The shitstorm surrounding the announcement of Diablo Immortal took strange turns. A player bought the domain playdiablo4.com and redirected it to the action MMO Path of Exile.
What happened? The Reddit user Zeiin bought the domain playdiablo4.com and then redirected it to the website of the competitor in the form of Path of Exile.
Then, someone contacted Zeiin and asked if he would sell the domain. When the fan replied with “Maybe,” a lawyer from Blizzard reached out to him. The lawyer demanded that Zeiin remove the redirect to Path of Exile. This would involve domain hijacking and copyright infringement.
Furthermore, the lawyer tried to persuade Zeiin to transfer the domain playdiablo4.com to Blizzard. Blizzard believed that he intended to use the domain for commercial purposes. Zeiin agreed to remove the redirect but retains the domain. If Blizzard plans to actively use it for a game, he would, however, relinquish the domain.
The joke continues: However, Zeiin came up with another prank. The domain playdiablo4.com now redirects to a Google search for smartphones, which is, of course, a jab at the mobile game Diablo Immortal.
Blizzard is just doing its job
This is why Zeiin doesn’t want Blizzard to be attacked: Zeiin explains in his Reddit post that the lawyer was very friendly and even told him that they found the joke funny at Blizzard. However, Blizzard has to manage damage control after the shitstorm, so the action is understandable. No one was unfriendly to him or forced him to do anything.
This is how the community reacts: Initially, further anger was directed at Blizzard due to this action, until Zeiin clarified that players should please stop. Now, with the redirect of the domain playdiablo4.com to a search for smartphones, it seems that the waves have smoothed out a bit on Reddit. People are laughing about this additional jab. How Blizzard will react is still unknown.
