Blizzard wants to enter the mobile market and their first attempt was “rather average.” But how could they excite the fans for it?
If you envision the stereotypical image of a typical Blizzard player, they probably have a PC and have been playing games like World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, or StarCraft II for over a decade. The so-called “core gamers” of Blizzard are likely to be found on PC, even though Overwatch and Diablo 3 have been released on consoles, and Hearthstone works on mobile devices.
Blizzard is considered by many long-time fans to be a developer of high-quality entertainment on PC. Many Core gamers still do not want to connect Blizzard with the “shoddy” mobile games. After all, mobile gamers are not “real” gamers, as can be read again and again in many comments and opinions.
There’s big money in mobile games: However, it’s clear that mobile games are a true gold mine. Even if many PC players refuse to acknowledge it: With millions of mobile users, there’s a lot of money to be made, making smartphone owners an attractive target group that must be seized before all genres are represented and occupied.
The advantage is that there is still a lot of “junk” in the mobile sector, and some are still skeptical. Numerous mobile games rely on strong pay-to-win aspects to rake in cash. Here, Blizzard could prove itself and take the “more complicated” route, developing a game without pay-to-win excesses that instead focuses on skins and other cosmetic status symbols. After all, this has worked wonderfully for many games before.
What kind of games are conceivable? The possibilities for Blizzard in the mobile sector are virtually endless. It starts with obvious ideas like implementing the “Pet Battle” system from World of Warcraft, which players have been requesting for years. But there have also been good examples in the recent past that could be realized. An “auto chess” game like Teamfight Tactics featuring popular Blizzard characters would be easy to implement.
Similarly plausible and heading in a similar direction are “hero-collecting games” (often a type of “gacha games”), which have almost always been accompanied by strong pay-to-win aspects. In these, you often collect heroes multiple times to upgrade them and then complete quests or compete against other players in the arena. Similar to auto chess games, but with permanent upgrades and ongoing progress – and so far also almost always with pay-to-win, because those who want the best heroes can spend hundreds of euros on such games.
Only symbiosis can help: Honestly, I believe there is only one way for Blizzard to convince its core player base of mobile games – and that is by making the games not exclusively mobile and not pay-to-win. This was well noticeable last year with the question about Diablo: Immortal, when a fan asked if there were any plans to release the game on PC as well.
If Blizzard were to release a game on both PC and smartphones, acceptance would surely be greater. And perhaps then one or another player might start playing a game not just on their computer, but also on the go. This has worked pretty well with Hearthstone after all.
What do you think? What kind of game could Blizzard fans accept on mobile? Or is it nearly impossible?
