My brain is tired from all the mental gymnastics being used to rationalize D:I…
According to Blizzard, there are Blizzard staff working with NetEase, the mobile dev, on the development of the game. See this https://www.vg247.com/2018/11/08/diablo-immortal-co-developed-blizzard-netease/, or other articles on the web by searching for “diablo immortal Blizzard work with netease”.
I agree with you on the “Diablo Experience.” The “Diablo Experience” is merely a marketing term to grab the nostalgia that people had for the previous Diablo games. Since I never played the previous Diablo games, this term is meaningless to me, or not as positive as they want me to believe.
I did initially enjoy D3, but grew bored with it. Eventually the term will become meaningless, unless they actually create a game with a positive, meaningful experience. Yes, I’m cynical. 
It seems that publisher/game developers think mobile is where it’s at, or at least the Triple A ones. So no gymnastics required. Their business model points them to mobile.
The disconnect is with PC/Console players who want games on those platforms and not mobile.
Guess we’ll see if Activision/Blizzard or PC/Console gamers are right in terms of what sells.
I understand why a publisher would do it. I’m just referring to the rationalization as to why people should be ok with it, simply due to it having the Diablo label thrown on it.
And, who gives 2 shits if Blizzard’s damage control around this abomination includes them stating they have “Diablo developers” working with their mobile developer. In what capacity? Other than them not actually “being in the same room”, they really don’t go into much detail. Besides, it’s not as if Blizzard can really be trusted to carry storylines/archs across expansions these days – given their butchering of WoW storylines and characters.
I guess it depends on who you mean by “people”. People who play mobile games might want the “Diablo Experience”, or perhaps a new mobile game. So can’t see why the wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, be OK with it.
The idea that there can’t be a Diablo mobile game is wrong. Apparently there is going to be one. The whole “Diablo Experience” is just marketing to snag people who are into that thing, or a thing they think they want. Remember, we don’t need games but the publishers want to push the buttons to get people to buy them.
Now announcing a mobile game at a major event to a group of PC/Console players is just plain crazy. Not sure they thought that one through.
I guess their warped logic was, hoping many of those PC/console players had mobile phones, and basically, if you enjoyed D3, you will enjoy D:I.
But it was a bit of a silly move, and clearly backfired.
But D:I isn’t a game I will ever touch. But mobile games are getting more and more popular, so there is money to be made.
Actizzard made plenty of mistakes when it comes to Diablo Immortal and I truly hope that it fails because both Activision and Blizzard have zero integrity anymore and shouldn’t be trusted.
Mobile games make a ton of money which brings about the Greedy Companies that want to get into that market. Microtransactions, egregious tactics to wring out more money from the user, and overall promotion of what can be boiled down to gambling are all the things that bring about the vultures of today’s gaming companies.
The only mistake so far, when it comes to diablo imortal, is announcing a mobile game on blizzcon where people payed tickets and where the focus is on PC and consoles.
Nothing wrong with having a diablo mobile game in development. When the game is out people will review it and compare it to other arpg mobile games, and we will see will the game be good or not compared to others in the market.
-Diablo 3 Forum hinting at Diablo project which hyped up Blizzcon. Later on they add another statement to try to lower the hype crowd.
-Diablo Immortal reveal at a time during Blizzcon which is set for the usual big announcement. Obviously to a PC fanbase it didn’t go well.
-The whole “Don’t you guys have phones?” mockery towards the fans.
-Person asks during QA if there will be future pc plans for Diablo - response was no plans right now.
-Trailer and Gameplay trailer get heavy dislikes in which case multiple times the trailers were reuploaded to reset the ratio of like to dislike + mass comments were deleted multiple times as well.
-Silence from the developers for weeks if not months after the announcement and media tried to make the spin of the fans being in the wrong. Eventually the develops do respond that they have multiple Diablo projects - but still do not give any glimmer of hope beyond that.
Then we have the other problems with Activision/Blizzard in how their stock dropped drastically multiple times (more so then usual yearly occurrences), resulting in Bungie (Halo/Destiny) leaving Activision while celebrating with champagne, Heroes of the Storm losing it’s E-Sport section taking out a lot of the competitive scene for that franchise, and multiple times where Blizzard employees were let go despite the earnings report being better then expected.
