“I’m ready for hell,” reads the words on the social header graphics for Diablo Immortal, Blizzard’s newest action RPG, but for many players it’s been a different kind of hell they’ve experienced.
Diablo Immortal has just launched for ‘free’ on iOS and Android mobile platforms, and is in open beta on Windows PC via Battle.net throughout most regions of the world, with select Asia-Pacific regions coming on June 22nd 2022. While the gameplay itself is good, and the devs have clearly put hard work into the game, streamers have spoken out against its ‘greedy, immoral and manipulative’ microtransaction-based business model, including UK streamers Preach Gaming, Bellular and more. We’ve rounded up some of the reaction in this article.
Background – how Diablo Immortal’s microtransactions work
Diablo Immortal is a game co-developed by US giant Blizzard Entertainment and Chinese firm NetEase. Players are encouraged to purchase in-game Eternal Orbs currency using real money, and as usual in these kind of free-to-play games, players get more for their money when buying in bulk.
You have your level, gear and legendary gems to help strengthen your character. But Eternal Orbs let you purchase things like cosmetics, Reforge Stones, Dawning Echoes and Legendary Crests, and essentially fast-track your way to accessing better upgrades for your character.
You can use Eternal Orbs to buy another type of currency – Platinum.
There’s also a battle pass for £5.49 or £16.99 for a premium version, and a ‘boon of plenty’ which promises 30 days of daily gifts for £8.99, where you lose something you’ve paid for if you don’t log in.
The game throws a daily free bonus your way, and an 89p initial bundle (including 60 orbs and a cosmetic advertised with ‘+800% extra value!’), but it’s very much to give players a taste of acquiring goodies to ease them into getting comfortable with eventually paying real money. As you can’t actually buy anything for 60 orbs by themselves.
And for whales (people who will spend enormous amounts on free-to-play games), things can get crazy. One stat, the final resonating bonus, would theoretically be worth $50,000, putting the total investment to fully upgrade in Diablo Immortal in over $100,000, according to this Reddit post by daymeeuhn).
Diablo Immortal has also not launched in Belgium or the Netherlands, where loot box laws are more restricted. Blizzard’s official press release does not mention this, of course, neither does it even mention the game’s type of microtransactions, just that it’s a free-to-play game where “players can revel in fresh content added every few months, including new dungeons, zones, seasons, classes, and even live in-game events”.
Regardless of the criticism, Diablo Immortal has 35m pre-registered players and it’s the talk of the town in the games industry right now. So, what do the streamers have to say about it all?
‘These games are money machines, but we can stop this stuff’ – Asmongold
First up, hugely popular US streamer Asmongold has been covering this topic extensively.
He’s known for speaking out against expensive in-game microtransactions in the past, such as the paid-for store mounts in World of Warcraft, and has been calling out Blizzard’s behaviour with Diablo Immortal on his streams.
Asmon spent $347 in the game after five hours and also referenced horse armour, some early paid DLC from Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.
Asmongold said in this video watching the ‘Diablo Immoral’ video by WolfHeartFPS, which covers monetary tricks devs use in free-to-play games: “Games like this are designed to throttle you so you feel like you have to spend money.
“You have to either overbuy or underbuy [with Eternal Orbs]. You might need 50 for something, but 45 costs a certain amount, then you might as well buy 100. If you don’t spend money and other people do, you’re a loser, they’re winners and that’s all there is to it.
“Every pay-to-win feature that has a massive ceiling is all pay-to-win gambling. If they put something for $20,000 on the store, no one would buy it.
“Because they obfuscate what the value is and make it harder for free-to-play players to get something, it gives people the illusion they have something special when they spend a lot of money on it. These games are effectively money machines.”
Asmongold
On trying to stop this kind of monetisation in games, Asmon said: “The only way we can reach an audience to stop this stuff, is to hit a mainstream audience of people who aren’t gamers.
