Blizzard has been among the most criticized names in the gaming industry recently because of its announcement of Diablo Immortal, an upcoming mobile game, at BlizzCon 2018. Yes, people paid money to get into BlizzCon expecting to hear about Diablo 4 instead of this. Yes, the game is made in partnership with Chinese company NetEase, which means it’s entirely possible that it will just be a reskin of other NetEase Diablo-clone games such as Crusaders of Light or Endless of God, except with a little bit of new content from Blizzard.
However, let’s really think about it: Is it that bad? We have no reason to believe so. The game is still in its early development stage, and the demo at Blizzcon basically didn’t show anything. All things considered, it is probably no more than an engine test in the end. Furthermore, the fact that there was no Diablo 4 announcement at BlizzCon this year doesn’t mean the game won’t be coming. So before you jump onto the hate train, here are a few reasons why you should calm down.
First off, let's talk about the biggest criticism: Diablo Immortal may just be a reskin of Endless of God. If that is the case, then consider this: Endless of God is regarded by many as one of the better action RPGs on mobile out there. In a market full of Diablo-clone games, the fact that Endless of God manages to stand out from the rest of the pack should tell you something about its quality. The only reasons the game doesn’t get the attention it deserves are its Chinese origins and lack of presence on global Google Play Store.
Moreover, Blizzard already denied this criticism anyways. Diablo Immortal is built “from the ground up for iOS/Android,” it says. Could the company be lying straight to our faces? Maybe, but why should it? Again, there is no reason for us to think that is the case. This whole fuss, in the end, is simply a major company wanting to expand its market to the mobile gaming market. Surely, the people at the top of Blizzard realize that the company's reputation will be severely damaged if Diablo Immortal fails to deliver, so they will make sure that it doesn’t.
Moving on, if you read comments from those who have tried Immortal’s demo, you will notice that they have one thing in common: All of them says that the game feels unfinished. Now, of course it felt unfinished, because it IS unfinished. Blizzard itself said so at BlizzCon. There is still lots of lots of room for improvement, and the final product will definitely be a completely different game than what was shown in the demo.
In term of graphics, Immortal has a lot of similarities to Diablo 3, and that is not a bad thing. How can it be bad when a mobile game has graphics comparable to a console game? Looking at Blizzard’s track record, we can see that for more than two decades the company has had several hit games. It is highly unlikely that it would let NetEase ruin one of its most beloved franchise by releasing a bad reskin and call it Diablo.
Now, the last concern is that Immortal might be a pay-to-win cashgrab full of microtransactions. It is definitely possible, but unlikely. After all, Blizzard has proven itself to be perfectly capable of effectively managing microtransactions. Hearthstone is completely free to play, and Diablo 3 for a while had a real-money auction controlled by players. Mobile games and microtransactions are two things that are often associated with each other, but that is not necessarily the case. Just look at the disaster that was Star Wars Battlefront II to see an example of a PC/Console game with terrible microtransactions. On the other hand, many free mobile games have proven that they can generate money without being pay-to-win: PUBG and Fortnite Mobile, Pokémon GO, Final Fantasy Mobius, just to name a few examples.
Finally, if Diablo Immortal is successful, just think of what that would mean to Blizzard. Aside from Hearthstones, the company has had much presence on the mobile platform. Immortal might change that. If the game manages to do well, it will no doubt open the road for other Blizzard titles to follow. Unless the game is an absolutely massive flop, it brings nothing but good things to the Diablo franchise, and to Blizzard in general.