE website. best trolling ever.

By the way, as someone who loved diablo, POE is the absolute true successor. I "only" have a few hundred hours into POE but it's pretty amazing with tons of different builds, items, skills, etc. The only thing I don't like is the end game is grinding maps which never drop in enough quantity so you have to trade for them and trading sucks. So most of the time I get burned out trying to get high tier "red maps" and eventually just quit till the next league. Blizz did get that right when it came to grifts. you just run the difficulty you want and keep pushing. Hopefully GGG games figures it out.
 
With the resources Blizzard has, it always amazes me how incompetent they are at releasing new content. D3 could of been a huge cash cow after the initial release fiasco. They have all the assets, just release new maps. stories, etc. It's not like the maps or the stories are some kind of epic design, they are very simple.
 
They are in full damage control, What gets me is how they didn't seem to learn from Todd Howard on this, he did it perfectly and handled everything in a good way going from dead silent fans during the Blades and F76 presentation to btw Guys we know what you want, and we are a while and bit off but here you go I hope you enjoy and until we do finish it please give our other games/projects a try in the meantime...…………….I seriously Don't think he fully understands how large the franchise is since he was a starry eyed intern and the magic of the series at least not until he seen his sons reaction to Skyrim and the hunger for more he had.

As a fan of ES series I had to respect that.

On the other side of the coin EA did a major Blunder with C&C showing a mobile game instead of a PC one.

Blizzard on the other hand is simply so disconnected to the point their decisions are just clinically retarded and when they get bit back on they call gamers Toxic, or use a smart ass comment like "Don't you all have phones" - "Why would we need an offline mode, its no fun to play alone playing with friends is more fun"

ARPGs have a hardcore fanbase, so dumbing it down to the point the RPG is gone in a game like D3(that is basically a button smashing arcade brawler that is mindnumbing and soulless at its core with a Diablo skin), really ticked fans off to begin with, people hoped they would learn from Jay Wilson's blunder, and it appears they haven't so all the hatred and angst from the gamers is well warranted, and lets be honest this is tame compared to the rioting and death threats others have gotten. We waited a decade for what, a sad insinuation and then 6 years later we have no apology and nothing to show for the dedication to the franchise, you know it is bad when numbers were released that had more players online in D2 than there were in D3 at any given time. People at the least expected D1 and D2 HD with Battlenet integration, they didn't even have the balls to give us that. People paid a lot of money to go to Blizzcon based on the fact that maybe there was real Diablo announcements.

Also terrible marketing decision, really someone needs to be fired, Blizzcon is about 70% PC and 30% Console , If they would have announced this in Taipai at a mobile conference...whatever fine, instead they marketed it to PC and console gamers as the next entry in the Diablo franchise...………...I can't even begin to say how cringe worthy that is and a slap in the face to the people who bought tickets as well as those who have been waiting for a real Diablo Game.

Blizzard = Apple of the gaming world now even within the games design you really don't have many choices, they tell you how to play their games...…...Its a disappointment as to what they have become.

The saddest part was Brevik's stream, I felt Sad, Angry, and Dumbfounded. He/his wife were the creators and it was heartbreaking to see his reactions, I feel so bad for him that his legacy to the gaming world is Blizzards butting joke to gamers now.
 
1Nocturnal101 said:
Blizzard on the other hand is simply so disconnected to the point their decisions are just clinically retarded and when they get bit back on they call gamers Toxic, or use a smart ass comment like "Don't you all have phones" - "Why would we need an offline mode, its no fun to play alone playing with friends is more fun"

The saddest part was Brevik's stream, I felt Sad, Angry, and Dumbfounded. He/his wife were the creators and it was heartbreaking to see his reactions, I feel so bad for him that his legacy to the gaming world is Blizzards butting joke to gamers now.
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Wait a minute, which video did you see? Because this one is Brevik and his wife defending Blizzard and basically point by point what I've written in this thread:
blaming gamers for hyping themselves up over something that Blizzard explicitly told them not to get hyped for, tells gamers not to be a dick, and calls them hypocritical and "taking it over the top."
 
