Diablo F2P on iOS, Android

Good news, it's a new Diablo game!

A free-to-play title. For iOS and Android only. Development is outsourced to a chinese megacorporation/megadev. And it's basically a reskin of other existing games of the same developer.


So.. yeah. That happened.

 

Blizzard says it was written from the ground up, not a reskin.

https://www.polygon.com/blizzcon/2018/11/3/18059222/diablo-immortal-blizzard-response-blizzcon

 

Silly fanboy reaction / dumb announcement decision combo aside, I'm looking forward to this. Sitting back and playing some casual action RPG sounds fun. The controls will probably suck the joy out of it for me though.

 

Let's see how it turns when it's released but I'm certainly disappointed.

And yeah controls will kill it for me, I can't even imagine playing this kind of game with a console controller

 

And anyone who googled videos of other F2P ARPGs from Netease would have called bullshit on that statement.





The feel, the UI and everything around the game was built from the ground up for Diablo Immortal? LOL

One of Blizzard's designers even dodged the question about the reskin when asked this directly during an interview with IGN. Even the interviewer from IGN is 100% aware of this. His pinned comment on the video pretty much confirms this:

Q: Is this a reskin of other Netease games?
A: Oh.. we've been working together on creating assets for this game.

Changing the assets for an existing game is pretty much the definition of a reskin.

Context to what you call silly fanboy reaction:

1 - Blizzard teased a new Diablo entry being announced during Blizzcon
2 - Therefore Diablo hardcore fans from all over the world/country paid plane tickets and show tickets to watch the announcement live
3 - Diablo hardcore fans are mostly consisted of 30-40yo gamers who played Diablo 1 and 2 in their teens, on a PC.
4 - Blizzard reveals that the new Diablo entry is a Free2Play mobile game being made by a chinese developer, looks like a reskin of tons of other games from that same chinese developer (all their ARPG F2P mobile games are reskins from one another), and can't be played on a PC.

 

Which is why included "dumb announcement decision" for context straight after. The reaction was still a bit silly.

 

Conceptually, I can see a touchscreen being more similar to the mouse controls (you don't need a cursor, you are the curser cursor) though I haven't watched what they've actually done.

The gamepad version plays fairly differently since it's not all clicking just to move (or dodge). It plays fairly naturally for an action RPG.

 

It depends on whose reaction you're talking about.
Are there silly, disproportionate and terribly trollish reactions on the internet? Yes, there is, ever was, ever will be.




Now imagine you've been a die-hard Diablo fan since 1992 (26 years ago!). Blizzard teases you with the following:

So this is the moment you've been waiting for some 4 years or so, Diablo 4's announcement. And you get to share it with people who share the same niche tastes as you!
You then spend the following:
- $400-600 on a flight + return to California
- $200 on the ticket to Blizzcon
- $200 on food, lodging, ubers, etc.

And on the moment of revelation, all the Diablo-related news revolve around a reskinned chinese F2P game, only for Android and iOS.
Blizzard doesn't even bother to show a 30-second teaser of Diablo 4, in fact they outright refuse to mention "Diablo 4" as if it was a very dirty word.

Anyone in this situation would be furious. To say the least.

That guy in a red t-shirt who took the microphone to ask if the fans were being pranked wasn't trolling.
If you look at his face you'll see that his expression is of very serious disbelief and disappointment, not one of a guy who's saying shit for laughs.





It's not even about it being a mobile game. It's the blatant bait-and-switch that led thousands of people to the convention and shows Blizzard doesn't give a crap about them.

For example, Bethesda also released Free2Play mobile games out of their strongest franchises and made lots of money from them. But Fallout Shelter was announced as a companion game to Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls Blades' announcement was succeeded by the Elder Scrolls VI teaser. Not only did Bethesda avoid the bait-and-switch thing by presenting the games during general conventions, they also made sure to give their core audience at least a glimpse of what they really wanted.

Blizzard executives are just disconnected from reality or they just don't give a fuck. Or both.

 

Hmmm I still play D3 and mostly destroyed my keyboard. It doesn't use a lot of keys but they are heavily used. Buf of course the new game has been thought with phone control in mind.

Anyway I will surely try it on my phone

 

I'm more inclined to believe incompetence.

 

Activision has poisoned the well, no doubt.

 

lol yea... don't go for the announcements..
lol really, don't.

Go there to meet people, watch tourneys, swag, cosplay, I think is about all you're going to get. A lot of clans/teams/guilds meet up at this event annually. But yea, I wouldn't go treating it like an E3. It's very disappointing year after year.