Grinding Gear Games has announced a mobile version for Path of Exile. They made a joke at the expense of Blizzard. Their announcement of Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon 2018 was legendary in its failure.
These were the major announcements: Path of Exile held its own event, ExileCon, in New Zealand over the weekend. There they announced three big things:
- A small expansion, 3.9, for Path of Exile
- a huge expansion that is also a sequel, Path of Exile 2
- the mobile game “Path of Exile Mobile”
What is known about Path of Exile Mobile?
- The game is to be developed “in-house” in New Zealand.
- It is not supposed to have any “bullshit” – nothing that goes towards pay-to-win.
- It is supposed to be simply a “good game” that is being developed for mobile.
- The game is still in the “experimental stage”; it is not yet known where it will lead.
Jokes at Blizzard’s Expense
What are the jabs at Blizzard? There are three small jabs.
In the video, CEO Chris Wilson emphasizes: “We didn’t want to outsource the game to an external studio” – that is exactly what Blizzard is said to have done in part with Diablo Immortal. This is being developed in collaboration with NetEase in China.
Then Trevor Gamon appears, subtitled as the “Mobile Fall Guy” – the scapegoat who will take the heat for developing a mobile game. Such a scapegoat was Wyatt Cheng with Diablo Immortal, who made the remark, “Don’t you guys have phones?”.
During the announcement, the CEO of Grinding Gear Games, Chris Wilson, visibly enjoying himself, said:
Needless to say, it was really hard to announce this about a year ago. We thought, let’s give you a sequel first and show that.
The audience understood the joke and had their fun.
Is this a delayed April Fool’s joke?
Here’s what’s behind it: At BlizzCon 2018, fans expected the announcement of Diablo 4, but were given “only” the presentation of the mobile game Diablo Immortal. This caused a shitstorm among disappointed fans.
In hindsight, many agreed that Blizzard could have prevented the anger by showing the fans “first” Diablo 4 and then the mobile game.
Path of Exile did it just like that – and had fun doing it. There was no outrage over them making a “mobile game”:
- The trailer for Path of Exile Mobile has nearly 20 times more likes than dislikes on YouTube
- The trailer “Diablo Immortal Cinematic” from 2018 has about 23 times more dislikes than likes on YouTube
When Path of Exile Mobile will be released is not known, the release date for Diablo Immortal is also not known.
