About a month ago, Diablo Immortal was released, marking the first real Diablo MMO. It launched with great success, but also faced heavy criticism and massive discussions. Now, the game has become quiet. MeinMMO checks the status and shows what the future bringst.
This is how the launch of Diablo Immortal went:
- On June 1, Diablo Immortal unexpectedly launched a day before the official release.
- Despite intense discussions about the pay-to-win aspect of the game, it reportedly had over 10 million downloads in its first week (via Twitter.com).
- According to reports, the game generated over 10 million USD in revenue during this time, much of it from Germany.
The endgame area and the final dungeon in the trailer brought a good atmosphere back then – but they were also the last major “content update” so far:
Diablo Immortal is stagnating for too long
What is the current status of Diablo Immortal? At least the financial success of Diablo Immortal continues. According to the analysis website AppMagic, the mobile MMO is said to have generated over 47 million Euros in its first month (via mobilegamer.biz).
However, the general interest in the game is decreasing significantly. On Twitch, the viewer count has dropped drastically after the first few days (via sullygnome.com). Many streamers now prefer to show Diablo 3, even though it is already 10 years old.
Also, fewer and fewer people are searching for Diablo Immortal on Google. Google Trends are an important indicator for us at MeinMMO regarding interest in games. Worldwide, the search volume has fallen to less than a quarter compared to the release:
The situation shows that while Diablo Immortal is a financial success despite criticism, it gives the impression that this cannot last indefinitely. At least not if the developers and Blizzard do not change something soon.
What is the problem? After the significant criticism of the pay-to-win aspect of Diablo Immortal, several influencers have turned their backs on the game. Even the important service website, Maxroll.GG has stopped covering Diablo Immortal because it is incompatible with their morals.
The bigger problem, however, is that there has been radio silence regarding updates since the release. There has been exactly one patch for the still-buggy PC version, one week after the release. Bugs remain, and new content is missing.
So far, only one content update has been released. It introduced Vitaath, a new raid boss who is far too difficult. The battle pass is ending in a few days, and there is still no information on what will happen next – only the promise that “something will come soon”.
Since Diablo Immortal has been played a lot despite the discussions, there are thousands of players who have engaged with the content even in free-to-play. There are even comparisons showing that Immortal performs better than Diablo 2. However, players are now reaching a point where they have nothing more to do.
Once they reach the endgame, there is nothing left to do except grind for higher levels and legendaries. Diablo is about looting and leveling, and the grind wouldn’t be the problem if there weren’t loot caps and other problems that concern fans.
In the podcast, editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski and editorial manager Gerd Schuhmann discuss pay-to-win in Diablo Immortal:
“How long until this game dies?”
This is how players see it: Many hardcore players have already stopped after a few days. The systems in Diablo Immortal prevent them from grinding as much as they want while still making progress – unless they pay.
However, even casual players have now reached this point, making up the much larger part of the player base. On reddit and other social media, questions are repeatedly raised about when Diablo Immortal will die and reports of dead servers. Players allegedly can no longer find groups to complete dungeons.
Starting from Hell difficulty 1, they need a group to complete a dungeon. As some players progress further, the community splits more and more over the different difficulty levels. Consequently, it takes longer and longer to find fellow players.
Another major issue is the PvP system with the two factions, Shadows and Immortals. Here, there is only about a weekly change of the leading faction. For Shadows, there is little incentive to work towards this showdown for so long.
Here are suggestions for improvement: In many threads, players explain that they would like to continue. They just lack the incentive to do so. They have several ideas for which they would come back if implemented:
- Dungeons should be soloable
- The limits for loot and resources need to be raised
- Rewards must be significantly better
- Free-to-play players need more opportunities to keep up
One of the ideas is to revise the legendary gem system. You can get legendary gems for free, but it takes an enormous amount of time. If there were better opportunities to earn the important items, more players would have an incentive to play.
In the video, we explain what exactly the gems are about and how to obtain them:
New classes, new features, more content
What content is still to come? Diablo Immortal is a service game like WoW and is expected to receive updates similarly. From some discussions with the developers, we already know what upcoming content is planned:
- New classes, although we do not know which ones – fans have already discovered a vampire knight in the data
- More bosses for the Hell Relic, one per month
- More story and presumably new zones and dungeons
Since Diablo thrives on loot and leveling, there should also be a supply of new content in this area. New legendaries and sets have already been promised, but we do not yet know which ones they will be. In our list, you can find all sets of Diablo Immortal and where to find them.
Currently, Diablo Immortal offers 6 classes, which you can find in the ranking in our tier list. You can see gameplay here in the video:
When are the updates coming? MeinMMO already inquired with Blizzard a few weeks ago about the current status and a roadmap. So far, however, there is only the information from the source that “more information will come soon.”
Why exactly this is taking so long cannot currently be said. Blizzard is bringing Diablo Immortal to most Asian countries on July 7. Perhaps more information will follow from then on.
It is possible that all players worldwide are to receive updates simultaneously, so that not different versions are in circulation that need to be managed. However, this is pure speculation.
If this is the case, it is also unclear when exactly the first updates will come. Because Diablo Immortal cannot yet be released in China:
Diablo Immortal – China Ban: A single sentence could cost Blizzard hundreds of millions of $
