Since so many games are constantly releasing, I made my peace with Diablo being one of those series that I would just never get into.ĭiablo Immortal held my hand through the excruciating experience of getting into a widely beloved franchise 25 years too late. The setting seemed too over-the-top for my tastes, and I wasn’t sure how to digest three games’ worth of lore before Diablo IV came out. For context: I have never played a Diablo game before Immortal.

Especially before it “takes over” gaming at large.ĭespite all the background noise (or maybe because of it), I felt compelled to download Diablo Immortal and play for a bit. To these players, the rise of F2P gaming is a virus that needs to be stamped out. If a journalist is “too positive” about a mobile game, then a very vocal segment of gamers will decry them as a traitor to gaming and a corporate shill. I was unsurprised, because I was met with similar public hostility when I started writing about Genshin Impact. The press was also expected to fall in line with “ Immortal is bad.” On June 4, there was an incendiary tweet from a Twitch streamer that lambasted journalists for saying that Diablo Immortal is…well, fun. The fact that such a large percentage of “game journalists” are highly rating Diablo Immortal gives me a big fear for the future of gaming.īut it wasn’t enough for Blizzard to make promises to the fans.

In fact, the game raised so many concerns that Blizzard’s community manager had to clarify that Diablo IV would not have “mobile-style monetisation.” But ever since Blizzard announced that the game would be a full Diablo experience, these gamers have felt threatened by what they perceive as mobile’s encroachment on “legitimate” gaming. But I have to question if it has to be a war at all.īefore Immortal was announced, Diablo fans could safely ignore mobile games as “cash grabs” that would never affect the premium games that they wanted to play. The truth is simpler: Mobile represents another front in the never-ending culture war for the heart and soul of gaming. The monetisation criticisms hold water, but the prospect of overspending isn’t always the actual reason why console gamers are so upset.

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