fwiler1 said:
With the resources Blizzard has, it always amazes me how incompetent they are at releasing new content. D3 could of been a huge cash cow after the initial release fiasco. They have all the assets, just release new maps. stories, etc. It's not like the maps or the stories are some kind of epic design, they are very simple.
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Honestly IF* it were my project,

I would simply make Diablo Anthology (D1-3 timeline)

-Create a proper Engine from the ground up
- Deep RPG mechanics, limited respecs, You would have choices and there are consequences to those choices whether they are bad or good you would have to accept them, or reroll.
- Use all the classes, create a few more, and start the game using the 3 original classes and from there you specialize when you fulfill loose requirements, like Warrior/Mage talents can open up Druid/Paladin/Crusader, as you learn Talents you can create your own character that is yours within the classes.
- Itemization that is head spinning with a balance of allowing people to play the way they want and to discover new playstyles on their own yet having drawbacks in certain senarios like a mage wearing plate may have more defenses but takes longer to cast
-.Bosses that aren't push over chumps with a mix of tanky mini bosses that resemble D1 and D2's Bosses while incorporation of mechanics for the major bosses.
- I would keep it Dark Gothic Horror Fantasy - Blood shadows and terrifying situations, No out of place humor or non-sensical crap
- Redo the story coherently making sense with many arcing branches with hidden paths so no particular playthrough would be exactly alike Proc. Generation that would also be heavily used minus small areas with agendas on both sides that make complete sense and inherent to the nature of those characters.
- Online and Offline play with a mandatory connection once a week at minimum, with exceptions to military personel and such, The online aspect would have a different type of itemization system created by the servers and double checked to delete and prevent items from being manipulated.

This essentially would be an apology to Diablo fans, while doing something better, tweaking and working everything out for the next game which would spawn from the anthology, meaning it would be a 5-10 year total project with the same team shifting when they are done from the Anthology to the next installment so the development team isn't wasted in between.

I personally would kill to those resources and Talent, the major difference is I wouldn't piss it away the way they are.
 
Here's what I think. Activision/Blizzard had high hopes for Overwatch (and invested truckloads of money into it), only to be blindsided/bulldozed by the behemoth that is Fortnite (the huge success that is PUBG was already an ominous sign of the times). That means they need to recoup money from the (relatively speaking) investment that is costing them too much, in the long run (Overwatch). But, Act/Blizz has invested way too much into Overwatch for it to fail (it falls, and they suddenly become a much, much smaller company).

Therefore, some "genius" at Act/Blizz comes up with the idea to make "quickie cash" by retrofitting a mobile game, dusting it up with Diablo graphics, and tossing it out there (mostly for the Chinese & young gamers market segments). Act/Blizz counts on rabid Diablo fanbase to "love" whatever they put out, similar to the Apple Effect and the "sheeple" -- worst case scenario, they well know that Diablo's target demograpics are generally a bit older than the 10-24 age range, so if it all goes wrong, they "discard" that target segment by discounting said target segment's opinions with silly (yet polarizing) buzzwords like "Trump", etc. (essentially implying that "older" means anti-progressive, and thus, "not cool" -- what the youngsters call "throwing shade"). That dude who actually made the initial announcement was just a sacrifical lamb.

Essentially, they are willing to take the risk of sacrificing Diablo's main target demographic, in favor of propping up Overwatch, because it is their only major beachhead in the FPS/battle royale game segment, and they can't afford to let it die (besides, Diablo doesn't generate nearly as much money as their other games do).

Edit: meanwhile, Fortnight is getting NFL skins ... the higher-ups @ Act/Blizz must be going nuts w/despair ...
 
