Blizzcon 2018 - 'Do you guys not have phones?'

[Digfox]

I know there aren't necessarily many of us on here that were probably that interested in Blizzcon 2018 but it was quite unexpected watching the explosion from Blizzcon 2018 Opening last night (5pm start our time). Particularly over the new Diablo game announcement.

In summary from the opening presentation:

• Remastered Warcraft III as Warcraft 3: Reforged; for £24.99 or £34.99 on PC with all new characters graphics, 4K assets and remastered campaigns and maps. Even the intro sequence has been remastered.
• World of Warcraft Classic coming in summer 2019.
• WoW Classic will be included in the existing subscription.
• New Overwatch hero; Ashe as the 29th Character.
• New Hearthstone Expansion
• New Hero for Heroes of the Storm and some other gameplay changes including new skins etc.
• Starcraft 2 got a new commander and some minor stuff.
• And the final 'big' announcement a new Diablo game; Diablo Immortal on iOS and Android. I believe this is being developed in conjunction with NetEase - a developer that has done quite a few projects on mobile already.

As already noted Destiny 2 is available for free for a short while on PC too.

To say the announcement for the new Diablo Mobile games has gone down badly is an understatement: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...e-announcement

The new 'meme' Questions from the Diablo Immortal Q&A - Are there any plans to release on PC:

Is this an out of season April fool's joke:

Blizzard puts out a Youtube trailer for Diablo Immortal - with over 180K dislikes, which appears to have a second video with 100K dislikes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab2-WW1skOM

Then people realise Blizzard are deleting comments from these announcement trailers:

• https://old.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comm...on_the_diablo/
• https://www.resetera.com/threads/bli...r-video.78708/

And this has lead to a number of defensive or further conversation pieces:

• 'Diablo Immortal' is actually fun, you entitled babies - Mashable UK
• Jason Schreier tweets: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/st...89686182760448 in response to a SkillUp tweet.

  This isn't "savagery" it's ****ing obnoxious, embarrassing behavior. I get why people are mad, I really do, but you can be critical without being an asshole to people who spend their lives trying to entertain you.

• So what are some good ways to express displeasure at an announcement? (ResetEra)
• The mobile games suck meme is very outdated (ResetEra)

And lastly a wickedly humourous new URL from the Path of Exile developers: http://www.playdiablo4.com/

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Personally I'm really happy remastered Warcraft III is now coming, as I never played that campaign fully. And whilst I don't care about the Diablo Mobile announcement I can't help but wonder If Blizzard really thought this through and it's bigger, backlash than they thought, or simply didn't expect any bad reactions. Which to me feels incompetent mis-management. As noted if Diablo Immortal was announced elsewhere or alongside something else it may have gone much differently. Although obviously Blizzard had nothing else Diablo related to show/announce. And whether something else Diablo related was pulled at a late stage.

Also a few interesting conversations around how feedback should be made and the perception and reality of mobile gaming.

One thing is true, is that 'negative' PR is required to have any chance of a developer or publisher changing. Not buying a game or MTX simply doesn't work.

[Digfox]

[fishbowlhead]

Diablo: super cashy in mobile hyper micro transactions edition.

They really didn’t see that backlash coming, really? Who the F wants to play that game on a phone screen with no physical controls? No body that’s who.


I’ll be picking up Warcraft3 though. Never played it at all so should be good.

[Cepp]

Warcraft III should be good, not too fussed about Diablo either tbh but I only really love the first one. Agreed that announcing it like they did seems like a massive mistake, not sure how they didn't see it coming.

They really didn’t see that backlash coming, really? Who the F wants to play that game on a phone screen with no physical controls? No body that’s who.

Big market for it in China apparently, they should probably have had an event to announce it there if that's the case though.

[Digfox]

Oh my...Check out what gaming journalists are saying about us ( long time diablo fans ) - Reddit post

https://imgur.com/a/ObaTbff

Whilst I wouldn't have asked 'that' question I do think some of the journalists reactions to outcry over Diablo Mobile is overreaction - although maybe I'm missing what they are seeing.

