Diablo 4 offers numerous possibilities to continue spending money on the game after purchase. However, monetization remains one of the big question marks. Players are particularly concerned that Pay2Win might be lurking here. Others believe that all additional costs in Diablo 4 will be completely optional. This topic is highly charged and causes controversy.
This is what monetization looks like in Diablo 4:
- Diablo 4 is a Buy2Play title, for which you must pay at least 70 euros – apart from deals. In our article, you can find the information about the different editions.
- Additionally, Diablo 4 has a Battle Pass that renews every 3 months and contains various rewards. The pass is accompanied by seasons.
- Moreover, Diablo 4 will have a shop, where the developers keep promising: there are no powers to buy here, only cosmetics. However, prices are still unclear.
This is what users are arguing about: In a highly debated thread on Reddit, a user takes a stance for Blizzard and says: not every monetization is bad. Just because a company wants to make money with its product, that doesn’t make it evil.
Diablo 4 will receive new content over the years, which somehow needs to be paid for. However, the shop and the Battle Pass are completely optional; they themselves wouldn’t buy anything from it. For 70 dollars or euros, they experience everything that Diablo 4 has to offer and that is already over 100 hours of gameplay.
Compared to Pay2Win content or “forced payments”, such as for a new chest, this path is the least toxic. Other players agree, even on the price. When adjusted for inflation, the price of Diablo 1 would also amount to 70 euros today.
But Diablo 4 offers significantly more content. In the top comment, it says: “I prefer content, even if it includes a shop, than a game without significant updates.”
In our overview, you can find all info about Diablo 4. With the latest trailer, Blizzard generated excitement again:
“You are not financing Diablo 4, but Bobby Kotick’s bonus”
On the other hand, there is user SoggyRamyun, who explains that monetization itself is not the problem, but where the money goes. The developers see very little of it, as has already been shown in previous reports.
Blizzard cut bonus payments to employees by 42%. Just two years earlier, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick received a bonus payment of 200 million US dollars. SoggyRamyun complains:
You are not paying to support the game. You are paying to finance Bobby Kotick’s year-end bonus. […]
A passive income is necessary for the post-launch support of Diablo 4, but not every single form of monetization is necessary. It was not necessary to raise the price to 70 $ […] and it was not necessary to design the Battle Pass in a way that players cannot fully earn it back. This game will print money on its own with the shop […]
Many users agree. The salaries of developers are already 95% predetermined, and the bonuses are “miserable.” Others ask why there are still people who can defend companies here.
Especially at Blizzard, there are traditionally many fans who are loyal to the company or would like to be. With Diablo 4, these fans see another chance for Blizzard to show that their loyalty is still worth it.
How the shop will ultimately look, we will probably find out only in June. But at least there are already bad examples:
One of the best alternatives to Diablo 4 on Steam shows how the shop should not be – backtracking
