The BlizzCon 2021 is over and Blizzard has refrained from showcasing some of the most exciting projects: Among them, Diablo Immortal and the mobile games to Warcraft seem to be well advanced. The reason for not grandly presenting the mobile games lies in Blizzard’s trauma from 2018, believes our author Schuhmann.
This is how the trauma occurred: It is probably one of the worst moments in Blizzard’s 30-year history. The studio presented the pure mobile game “Diablo Immortal” as the highlight of the event at BlizzCon 2018 while a room full of PC fans was waiting for information about Diablo 4.
During the presentation, you could literally feel the atmosphere turning sour as the excitement for Diablo 4 turned into frustration over Diablo Immortal.
The uproar came during the Q&A session for the game. A fan asked whether Diablo Immortal would be playable on PC in any way.
The developer Wyatt Cheng said: The current plan is for Diablo Immortal to be playable on both mobile platforms. On iOS and on Android. Blizzard has no plans to bring the game to PC.
Wyatt Cheng was then booed by the fans on stage. Such things normally don’t happen.
Cheng put on a pained smile and asked, “Don’t you guys have phones?”
Do you guys not have phones?
This was the result: This moment was later captured in thousands of memes. It became a catchphrase for the notion that the Blizzard of old is dead and that the new Blizzard has lost touch with the players. They only care about money now.
Similar to before “You think you do, but you don’t” for WoW Classic, the phrase from Cheng came back to haunt Blizzard.
Apart from this moment, there were other terrible images from BlizzCon 2018: A fan in a red t-shirt had asked the developers if Diablo Immortal was an “April Fools’ joke.” He was celebrated online as a “hero.”
The mood towards Diablo Immortal was overwhelmingly hateful in the days that followed. A rumor circulated online that Diablo Immortal was not even a proper game but merely a brazen clone from Asia – just cheap goods from the East, instead of craftsmanship from Blizzard.
The developers had to spend years trying to rehabilitate the image of Diablo Immortal.
These are now the consequences: Since BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard has banished its mobile games from the big stage:
- At BlizzCon 2019, Diablo Immortal was kept under wraps – Apparently so fans wouldn’t confuse it with Diablo 4, which was showcased prominently there
- Also at BlizzCon 2021, Diablo Immortal was damned to niche existence and was only discussed in panels
- No trace was missing of the mobile games to Warcraft, which were still mentioned as “in advanced development” in the financial report
Blizzard is hiding the game that fans already love
What is the problem? Diablo Immortal is currently the hottest iron that Blizzard has in the fire. An initial technical alpha was enthusiastically received by fans:
- the game is apparently much closer to a release than Diablo 4
- it currently looks significantly more polished than Diablo 2 Resurrected
- Diablo Immortal should have belonged on the big stage if you consider it a “full-fledged game,” just like Blizzard allegedly does
Moreover, Blizzard, according to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, has “several mobile titles” to Warcraft in advanced development: Nothing of those was absolutely seen at BlizzCon.
By the way, Diablo Immortal had already been shown to fans at least 3 years before release, and fans will probably have to wait for years for the Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 introduced in 2019. It is actually common for Blizzard to introduce games to fans early so they can look forward to the games.
This shows: Blizzard apparently treats mobile games as “second-class games” for which they feel a little ashamed.
It seems Blizzard is ashamed of their mobile games
A strategic focus of Activision Blizzard has been on mobile titles for years: However, if they conceal mobile games from fans, a BlizzCon looks pretty thin, as one can see from the mixed reactions.
The Diablo 2 Remastered and an arcade collection were the highlights of BlizzCon – the WoW surprises Blizzard revealed 30 hours earlier.
As a fan, one wonders:
- What has the “incubator” department at Blizzard been doing since 2017 if nothing new is forthcoming?
- Why present a game grandly in 2018 and then almost completely conceal it at the next two major events of the studio?
This does not reflect well on Blizzard.
The problem in 2018 was the wrong expectation management, not the mobile game
But won’t Blizzard get in trouble if they show it? No, at least not as much trouble as in 2018. The problem with Diablo Immortal was not that Blizzard was making a mobile game. The problem was that they could not present anything else.
- Diablo Immortal, while fans are super eager for the reveal of Diablo 4: That was a mistake. They should have clearly stated to the fans before BlizzCon 2018: Guys, we are not showing anything about Diablo 4.
- Showing Diablo Immortal as a side note in 2021, when presenting Diablo 2 Resurrected prominently: That would have probably been okay.
Even Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime explained back in 2019 that the disappointment of fans at BlizzCon 2019 was due to the wrong expectation management regarding Diablo 4 and not to the mobile game.
At the moment, it seems Blizzard has decided not to show mobile games on the big stage of BlizzCon anymore. The trauma with “Don’t you guys have phones?” seems to still haunt Blizzard until 2021.
Meanwhile, Diablo Immortal could transform from the unloved stepchild into a hit for Blizzard:
YouTuber thought Diablo Immortal would cost him his job – now he is thrilled