Related to Blizzcon played some WoW Classic today:

[Cepp]

Getting flashbacks to the Xbox One always online fiasco there. Considering the ongoing issues with micro transactions, gambling systems and the exploitative nature of so many mobile games it's hardly a surprise the reaction has been so negative. There's no reason to give Blizzard or any gaming company the benefit of the doubt here and announcing it to your most loyal fans (who paid a lot of money and travelled from far and wide to be there) is a bit ****.

[dataDave]

I may well get divorced in preparation for WoW Classic. My soul is ready.

[fishbowlhead]

Getting flashbacks to the Xbox One always online fiasco there. Considering the ongoing issues with micro transactions, gambling systems and the exploitative nature of so many mobile games it's hardly a surprise the reaction has been so negative. There's no reason to give Blizzard or any gaming company the benefit of the doubt here and announcing it to your most loyal fans (who paid a lot of money and travelled from far and wide to be there) is a bit ****.

The fact it was outsourced to a Chinese company that makes its cash from micro transactions was an especially galling pill for Diablo fans to even look at, let alone swallow.

It’s odd that a company with that much money in the bank needs to be this greedy.

[Digfox]

The fact it was outsourced to a Chinese company that makes its cash from micro transactions was an especially galling pill for Diablo fans to even look at, let alone swallow.

Yea, I think that's the thing, bringing the game to mobile isn't really the issue. Blizzard are continuing this tone deaf response:

“We know our audience here is passionately PC- and console-focused,” he said. “We’ve also seen this before. We saw a similar response when we announced that we were bringing Diablo to console, and we saw a similar response to the announcement of Hearthstone.”

Had this been a mobile Overwatch or Starcraft 2 I doubt anyone would have cared as much. Also I certainly don't remember anywhere as near negative explosion on the internet at Hearthstone on mobile or Diablo on console. That's just a bare faced lie. Having cross-play in Hearthstone is very cool and it means you can play your game anywhere. It's also very suited to mobile.

Diablo 3 has not been supported for years and will be 7 years old early next year. It's not had had any major content since 2014 because of the way they failed to monitise the game. And it was 10-years coming on it's successor. It's one of their cornerstones. A franchise that got many into Blizzard games.

Then at a expensive primarily a PC-centric show where they had hyped new Diablo content they then go a release a mobile game as their big announcement. As you say it's not even being developed in-house. And essentially is a reskin by definition. Had Diablo Immortal been part of a platform, cross-play with Diablo 3 or 4 - I think that would have been much more interesting.

Blizzard are basically inept if they 'really' thought this rubbish they are saying in interviews.

It’s odd that a company with that much money in the bank needs to be this greedy.

Are they any worse than other large companies or their peers? The want all the money and then want to avoid tax on it. Sound like Apple, Microsoft, Google or any other large company to me

[vanpeebles]

I thought Diablo 3 was a distinctly average game, couldn’t see what the fuss was about.

[Digfox]

I really enjoyed D3, after loot 2.0 came out in early 2014. Before that it was a game ruined by it's auction house on PC. More arcadey than it's predecessor but still a technical marvel. I just think it needed more expansions and content and that's where it is a shame the second expac never appeared altho it's content undoubtedly made it into some of the 2.x patches.

[Cepp]

Never got round to playing it myself, was put off by the always online nature of the PC release. The demo didn't do much for me either. If I see the PS3 version for a few quid out in the wild I might grab it though.

[Digfox]

Seasons was something that made D3 for me. Exclusive rewards and time limited goals works well for ARPGs.

[Tobal]

Reading the pr interview just out on kotaku.

"Some fans have gone so far as to claim that Diablo Immortal is a reskin of a previous NetEase action RPG
>Adham refuted that, saying that even the art and assets were made for Immortal and Immortal alone"

So pasting over a previous game with diablo3 assets makes it not a reskin?

[Neon Ignition]

They should have just not left it till last given the speculation of bigger things there'd been. I mean, I know fans love their stuff but it just doesn't seem like they had enough to warrant even doing a presentation, the scale of the even out shadowing the scale of the announcements meaning that by the time it all hung on the final reveal it had turned into a killing blow. Hopefully they learnt a valuable lesson about managing expectations.