author: Miriam Moszczynska
Diablo Immortal Pisses People Off Enough to Uninstall the Game
More and more players are noticing how Diablo Immortal has gone overboard with microtransactions. Some are slowly turning away from a title that is the textbook definition of pay-to-win.
Diablo Immortal conquered mobile devices. The game has been downloaded by over a million users on Google Play alone, but the game is not as good as it seems. The main reason for criticism aimed at Diablo Immortal are, as predicted, microtransactions.
Unbridled P2W
The presence of microtransactions in Diablo was known from the very beginning. However, players didn't expect them to be so disruptive. Microtransactions in the game can be found at almost every step. One of the players describes his experience in this way:
"(...) it's a pay to win nightmare. I haven't even gotten to the point yet where the rewards really slow down (level 30) but I'm bothered by the idea of how much and how often the game brings you to a dialog asking you to pay some amount of money. Even more irritating, I'm bothered by how closely the itemization system is tied to monetization. *You need to pay money to do activities or spend months/*years grinding for shit you could get by spending $10,"- excerpt from a pretty extensive post by domiran, which you can read in full here.
Of course, that not the only such opinion. Due to the frequency of the aforementioned microtransactions, one of the frustrated players decided to rename the game to Diablo: Immoral.
"Not much else to say except that if you take this game seriously, I think you should plan to spend at least 500 dollars. And that budget can go WAY higher depending on how much you want to max your gems. Leveling past level 30 is a chore," wrote dennaneedslove.
You're poor, buy something
Whether this is an intentional psychological move or not is not for players to judge. However, the aforementioned Domiran also pointed out that Diablo Immortal goes so far as to call the player a pauper.
Of course, this may be a reference to the fact that we basically start with nothing in the game, but given the number of P2W mechanics in the game almost anything can seem like an intentional effort.
Battlepass, improved battlepass, and some other absurdities
Sure, the fact that Diablo Immortal created aiming for the Asian market, where mobile games just happen to be a bit different, can explain a lot. However, the game has no shortage of almost absurd moves to extract more dollars from the player.
On the subject of how much Diablo Immortal is exaggerated in terms of microtransactions, it is worth taking a look at the video below. Youtuber Force Gaming thoroughly analyzes the transaction system, because basically the further you get, the less micro they become.
Without going into too much detail, however, Diablo Immortal's store for players offers:
- Two currencies that can be bought with real money,
- these currencies can be used to buy both cosmetic and crafting items,
- a free battlepass, which can be upgraded, an upgraded battlepass, which can also be upgraded, and finally a one with double upgrade,
- a 570% increase of value of dungeon loot, or legendary gems that are much more powerful than the ones you can get without paying.
To sum it all up, Force Gaming has come to the conclusion that when playing Diablo Immortal and taking advantage of all the payment benefits, it will be necessary to spend more than several hundred thousand dollars to wring the maximum out of your character.
Stop playing it, then maybe Blizzard will do something about it
There were some voices like this in the community, but as you can guess, and as it was repeatedly mentioned in the comments - Diablo series fans are not the main target of this game.
There is also an argument concerning "whales", users who will put thousands of dollars into the game, thus generating profits for Blizzard.
"The game that was made for the Asian market, where mobile games are constantly growing and which is famous for the term "Gacha", but was only released for PC because of the controversial announcement. Really, what did people expect?," wrote kpiaum.
Gacha games - the term derives from the Japanese vending machines called gashapon, which sell toy capsules. Titles from this genre work on a similar principle; the player buys items, currency or, for example, chests for real money to unlock content that gives him an advantage over the others. This applies to both combat and cosmetic items.
So in conclusion, Diablo fans may complain that the game is unplayable for those who do not want to spend money, however, in the case of Immortal more important than playability is profitability.
