Diablo Immortal Launches On Mobile, PC, But Comes Under Heavy Fire For Its Microtransactions

Some of you might have gotten your hands on Diablo Immortal, after the game launched last Thursday for PC and mobile. 

First announced back in 2018, the MMORPG is free-to-play and is set between the events of Diablo II and Diablo III.

According to a blog post, Diablo Immortal is “first and foremost the story of your quest to contain the broken Worldstone. It’s also the story of the people living during the time (…) Lastly, it’s the story of Westmarch, our player hub, one of the few remaining bastions of stability – an actual functioning city – on Sanctuary.” 

Watch out Hellspawn.

The Demon Hunter is here to slay. pic.twitter.com/T1ENuwf9sJ

— Diablo Immortal (@DiabloImmortal) May 28, 2022

Players can pick from six character classes: Barbarian, Wizard, Monk, Necromancer, Demon Hunter and Crusader. 

Each will come with 12 unlockable skills. 

And unlike previous games, this time Blizzard has introduced a class change system – that means, players can change the class of their existing character and in return, receive a new set of items without having to reset their progress. 

Blizzard showed off some of Diablo Immortal’s gameplay and how the game was tweaked for mobile, earlier this month. 

The game, while free-to-play, will feature microtransactions although Blizzard has stressed it is completely optional. 

Some fans have disputed this – in this video, the duo behind Bellular News broke down the cost of fully upgrading your character and it will set you back about US$110,000.

That’s right – six full figures for you to fully upgrade your character in what, ostensibly, is marketed as a free-to-play game. 

What happened in 4 months? Or are the gems not considered gear? pic.twitter.com/d39rnQadk9

— Zizaran (@Zizaran) June 4, 2022

That’s due to the game’s Legendary progression system- one of three upgrade pillars available which also dictates endgame-tier progression. 

And that system is only available via the game’s monetisation option – a move which locks out most F2P players. 

Diablo Immortal’s game director Wyatt Cheng had earlier said you could not buy upgrades in the game but some fans have pointed out that buying Legendary Gems to access a certain tier is about the same as buying gear. 

The game has garnered just 0.5 out of 10 user score on Metacritic, with a majority of reviews criticising its pay-to-win scheme. 

If you’re in the Asia-Pacific region and still waiting to get your hands on Diablo Immortal – it will only launch on 23 June, but at least the delay should give Blizzard ample time to put up unique servers for each region. 

*Featured image from Blizzard

By Samantha Chan \ 10:00,  8June 2022