Diablo Immortal Just Crossed An Unfortunate Milestone
In retrospect, it's quite possible the "Diablo Immortal" was always doomed to fail. However, no one could have anticipated that the game would end up making Blizzard history for some of the worst reasons.
Announced back at BlizzCon 2018, the mobile-only game was immediately met with resistance and backlash from fans of the "Diablo" series who were expecting a AAA title as opposed to a presumably stripped down mobile version. During a Q&A with Blizzard staffers, "Diablo" fans laid into the announcement, with one fan famously asking if the announcement was an "out-of-season April Fools' joke." At the very same Q&A, another spectator asked if there were any plans to bring "Diablo Immortal" to the PC — at the time, Blizzard replied that there were no plans to port "Diablo Immortal" to the PC, which was immediately met with boos from the crowd.
As time went on, Blizzard attempted to placate this large section of the fandom by announcing that a PC version of "Diablo Immortal" would release concurrently with the planned mobile launch on June 2, 2022. Unfortunately, this gesture wasn't enough to save the game from yet another round of public backlash.
Despite receiving fairly positive marks from critics for its gameplay, "Diablo Immortal" has been panned by gamers due to its inclusion of microtransactions that have been deemed "pay to win." By one calculation, these could cost players up to $110,000 if they wish to fully upgrade their in-game character. The result of this backlash has led to a rather unfortunate milestone for "Diablo Immortal." In fact, it's breaking records in its own way.
Diablo Immortal has Blizzard Entertainment's second-lowest user on Metacritic
In the wake of the pay-to-win controversy of "Diablo Immortal," disappointed and enraged fans immediately took to social media platforms and other websites to express their anger with game's current state. One of these platforms is Metacritic, a website that aggregates reviews of different forms of media. On Metacritic, "Diablo Immortal" has collected a lowly 0.6 user score, the second-lowest rated game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is currently tied with "Warcraft 3 Reforged," which also has a 0.6 score, and "surpassed" only by "World of Warcraft Classic: Burning Crusade Classic," which currently sits at a pitiful 0.5 user score.
Blizzard Entertainment has attempted to come to the game's defense in recent days, with game director Wyatt Cheng saying that a lot of "Diablo Immortal's" bad reputation in regards to microtransactions is due to "misinformation." But with so many reports to the contrary, and with gamers up in arms, it's likely that "Diablo" fans will not be buying this explanation unless serious changes are made to the game's microtransaction system.