Diablo Immortal Interview: Chatting With Joe Grubb And Rod Ferguson Ahead Of Launch

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Scot

"That was a painful social experience for players, they would grow attached to their dark house, and they started to form clans as if they were dark houses…"

Keep the players together, its a golden rule, they got that bit right, but as for the rest?

A game planned and developed as a mobile game with PC "launching" as a beta, is that right? That won't stop the hordes of PC players who are going to get a sub par experience.

"when you look at the three billion gamers out there, and how many rely on mobile as their only platform to play on and bringing the game to where everyone plays"

He summed up whats wrong with todays studios right there, the $£ always come first. Its not like this game would not have made huge money with a PC and console first release, but lets wring everything we can out of it. Besides gamers are so dependent on a new game fix now they will play a beta rather than wait. Also mobile is not where everyone plays, if you have a PC or console I doubt you play most of your games on mobile.

I have already gathered enough of an idea that this is not for me, but as always waiting for the reviews.

Kyleran

Just from what I read here sounds like Blizzard is making a solid mobile MMO, will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the long run.

Would be a shame if it succeeded too well which could have an undesirable effect (for PC gamers) of Blizz shifting their primary focus towards mobile titles, much as NCSoft and some others appear to have done.

Scot

Kyleran said:

Just from what I read here sounds like Blizzard is making a solid mobile MMO, will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the long run.

Would be a shame if it succeeded too well which could have an undesirable effect (for PC gamers) of Blizz shifting their primary focus towards mobile titles, much as NCSoft and some others appear to have done.

There's no stopping that, if they don't do it after this they will later down the line, its like F2P in MMOs and loot boxes were and NFT's and P2E will be, just a matter of time before the studio adopts it.

Which is why I always say play your favourite multiplayer games now before the goalposts are moved once again.

Eldrach

The PvP endgame will «force» the most eager players to shell out cash for the best gear rolls, which will probably make that system the «big earner», which in turn will make Blizzard have a heavy focus on that part.

Don’t care much for a top down PvP experience

Iselin

Eldrach said:

The PvP endgame will «force» the most eager players to shell out cash for the best gear rolls, which will probably make that system the «big earner», which in turn will make Blizzard have a heavy focus on that part.

... which in turn will royally piss off the hardcore PvPers (hopefully,) which in turn will create a huge backlash of Star Wars Battlefront II proportions (hopefully,) which in turn will force Blizzard to back off their P2Win (hopefully.)

Dying to see how this plays out when players going in cold run into the legendary gem paywall.

I'll be checking it out just to see how the game playing part of this thing is on PC but they won't get a dime from me.

Jakobmiller

The amount of money you can throw into this game is going to be insane. We are talking millions.

Kratier

1 more day! i wonder how it holds up compared to lost ark. dont think it can even compete really.

Jakobmiller

Kratier said:

1 more day! i wonder how it holds up compared to lost ark. dont think it can even compete really.

Apples and Oranges.

Uwakionna

Iselin said:

Eldrach said:

The PvP endgame will «force» the most eager players to shell out cash for the best gear rolls, which will probably make that system the «big earner», which in turn will make Blizzard have a heavy focus on that part.

... which in turn will royally piss off the hardcore PvPers (hopefully,) which in turn will create a huge backlash of Star Wars Battlefront II proportions (hopefully,) which in turn will force Blizzard to back off their P2Win (hopefully.)

Dying to see how this plays out when players going in cold run into the legendary gem paywall.

I'll be checking it out just to see how the game playing part of this thing is on PC but they won't get a dime from me.

Unfortunately with it being mobile focused, I don't think the backlash will be so severe. Mobile by default is more conditioned to gacha, lootboxes, and pay-gating that there are many who probably won't even think twice about it.

It stood out in Battlefront II because they tried to pitch the idea to a market of gamers where the concept was largely still foreign and could still garner that double-take to assess it.

It's reflected the early access reviews we've already gotten for Immortal, where they will chide the monetization as aggressive, but largely as a passing detractor rather than a more significant one.

Iselin

Uwakionna said:

Iselin said:

Eldrach said:

The PvP endgame will «force» the most eager players to shell out cash for the best gear rolls, which will probably make that system the «big earner», which in turn will make Blizzard have a heavy focus on that part.

... which in turn will royally piss off the hardcore PvPers (hopefully,) which in turn will create a huge backlash of Star Wars Battlefront II proportions (hopefully,) which in turn will force Blizzard to back off their P2Win (hopefully.)

Dying to see how this plays out when players going in cold run into the legendary gem paywall.

I'll be checking it out just to see how the game playing part of this thing is on PC but they won't get a dime from me.

Unfortunately with it being mobile focused, I don't think the backlash will be so severe. Mobile by default is more conditioned to gacha, lootboxes, and pay-gating that there are many who probably won't even think twice about it.

It stood out in Battlefront II because they tried to pitch the idea to a market of gamers where the concept was largely still foreign and could still garner that double-take to assess it.

It's reflected the early access reviews we've already gotten for Immortal, where they will chide the monetization as aggressive, but largely as a passing detractor rather than a more significant one.

Yeah it will most likely slide with minor grumbling not just because it's a game in the P2W mobile universe but also because of how the P2W is implemented.

SW:BF2 got the push back not just because it was iconic and powerful heroes locked behind loot boxes but because their P2W system was immediately recognizable as such by even the most casual of players.

Diablo Immortal hides their P2Win system behind a plethora of complex details that no one will notice until they are at end-game and at the highest competitive levels of end game at that.

To put it in familiar mmorpg terms it's as if WOW were P2Win but only for Mythic raids.

The vast majority of casual Immortal players will likely just learn to live with the fact that their legendary gems are capped at 2 stars, grumble a bit maybe about having to pay for a chance at upgradeable 2, 3 or 4 out of 5 gems or the rarest of the rare, gems that drop as 5 out of 5 star gems.

A lot of casuals, who are the majority of every game, won't know what my previous paragraph even means and if they have an inkling, they won't care.

I was mostly kidding with all my hopefully comments. I also don't think much of a backlash will happen.

niceguy3978

Kyleran said:

Just from what I read here sounds like Blizzard is making a solid mobile MMO, will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the long run.

Would be a shame if it succeeded too well which could have an undesirable effect (for PC gamers) of Blizz shifting their primary focus towards mobile titles, much as NCSoft and some others appear to have done.

I played it on my Ipad today for a couple of hours. I've never played a moblie game a couple of hours. That said, I am looking forward to the pc launch tomorrow.