The DeanBeat: A Dust on Diablo: Immortal Has Deep Implications

For Blizzard Entertainment, the announcement of the launch of the mobile game Diablo: Immortal took place at a bad time. Our editor, Mike Minotti, was present at the BlizzCon fan event, where Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime came on stage for the last time to introduce the new president, J. Allen Brack.

Morhaime's humorous introduction of Brack was meant to bring continuity and confidence to the future. The keynote speech started well, with Brack being the long-time producer of World of Warcraft, Blizzard's biggest game. But the blizzard ended the series without any mention of an upcoming Diablo game on PC / console. Instead, he showed Diablo: Immortal.

A fan summed up the reaction by asking, "Is this an off-season April Fool's joke?"

This taints Brack's first real interaction with fans as the president of the legendary, fan-centric, quality-focused gaming company. And it's not as if everything was his fault, because he was only one of the messengers.

The hardcore fans who went to the BlizzCon to hear about Diablo's next opus were stunned. Had Blizzard sold them, instead choosing to create a rotten mobile game that could be monetized with small greedy microtransactions? There was so much fear in this reaction and it was perhaps the worst reaction Blizzard ever had from his previously adoring fans.

Speculation quickly surfaced to feed this meme, while fans said the game looked like a NetEase Diablo clone or that NetEase was creating the game and not Blizzard. A negative reaction from the fans began to spread and the trailer of Diablo: Immortal on YouTube counted 560 000 people against 21 000 "I like". In turn, Activision Blizzard's share price dropped due to fan indignation and cost billions of dollars in market value.

Then, it is not useful for Kotaku to report Monday, wrongly according to Blizzard, that Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham had prepared a video of Diablo 4 and then removed it at the last minute, leaving only the announcement of the mobile game. Kotaku backtracked, claiming that the video existed but that it may never have been aligned for a BlizzCon projection.

In publishing his denial about the story of Diablo 4, Blizzard was contrite, which was kind of a recognition of the fact that he had messed up the announcement. It was wise because it is never profitable to tell a person whose feelings are hurt that she is wrong and that she should not be hurt.

"First of all, we want to mention that we really hear our community," the company said. To reassure fans, he adds, "We continue to have different teams working on several unannounced Diablo projects, and we look forward to announcing the right time."

Electronic Arts felt the same reaction by announcing a new Command & Conquer game. It turned out to be a mobile game rather than a hardcore PC game like the old series.

The indignation of the players became more and more inflamed when the offended players accused the game journalists of playing on them and calling them "skilled players". They felt that gaming journalists should have been in tune with the fans. silent movement. (A game journalist agreed with the players, saying that the game's journalists were wrong). I've taken some of that heat on Twitter.

Disappointed that @deantak joins the tired chorus of "skilled players". https://t.co/JQ1maUO9cq

– Brad Glasgow (@Brad_Glasgow) November 6, 2018

Mobile game crimes

We should stop here and note that creating a mobile game is not a crime of betrayal. Mobile games reach a wider audience and aim to bring non-gamers into the fold. Mobile games are also a $ 70 billion business, about half of the $ 139 billion total gaming market. It is foolish not to create mobile games, as all major video game companies have understood. Why? Because the big successes of the mobile telephony can generate enormous incomes, since the world counts four billion users of mobile phones.

These games are also much cheaper to make and can be created faster than PC or console games. It is not surprising then that Diablo: Immortal could be announced and released before the release of a PC version of Diablo 4. In addition, for some reason, angry gamers assumed that Blizzard was not working on a new Diablo game on PC and they were getting a mobile game of shit instead.

Here is the thing. If Blizzard had a good mobile game, he could print money, such as what Supercell does with Clash Royale or Niantic with Pokemon Go, and he could use that money to create all the desired PC games. (I led this theory with Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, and he does not agree). The important point here is that the adoption of accessible gaming platforms, such as mobile, will expand the gaming market, make all games more profitable and will result in more capital available and better games for gamers hardcore.

