I don’t know which is worse, we have to use the old Diablo 3 auction house argument to better characterize the Diablo 4 business model, or our only options are varying degrees of bad.
If it wasn’t already clear, yes, Diablo 4 does share its business model with Activision Blizzard’s other major franchise, Call of Duty. If you’ve played a Call of Duty game since 2019, you already know what monetization options await you.
In simple terms, they’re all $70 (minimum) games, battle passes that cost around $10, and premium premium cosmetics that cost anywhere from $8 to $28.
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Somehow, the publisher convinced players that this was a fair model, and I have to assume that if the model survived not only in Call of Duty, but also made its way into Diablo, most people would be ok with the status quo Satisfied.
However, while Reddit users may be very pricey for some of these bundles, anyone who has heard what Blizzard has to say should look forward to a copy of the Call of Duty model.
Even after mobile F2P Diablo Immortal was dragged down for its obscene microtransactions, Blizzard was comfortable telling players that while you shouldn’t expect Immortal-level crap, Diablo 4 will borrow the Call of Duty mod.
When I issued my statement last August, I regretted this predictable but still grim turn of events.
The move itself wasn’t a surprise, and Blizzard even used the same tedious, frivolous argument that everything sold was “optional” and strictly limited to cosmetics (although this requirement was a little bit different in Call of Duty). relax).In theory, none of this is shocking, but Diablo 4 players shouldn’t That Surprised, they have every right to be angry.
Unlike Call of Duty, a first-person shooter where your wins and losses are primarily defined by a clock that signals the end of the match, Diablo is a living game that cares about your legacy. The characters you start using when you launch in the next few days will remain in your account so you can come back and keep investing for years to come.
I still have my Diablo 3 character launched. I couldn’t help laughing when I heard one of their names while playing recently because it reminded me of a time in ten years I never thought about it, when that particular name meant something to me and a small group of friends at the time Makes sense.
All gear, unlocks, transmogs, world tier upgrades, Paragon Glyphs, and other currencies and resources you’ve accumulated over time will stay where they are. Your Diablo character is an extension of how you behave in the game, and the way it’s dressed/equipped is a reflection of that.
Because selling some of it would deprive the experience of its core pursuit. I can tell you that I’m not too concerned about chasing end game rewards because I know, for the absolute truth, that the store is going to have some cool looking stuff that I can spend money on when it’s weak.
I did it in Call of Duty, that game has nowhere to earn it’s top cosmetics, and you can bet I’d consider spending that $20 when my Rogue looks like an undead demon from hell or so. This realization just makes me sad.
“We want to feel good about buying things — before, during, and after,” Blizzard said at the time, promising that “best-looking cosmetics” won’t be exclusive to the store. According to the developer, the goal is to have “more variety of choices”.
Problems that these nicely worded, softly spoken blog posts never address are issues I’m sure we’ve all encountered: How can you expect a store to make money if the item is not popular? If you’re running a business that sells a product, it’s in your best interest to get people to pay for it.
If you had to split the work between artists, modelers, animators, etc., which armor set would you want them to spend their precious time on? I bet this isn’t the kind 5% of players will find in hidden caves or superhard dungeons.
There’s no doubt that the desire to turn Diablo into an MMO alongside Diablo 4 is due in large part to Activision Blizzard’s salivating at the idea of making Call of Duty out of Diablo. It’s a shame Blizzard can’t put out a game every year, but maybe if/when the Microsoft acquisition closes, Kotick will start working on building a ten-studio support structure to deliver annual (premium) content for Diablo!