“I’m going to try and talk to [US senator] Ted Cruz because I think he’ll get behind it. He’s a religious nut and gambling is against religion. So I will offer to bring him on stream and interview him. You have to show these type of things have damaged people’s lives. It’s not outrageous for us to try and make an impact.
“If you get rid of loot boxes, this stuff will dry up really fast. Loot boxes and pay-to-win are hand in hand. And the people making the decisions for [microtransaction models to be added to this game] are the guys in the suits, they’re the board, they’re [Activision Blizzard CEO] Bobby Kotick.”
To further demonstrate the nature of the game, in this clip, Asmon compares a dungeon run that cost him about $20, which results in several legendary items dropping, and a free run, which drops basically nothing of value:
‘Fun to play but monetised in a predatory, disgusting manner’ – Bellular
Bellular said: “In some ways, Diablo Immortal is actually a marvellous Blizzard game, and the development team have done a marvellous job, but in other ways, it means the Blizzard name is well and truly dead.
“It’s very fun to play and has a gargantuan amount of content, but it is monetised in a predatory, disgusting manner.
“Such a shame. The gameplay is super enjoyable. There are loads of neat activities to do. The presentation and production values are fantastic. It’s the sort of game that, in another world, you wish you could pay full box price for.”
Bellular also said the game is “designed for fools with more money than sense” and “evil bullshit”, and that Blizzard should be ashamed of themselves.
Matt, who also joins Bellular in his podcasts and shows, also commented on it:
‘I want nothing but death for this game’ – Preach
UK streamer Preach Gaming said in several clips on his Twitch channel:
“I don’t get how anybody, including my friends, can stream this game. I want nothing but death for this game. I don’t care that it’s Blizzard. The idea of my kids playing this, or me having any impact on someone playing this game, would make me feel dirty.
“Can you imagine the amount of effort that went into making sure people got fucked? Think about the maths that went into a convoluted system like this. Everything from the purples, ranking up systems, drop rates, catch up systems, making sure every step of the way, the user gets fucked.
“The sheer amount of spreadsheets and planning that goes into making sure you get fucked as hard as possible is just unbelievable. So much effort goes into making sure you cannot get a good deal.
“I just don’t believe how these games are made, in terms of how they [aim to] rip people off. A lot of mobile games are dogshit and their primary goal is to get a lot of money out of people.
“And wait, PVP is not normalised? (laughs) I actually feel sick.”
‘There’s some suit at ActiBlizz who deserves a kick in the nuts’ – Taliesin & Evitel
The World of Warcraft content creator duo Taliesin & Evitel tweeted: “After one fun hour in Immortal (enough for me thanks) my opinion on its monetisation is not very informed or importan, but yeah it is exactly as terrible as everyone assumed it was going to be isn’t it? Ugh.
“Like, I’d happily buy the design team who actually made the game a drink for some awesome work. But as usual, there’s some suit at ActiBlizz who deserves a kick in the nuts.”
MrGM says he doesn’t feel the need to spend money on Diablo Immortal
UK content creator MrGM said he’s enjoying playing Diablo for free, but did say he’s still early on in the game, so it looks like he hasn’t yet felt the wall that others have hit later on, who have felt compelled to spend to improve.
His tweet got the community talking more about the free-to-play model in Diablo Immortal:
Blizzard responds to Diablo Immortal criticism
Diablo Immortal game director Wyatt Cheng – who is known for saying “do you guys not have phones?” at the Diablo Immortal reveal a few years ago, responded to criticisms around a statement he made a few months ago.
Wyatt said on Reddit that there is no way to acquire or rank up gear using money.
When asked by Twitch streamer Zizaran to explain what changed in four months or if gems aren’t considered gear, Wyatt responded:
Do you guys not have blind trust in a developer to stick to their word?
Related article: Is Microsoft’s $68bn buyout of Activision Blizzard good news for esports and gamers, or a match made in hell?
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