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mope54 said:
Wait a minute, which video did you see? Because this one is Brevik and his wife defending Blizzard and basically point by point what I've written in this thread:
blaming gamers for hyping themselves up over something that Blizzard explicitly told them not to get hyped for, tells gamers not to be a dick, and calls them hypocritical and "taking it over the top."
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Rarely have I seen a video with so many words and so little substance. It ranged from bland porridge nothingness to drooling retard level of stupidity. It's hard to imagine that guy once had the ability to accomplish anything, but since even the brightest stars dim eventually, I guess so could he.
 
mope54 said:
Wait a minute, which video did you see? Because this one is Brevik and his wife defending Blizzard and basically point by point what I've written in this thread:
blaming gamers for hyping themselves up over something that Blizzard explicitly told them not to get hyped for, tells gamers not to be a dick, and calls them hypocritical and "taking it over the top."
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This was way afterwards, he did a stream earlier. Btw he isn't defending them at all in this Video, he's just saying don't be a dick while being disappointed honestly this is worse than the one I seen, You can clearly tell he is trying to justify this from Blizzards perspective, remember he still knows people that work there, and while they may be hard dedicated workers they don't make the decisions, he's telling people to not crap on them...…………….which I'm not Morheim stepped down for a reason go watch his reaction to that, as well as the ELIMINATION of ex-BlizzNorth people from Blizzard.

To an extent this is denial stage...…

I am not blaming people actually doing the work however I will be a complete dick to the decision makers at Blizzard and the marketing team that let this fly, I've been to Blizzcon, I can personally tell you Jay Wilson is an Asshole(frankly a lot of their "management" has Ignorance and arrogance issues) I had a drink with him and I met some of the staff that worked on D3 most of them are nice people, however, IT doesn't mean that they failed creating the game, Jay Wilson was either fired or left, probably fired because Project Titan was a Disaster and D3 decisions completely alienated the core audience and what they picked up wasn't enough to make up for all people that were hardcore about the series that left to play Path of Exile or go back to playing D2.

*edit - also we knew nothing was Coming from Blizzcon about Diablo 4, almost everyone knew that from the blue post explaining that there were multiple Diablo projects in the pipeline, we also all knew about the Switch version..ok NP, we all expected considering it was closing announcement to be Diablo 1 or 2 HD as How many projects could Blizzard be doing based on Diablo????????Oh a cell phone game... At a PC/Console conference you ANNOUNCE a CELL PHONE GAME????????Who, Why would you do that its the stupidest PR/Marketing nightmare I have ever seen.

You don't Go to a Biker Rally as a Harley Davidson Rep and say we haven't made a motorcycle in a while guys and I don't have one for you , but here is the amazing new Harley Davidson Bicycle made by Schwinn and co developed by us(and all it really is is a new paint job on a current model they already produce)……...Think about the amount of bullets for a second.....no offense but as fans we are being tame already.
 
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mope54 said:
blaming gamers for hyping themselves up over something that Blizzard explicitly told them not to get hyped for, tells gamers not to be a dick, and calls them hypocritical and "taking it over the top."
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Ha ha, yeah, don't get hyped for an event that you have to buy tickets for, has a stage with a giant crowd and lights, music, etc. That's the whole point of giant publicized gaming conventions, to not have hype.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Late 30's actually, wife, couple kids, mortgage and all that. I not only haven't I moved in, but I spend most of my free time gaming with my kids now. Also I would argue that the Diablo community is as tight know as ever and those like me are far from the minority in that player base.
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Exactly...they weren't targeting younger kids OR Diablo fans. They are targeting the Asian mobile markets. Unfortunately, the guys they put up there to announce the thing were expected to sell it as something else.

Which honestly just pissed me off more about this with for example the comments from the Blizzard Watch guy, because he doesn't even understand the industry sufficiently. He just wants to bitch about social issues.
 
That's the thing. When Bethesda announced Fallout Shelter, it was a cute little mobile App that had NOTHING to do with the gameplay of the main games, it was a fun distraction from the main universe that didn't try to be anything more.

