After the Diablo Mobile scandal, Blizzard is committed to still prioritizing PC gamers

Launch announcement Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon last year led to an immediate backlash against the studio at the time. The “fans” of this series complain that Blizzard “spit in our face” by producing a mobile game instead of Diablo 4; Diablo Immortal trailer currently has 751,000 dislikes on YouTube, compared to just 29,000 likes. In fact, Blizzard has previously reassured gamers that “many other Diablo projects are in development”, but this also failed to appease fans.

Blizzard President J. Allen Brack said in an interview with Gamespot: “I think we performed poorly when we announced Diablo: Immortal as the product that materializes the potential future of mobile. thinking that the studio missed the core, we made it doubly bad.Blizzard is a PC game developer, but we wanted to look for other potential platforms that could support the gaming experience. play resonates with the genre of the game and the values ​​we want to bring to the world, but this creates a backlash, typically when we announce it Diablo 3 will be available on console platforms.”
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Brack emphasized that Blizzard believes it has the ability to create mobile games with the same quality as its PC games, and that “we can have Blizzard values ​​around monetization”. He also commented that people will be impressed with Diablo Immortal when actually playing the game, “we didn’t do a good job convincing the core fanbase that the studio was not going to abandon PC for mobile and console platforms.”

“The fan reaction is completely understandable because I’m also a Blizzard fan. Blizzard continues to make PC games like the old days, satisfying the tastes of the majority of the community. That would make me happy. But, I think if you look at the current world trends and games, it’s hard to imagine the scenario where there is not a hardcore Blizzard fan who hasn’t played games on consoles, or mobile platforms.” Brack said.
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“There are quite a few impressive titles coming from the mobile platform. We’ve watched and played these games. We’ve tried games that have the potential to make money, although it’s not the most enjoyable experience, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s hard for people to realize that Blizzard still carries the “spirit” of Blizzard on mobile platforms.

Brack may be overly optimistic about changing the most voiceless people who are willing to play games for nothing but the mobile game they play. But overall, maybe Brack is right: There are plenty of mobile gamers who are hungry for quality gameplay experiences, and if Blizzard can deliver on that, Diablo’s scandal will soon be forgotten.
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Diablo Immortal doesn’t have an official release date yet, but BlizzCon 2019 will take place on November 1st. Online tickets went on sale starting yesterday.​