Sadly Blizzard is bound to Activision so it is highly unlikely the two will split apart any time soon and the amount of bad decisions both companies have made are only encouraging their fanbase to look elsewhere for enjoyment.
Mobile games are fine. Some of the practices are not imo. The way Blizzard handled their own spin off Diablo 3 mobile game wasn’t done well and the aftermath even less so.
Yes, I’ve seen mobile games done correctly, and they were well received.
When presented as a lead-in to a new release/expansion (announced), or as an auxiliary game during the beginning/middle lifespan of a new release/expansion.
But to drop it, unexpectedly, on a group of rabid fans who have been begging for a new release/expansion? Yeah, good luck with that one.
And I’m sorry, but all the “it haz teh Diablow xpeerince… derp derp” in the world won’t get me to try it, or to think it was done by developers who really cared about their fans(customers).
Few of the things you listed is what I said, and its one thing and that is announcement of the game at blizzcon. The only thing they made a mistake.
Stocks , hearts of the storm, people hyping it up and other thing have nothing to do with diablo imortal, and I am not sure what your even listening those things. In fact most of your list has nothing to do with imortal and more to do with what blizz/activision did wrong not directly tied to that game, but as i said when it comes to diablo immortal, they only did one thing wrong, and that is the announcement. If they did the anouncment right, most would not have problems with dablo imortal and all the PR problem that are contented to diablo imortal would not even happen.
I initially enjoyed D3 too, for less than a month. Enjoyed RoS expansion a bit more, maybe half a year, casual gameplay. Gotta say, the best thing that happened to D3 are the modded classes imported in GD
Ever since I learned about the “Reign of Terror” Diablo II mod for Grim dawn (by Ram), all my urges for getting a Diablo II remastered just disappeared
I need to check that out, (not played that yet) as by the looks of things, that mod is going to kill any need for a D2 remake.
Stocks went down soon after Diablo Immortal’s announcement. I’m not sure if that was a coincidence or merely stockholders seeing the negative reaction towards a mobile money making project that was believe to be the next iteration of Diablo 3 (console version, switch, now mobile).
Most of my later examples (reason for leaving a bit of a gap) merely shows how disreputable Activision and to some extent Blizzard has become which can be another reason why people will not support Diablo Immortal.
The game itself might be fine even though it is based off a game that was released quite some time ago - but the baggage that comes with that game can be off putting for many of the fans.
maybe if you do consider what they did with the YT trailer part of the announcement, which to me it is not
Stocks , hearts of the storm, people hyping it up and other thing have nothing to do with diablo imortal
stock definitely has, it is affected by other things as well however
If they did the anouncment right, most would not have problems with dablo imortal and all the PR problem that are contented to diablo imortal would not even happen.
maybe, personally my opinion on DI is the same regardless of how they announced it. It is a mobile game, and I entirely ignore all of those. The difference is that due to the botched announcement, I know of this one.
Which, I think, is Ragnar’s point. If Activision/Blizzard hadn’t announced Diablo Immortal, a mobile game, as a major announcement at a convention which is primarily focused on PC/Console game players, who were expecting an announcement of a new Diablo game for PC/Console - then it wouldn’t have made the news it had.
Thus, Activision/Blizzard misread / had bad data about where, when, and how to announce Diablo Immortal.
The bad reaction to that announcement could be the prime reason for the drop in their stock price, or it could have been something else? Anyone check Activision/Blizzard stock prices recently and done a comparison and trend analysis on it since then?
Yea, more or less.
The drop in stocks started to happen because of the low sales of new call of duty. Diablo news and backlash for sure didnt help., but it was not the main reason for it drop.
Yes, making the umpteenth call of duty isn’t working for them anymore. After so many games, no wonder people are tired of it. Franchises can be fun but don’t overdo it.
it probably wouldn’t have spread as fast and wide or gotten that backlash, but I doubt that backlash at the announcement will really make any difference when the game actually is released, which kinda was my point… so what if a couple thousand PC players were to reject it then still due to the announcement (if there even are that many). It is targeted at millions, that won’t even register. The game will be a success or failure on its own merit, the announcement will make no difference.