diablo immortal According to reports, it will not be released in the two major European countries. Immortal is coming to Android and iOS on Thursday, June 2, with the PC public beta starting the same day. But players in Belgium and the Netherlands will not be able to participate.
The reason has to do with the two countries’ regulations on loot boxes.
The news was first reported by Dutch site Tweakers, which received comments from Activision Blizzard’s Benelux communications manager, confirming that players in both countries won’t be able to play with others this Thursday.
Pre-registration for Diablo Immortal has been open for some time, including in both countries. However, that option was removed shortly after the release date was announced last month. The same sentiment was confirmed by another Blizzard employee, who released a statement that can be seen on the Diablo subreddit.
The statement confirms that the RNG loot boxes in Diablo Immortal violated the laws of both countries. The question being answered also asked if players could be banned for downloading games from another country, seemingly via a VPN. A Blizzard representative said that while the company hasn’t banned players from doing so in the past, they can’t guarantee the same thing will happen this time around.
Diablo Immortal is far from the first game to skip both countries. Recently, the hugely successful MMO ARPG Lost Ark did the same thing.
The Belgian Gaming Commission ruled in 2018 that loot boxes were gambling, and many game publishers either removed them from games in the country or decided not to distribute their games there. The Netherlands has similarly strict rules for gambling.
We recently sat down with Diablo Immortal lead game designer Joe Grubb and franchise general manager Rod Fergusson to discuss everything from monetization and microtransactions to gameplay and future content. You can read the full interview at the link.
Thank you, game industry.
