Diablo: Immortal, How To Piss Off An Entire Fanbase
Its impressive to mess up this badly.
Diablo: Immortal is a mobile game set in the Diablo universe. It was announced at Blizzcon and boy oh boy was it met with resistance. It was, in my opinion, quite funny.
The last game in the series, Diablo 3, was released back in 2012. Six years is a long time to wait for a new installment of a game. The fan base has been waiting with bated breath for Diablo 4.
When Blizzard started a Diablo looking trailer, the crowd got excited. Then they found out Diablo: Immortal is a mobile game and things took a turn. The fans were not happy.
The publishers said that they expected some backlash but not the kind of backlash they got. Mobile games have always been looked down on by the rest of the gaming community.
Some think mobile games are just lower quality while others think mobile games are just cash grabs made by greedy developers. This is common knowledge, not some archaic lesson lost to time.
It amuses me that the developers thought this was going to turn out OK. People have been waiting for a new Diablo game and to pull a bait and switch to give them a mobile game is a slap in the face to dedicated fans.
It seems kinda cruel to do that to their fans. Dangle something in front of someone and as soon as they almost grab it, yank it way and swap it with something worse.
Blizzard is definitely feeling the hurt from their little stunt. As of the time of writing, Activision-Blizzard stock has dropped 6.74% in a single day due to this blunder. I'm hoping this little disturbance has proven to be a reality check for the devs. If they don't focus on developing Diablo 4 after this catastrophe I will be amazed.
