Diablo Immortal is coming to PC

Thoughts?

Hideously-looking mobile game on my 24" monitor. The Dream.

Mobile gaming is a trend that I honestly just do not understand. I've always been a fan of quality gaming with solid controls.

Moving D2:R to console still seems silly enough to me but gimping an entire Diablo game to make it work on a phone and then pushing that back onto a PC to have the worst of all worlds? Just...why?

But oh well, to each his own! I'm sure there's folks out there who appreciate it.

Releasing a mobile Diablo game makes sense — but only for certain gaming markets.

Asia is one such market. The mobile gaming scene over there is huge and I say this with no exaggeration. As for the west, I’m not sure how well it would do. I have a habit of trying every Diablo game on release — so at best this will help me kill some time on my breaks at work (but I’m also just generally curious to see how bad it might be lol)

bleeee....

LuckyAce wrote: 2 years ago

Releasing a mobile Diablo game makes sense — but only for certain gaming markets.

Asia is one such market. The mobile gaming scene over there is huge and I say this with no exaggeration. As for the west, I’m not sure how well it would do. I have a habit of trying every Diablo game on release — so at best this will help me kill some time on my breaks at work (but I’m also just generally curious to see how bad it might be lol)

Funny - was going to type exactly this and unpack it until I saw you already got it started. As you called out the Asian market is heavily mobile first. This is due to their 5G infrastructure which is far superior to the states and even in areas of Europe. On top of this in general Asia is the fastest growing middle class in the world including the Indonesian markets. This translates into broadband and faster connectivity to 5G network access etc.

Game mechanics, polish, and aesthetics aside, they clearly wanted purely a revenue stream and they followed the market to its epicenter.

I played this when there was a test. Although I don't really like mobile games, but it was interesting for me to look at this game. I must say that it's not as bad as I thought. I'm waiting for Diablo Immortal to take with me on work trips in my smartphone to another city, for example. Will I play this while at home? More likely no than yes.

Th3ory wrote: 2 years ago

LuckyAce wrote: 2 years ago

Releasing a mobile Diablo game makes sense — but only for certain gaming markets.

Asia is one such market. The mobile gaming scene over there is huge and I say this with no exaggeration. As for the west, I’m not sure how well it would do. I have a habit of trying every Diablo game on release — so at best this will help me kill some time on my breaks at work (but I’m also just generally curious to see how bad it might be lol)

Funny - was going to type exactly this and unpack it until I saw you already got it started. As you called out the Asian market is heavily mobile first. This is due to their 5G infrastructure which is far superior to the states and even in areas of Europe. On top of this in general Asia is the fastest growing middle class in the world including the Indonesian markets. This translates into broadband and faster connectivity to 5G network access etc.

Game mechanics, polish, and aesthetics aside, they clearly wanted purely a revenue stream and they followed the market to its epicenter.

I don't see how that relates to the Asian preference for mobile gaming though. I mean Diablo Immortal was made because Asia exists and it's all about mobile gaming, not because they have great 5G infrastructure.

iamergo wrote: 2 years ago

Th3ory wrote: 2 years ago

LuckyAce wrote: 2 years ago

Releasing a mobile Diablo game makes sense — but only for certain gaming markets.

Asia is one such market. The mobile gaming scene over there is huge and I say this with no exaggeration. As for the west, I’m not sure how well it would do. I have a habit of trying every Diablo game on release — so at best this will help me kill some time on my breaks at work (but I’m also just generally curious to see how bad it might be lol)

Funny - was going to type exactly this and unpack it until I saw you already got it started. As you called out the Asian market is heavily mobile first. This is due to their 5G infrastructure which is far superior to the states and even in areas of Europe. On top of this in general Asia is the fastest growing middle class in the world including the Indonesian markets. This translates into broadband and faster connectivity to 5G network access etc.

Game mechanics, polish, and aesthetics aside, they clearly wanted purely a revenue stream and they followed the market to its epicenter.

I don't see how that relates to the Asian preference for mobile gaming though. I mean Diablo Immortal was made because Asia exists and it's all about mobile gaming, not because they have great 5G infrastructure.

This is my personal domain expertise given what I do IRL. Activision is a public company with a fiduciary responsibility to shareholder value ergo top-line revenue and EBITDA net-profit. They will chase the market that is most lucrative in this case Asian mobile gaming. I simply made an academic educated statement about the state of their infrastructure enabling a mobile-first gaming culture anchored by 5G.

This isn't me bring argumentative purely was just making a fundamental comment. The US is dramatically behind in our overall telecommunications infrastructure which is also why you don't see the same threshold and adoption of a mobile-first orientation here.

Either way - don't intend to play this given D2R

Th3ory wrote: 2 years ago

This is my personal domain expertise given what I do IRL. Activision is a public company with a fiduciary responsibility to shareholder value ergo top-line revenue and EBITDA net-profit. They will chase the market that is most lucrative in this case Asian mobile gaming. I simply made an academic educated statement about the state of their infrastructure enabling a mobile-first gaming culture anchored by 5G.

I would bet my life's savings on the opinion that their mobile-first gaming culture has almost nothing to do with 5G or even 4G. It's merely an extension of Asian cultures in general.

The incentive is gaining more consumers at the cost of quality. I despise the console phone game market. I get it though, appeal to as many people as possible and offer a outlet for entertainment that can be enjoyed anywhere at any time.

Its good for people who have little time to play like me, but not worth it at the same time for me since the fun level and intriguing game design are lacking usually.

This thread grew legs fast.

Anyway, I’m a sucker for Diablo so I will try it out… although I bought a switch for the exact niche that a mobile game would cover.

So is this actually D4? xD

Saw some of the interview/release-youtube-thing and they are all like "bring the AAA gaming experience to the blizzard family"...

Stormlash wrote: 2 years ago

Thoughts?

Well, I didn't really pay attention to it because I simply didn't care (was not gonna play it on my phone no matter how good it was)...
If it comes on PC I'll probably check it out, but I don't have much expectations; The fact that the game was intended as a mobile game at first shows the team behind it clearly has no idea what the Diablo players like, and that doesn't bode well for the game.

If we have to buy it: I'll check a few gameplay videos, and probably opt not to buy it.
If it's free: I'll probably install it, play a little with it, fully expecting to uninstall it within hours, and won't care too much. If it turns out to be good, all the better!

This is just a lame cash grab to jump on the freemium gaming bandwagon using the diablo name. Its literally D3 but with even worse graphics and p2w system.

D4 is now undergoing internal testing, won't be as good as D2 but it'll be leagues better than D3 or a D3 mobile clone. lol

Stormlash wrote: 2 years ago

Thoughts?

Meh. I have a keyboard and mouse on my desk. I'll stick to things designed for my keyboard and mouse.

Edit: I'm just being snarky I guess. I don't really play video games anymore. I'll do D2R, and I played the shit out of classic wow, but I've kind of lost the passion for video games a long time ago.