At BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard presented Diablo Immortal, a mobile RPG. Our author Schuhmann says the special way of presentation shows how confident Blizzard is about its situation. Because the moment of pain has been coming for more than 2 years.
This was the situation: For years, Diablo fans have been waiting for something to happen with their favorite franchise.
- They would have preferred the announcement of a big Diablo 4.
- They would have been just satisfied with a big expansion for Diablo 3 at BlizzCon 2018.
- As an absolute minimum bargaining chip, they might have accepted a Diablo 2 Remastered combined with a class add-on for Diablo 3, perhaps the Druid.
This is what happened: However, Blizzard gave them none of that and instead presented Diablo Immortal.
This is a mobile RPG that clearly orients itself on Chinese models. No wonder, as they brought in the Chinese partner NetEase from the beginning. They have made a fortune with games of this kind in the Chinese mobile market.
The similarities of Diablo Immortal with “China Mobile RPGs” have gone so far that some already excitedly speak of a reskin.
The reaction of the fans to Diablo Immortal was overall extremely negative:
- There were dislikes pouring in on YouTube (currently 180,000 on the cinematic – with only 6,000 likes)
- At the fair, someone even stood up and asked the developer if this was an April Fool’s joke.
- Additionally, there were booing when it became clear: It is not coming for PC.
A mobile game from Blizzard has been anticipated since 2016
Diablo Immortal has been seen coming for a long time: Since February 2016 it has been known that Blizzard sees its future in the mobile market. This has been emphasized repeatedly. In every financial report from Activision Blizzard, it is stated that Blizzard will focus on mobile.
The question was actually only:
- Will they make a Warcraft strategy game for mobile first?
- Or a mobile RPG with Diablo?
Now we know the answer.
The reasons are clear:
- Technology is advancing – smartphones are getting more powerful
- The smartphone opens up new target groups of “non-gamers” who nonetheless have powerful gaming devices
- In Asia, the mobile market is already huge.
- Western game developers want to attract new players and bring their established brands to these new platforms
Competitors like Ubisoft, EA, and Bethesda have taken this step in the past months or will do so soon. They have already presented mobile versions of their biggest brands.
Many have seen this coming, that Blizzard would make a mobile game with one of its major franchises, even if they might not have wanted to accept it until the last moment.
Therefore, it was hard for many fans to confront the reality. Especially with the harshness that Blizzard is actually releasing a Diablo mobile game.
That’s why the announcement of Diablo Immortal is particularly difficult:
- Mobile gaming is strongly associated with “casual gaming” like Candy Crush in the West. There is strong rejection among core gamers.
- Many see Blizzard as a guarantor for high-quality PC core games. For many, Blizzard cannot be reconciled with mobile.
- And especially with Diablo, fans have been waiting so long for something new that they hoped to receive a “core game” for a “core platform,” namely the PC.
Blizzard shows steel balls
This is the special part: The special thing about Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon was how unfiltered and without buffer Blizzard presented the game.
The competitors wrapped their “mobile games of known franchises” in foam and surrounded them with all sorts of buffers to make them palatable to fans and avoid such a “hard moment.”
- There were first images of “The Elder Scrolls 6” while Bethesda presented the mobile game “Elder Scrolls Blades”.
- At E3, Electronic Arts showed a bunch of stuff before and after the mobile game “Command and Conquer Rivals”, and yet some traditionalists had a meltdown.
- And the new “Gears Mobile” from Microsoft was one of many points during the E3 presentation that they almost hid.
Blizzard decided to present Diablo Immortal without much around it as the highlight of BlizzCon 2018. That takes a lot of confidence.
The moment of pain was anticipated for 2.5 years
It is clear: Blizzard was expecting the reaction of core fans just like that. They did not shamefully hide “Diablo Immortal” somewhere on the side or try to foist it on the players.
Instead, they had the confidence to place it right at the center of BlizzCon and now live with the reactions from the fans.
Last night was a moment that Blizzard knew had been coming for at least two and a half years. They knew: There would be trouble when they show their core fans the new mobile game.
And they went through with it.
