Former Blizzard CEO Planned to Limit Microtransactions in Diablo 4 Before Microsoft Takeover
Before Mike Ybarra left his post as head of Blizzard Studios, he planned to reduce Microtransactions in Diablo 4 and reboot Overwatch, among other things.
The day before yesterday, the book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment by Jason Schreier hit the shelves of American bookstores. It contains a lot of interesting information about the titular studio. We've already reported on the wasted opportunity to turn Battle.net into a store for other developers and the radically different idea for a continuation of the Diablo series. Today, however, it is worth writing about plans that the now-former Blizzard CEO Mike Ybarra had before the studio was acquired by Microsoft.
- Ybarra wanted to severely restrict microtransactions in Diablo 4, as well as reboot Overwatch . Jason Schreier, however, did not provide any additional details.
- Earlier this year, Microsoft carried out mass layoffs at Activision Blizzard. They also affected Blizzard itself, and one of the people who left the developer was Mike Ybarra. None of these plans were therefore implemented.
- Besides, their implementation - especially in the context of hack'n'slash - would most likely not have been easy. By the end of August/early September, Diablo IV's microtransactions had generated over $150 million in revenue, so executives (be it Activision or Microsoft) would be reluctant to give up this source of income.
As for Ybarra himself, he is quite a controversial figure. He was not popular among Blizzard employees after he forced them to return to the office, thereby ending the option of remote work. The players also have a bone to pick with the former president. Ybarra angered them with his defense of Phil Spencer after the layoffs that led to the closure of Arkane, among other things, and his attempt to justify the price of the PS5 Pro.
The latest game from Blizzard is the Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred expansion, which debuted the day before yesterday on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. The expansion receives good reviews and enabled Diablo 4 to set a new activity record on Steam.