The negative reaction was built on another misconception: the real players do not play mobile games. In fact, mobile games are becoming more and more popular among hardcore gamers. Razer is targeting its Razer Phone 2 to its fans.

We then have the myth that Blizzard players do not like mobile games, especially free microtransaction games. Uh, hello? Have you heard of Blizzard's Hearthstone, which has been downloaded more than 100 times, both on PC and on mobile. By the way, our editor, Mike Minotti, played the prototype Diablo: Immortal and he was delighted.

And Diablo arrives on the PC

We must also recognize that Blizzard manufactures Diablo 4, or something like that. Allen Adham, co-founder of Blizzard, left the company in 2004 and returned in 2016. He was working on Diablo and had established Blizzard's obsession with quality. Do we really think that he'll screw up Diablo on his PC and leave the fans with only a rotten mobile game?

He is not one to play a very bad game and he said that Blizzard did not forget Diablo's core fans. Knowing what I know about him, I do not think he would go on stage to make the fans happy by saying that Diablo 4 was coming in while it was quite possible that Diablo 4 would be booming before he do not see the light – because he wants to make the game fun. Now, if the fans do not trust a guy like this to take care of the Diablo franchise, then I do not know who they should trust.

The rage of Wall Street?

This contrition continued at the call of the results Thursday, when Blizzard executives such as Brack had to answer questions about Diablo: Immortal. Yes, the leaders of one of the gaming companies had to cope with the indignation of the fans at their carefully orchestrated event.

"And last week, Blizzard announced Diablo: Immortal, which will bring this franchise to a mobile audience in both East and West," said Collister "Coddy" Johnson, director of the company. operating at Activision Blizzard, at the call of analysts. . "Although the reaction of fans was stifled by the announcement, the practical experience of players regarding this content has confirmed what we believe, namely that Diablo Mobile will be a very well received game on its release , and that players around the world will love it. "

During the call to the analyst, Brack also had to respond directly to an analyst who wanted to know more about Diablo: Immortal.

"So we saw an interesting reaction to this announcement. I think it's clear that a lot of players are eager to get more content on Diablo for PC and console, "replied Brack. "I think that came out clearly from the BlizzCon. And frankly, we feel lucky to have a community that cares so much about this franchise. I think the commitment and commitment of our community is one of the things that makes Blizzard so special. It's something we really appreciate and we like to hear the things they articulate about what they want to hear next and what we can do better, frankly. "

"We believe that Diablo Immortal will deliver a very authentic Diablo experience and we will not compromise on this mission. Starting the game will only be the beginning. Ongoing support will be available, and we will only release the game when we feel like we are meeting the very high standards of the community. In the end, Diablo Immortal will do this, and we think people will experience it, and we think they will like it. "

And he said: "Regarding the opportunity for Diablo and especially for mobile, I think this is a very important opportunity. Mobile is the largest gaming platform today. And integrating a game like the mobile on this platform in a way that really reflects our quality standards can, in my opinion, open a lot – it can open this franchise and other franchises to a global audience, including to people who do not have a PC, or especially in China where Blizzard is a very, very strong Western brand. "

After announcing a slightly lower than expected earnings for the holiday quarter, Activision Blizzard shares fell 8%, losing a few billion dollars in market value.

Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie, wrote after all the fuss: "Blizzard is known for its high-quality content, a content that often takes a long time to develop. Today, while it is trying to broaden its appeal for mobile and a wider audience, we believe that cultural issues, leadership changes and scheduling issues are affecting franchises. He needs to find a way to iterate faster, increase his audience and platforms, while maintaining his reputation for quality and not publishing a game before he is ready. "

It's a good analysis, but it's putting pressure on Blizzard executives to rush things to make fans and investors happier. This is exactly the wrong thing to do.

I do not know who is more crazy here. Fans or investors. But it's a lot of fabricated concerns that could cause a lot of harm to one of the best video game companies. I would hate to see the bad results of this fight. We should let Blizzard be Blizzard.