Activision basically touted this as "WHAT'S NEXT FOR DIABLO" and the evolution of the series.

Fans don't have anything against mobile games, but mobile games (in western society at least) have and will always be little distractions from REAL entertainment. There are no real "MAJOR, BLOCKBUSTER" mobile titles over here, there are popular titles, for sure, but nothing that has communities and fanbase of something like a MMO PC or console title. Trying to hype it up like it's the next big thing was stepping on the head of a rake as far as I'm concerned.
 
KazeoHin said:
Activision basically touted this as "WHAT'S NEXT FOR DIABLO" and the evolution of the series.
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What? No they didn't...did you watch the whole thing or are you basing this off what you've read?
Immortal takes place between 2 and 3 and they explicitly said it was just a fun romp for families and friends to waste time on.

They've been saying for over 6 months they've got more things going on. Blizzard doesn't just announce shit for announcing shit...come on, when has Blizzard ever just shown some splash screen simply to appease fans? I always thought Blizzard was the shut up and wait for perfection studio.
 
Taldren said:
Making the major announcement at a convention of hardcore, mostly PC, gamers that paid ridiculous amounts of money to attend the Blizzard event a generic casual mobile game that is being developed by a third party is an epic marketing fail.
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That was a bad step. Corporate fucked up on that.

"Do you guys not have phones?!". Whoa, dude. WTF?! Dissing your very loyal fan base after unloading this on them? Damn.

There is no way they couldn't have saw this happening. They probably hoped for the best, but they'd have to realize that it just maybe might not and there would be some people a bit upset with the news. And, that's the come back answer he had?

Corporate made a shitty decision. Marketing fucked up the presentation. The PR guy on stage fucked up the response. And they all fucked up during the aftermath so far.

There were a lot of responses that guy could have used to calm people down. That one just got people more riled up.
 
Ur_Mom said:
That was a bad step. Corporate fucked up on that.

"Do you guys not have phones?!". Whoa, dude. WTF?! Dissing your very loyal fan base after unloading this on them? Damn.

There is no way they couldn't have saw this happening. They probably hoped for the best, but they'd have to realize that it just maybe might not and there would be some people a bit upset with the news. And, that's the come back answer he had?

Corporate made a shitty decision. Marketing fucked up the presentation. The PR guy on stage fucked up the response. And they all fucked up during the aftermath so far.

There were a lot of responses that guy could have used to calm people down. That one just got people more riled up.
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What is really disgusting is the obvious shilling and damage control of various media outlets. At least it's helped me cull the site's I visit.
 
I am honestly surprised the community is pissed off at Blizzard for trying to make money. The big boys are missing out on the whole "mobile gaming" thing big time.

Could it be people see how all this is going to end? Meaning if the vast majority of their profit comes from mobile crap, then they'll stop making the good games? There's always competition, guys.
 
dgz said:
I am honestly surprised the community is pissed off at Blizzard for trying to make money. The big boys are missing out on the whole "mobile gaming" thing big time.

Could it be people see how all this is going to end? Meaning if the vast majority of their profit comes from mobile crap, then they'll stop making the good games? There's always competition, guys.
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Don't be obtuse, the piss off isn't that they are making a mobile game but how they unveiled and announced this. An appropriate announcement would have been a smaller booth to the side, or just usual game announcement via ign etc. To give it a center stage at blizzcon was tone def as fuck.

As an aside, I am sure some would be pissed off anyway, but someone is always pissed off. Ignore them, but don't conflate the always pissed off with legitimate anger.

Edit: activation is not missing out on mobile gaming at all.
 
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Rathor said:
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!
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It's a reskin of another NetEase game, Endless Gods. NetEase also reskinned Endless Gods to make Kung Fu Pand 3 the movie mobile game. NetEase is good at being paid to reskin their games. I wouldn't call a reskin a AAA game.
 
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