Diablo Immortal

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Synj

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I am annoyed that they didn't announce d4 or something similar. But I can understand why they did this. They saw Pokémon go, fire emblem, ff games, all the revenue that shit generates and thought it would be a good idea. I mean shit Pokémon go brought in a lot of people who never played Pokémon before. They probably thought maybe it could boost sales.

I will say as anecdotal evidence that at work with a bunch of young 20 somethings. They all game on the phones all the damn time. One plays PUBG a lot, has like five emulators and has beaten many games on it all on his phone, doesn't own a pc but has consoles. I think part of this issue is because in the last decade we've had smartphones they have become a distraction for kids by parents. Not that it's a bad thing, but instead of a Gameboy we've replaced it with a phone. Only natural that younger gamers are going to enjoy playing shit on their phones. Similar to those of us that grew up with arcades near buy and would waste allowances on those machines all the time.

I Will also say playing d3 on the switch is pretty good imo. Being able to lay in bed with TV on and run some rifts is nice. I don't like playing games on my phone personally, but maybe it won't be super horrible with controller support, although I don't think it will be awesome.

I don’t think anyone cares that Blizzard is making a mobile Diablo. That’s well within their right to pursue customers and profit.

I think the issue is that they announced it at Blizzcon to a heavy PC crowd and then acted surprised by the blowback.

You could have asked one or asked one thousand Diablo players what their reaction would be to a mobile Diablo and I’d bet $1000 you’d get 100% “meh” as a response.

Will Diablo Immortal make tons of money? Most definitely. Should it have been rolled out in this manner and shit all over your core fan base? Absolutely not and that’s a huge blunder that could ultimately cost Blizzard a lot of money even when DI is profitable.

There was no reason to take advantage of that goodwill like that and it was completely tonedeaf which is what I think has the common Blizzard fan concerned.

Did one of our all time favorite franchises just completely abandon us? What other type of reaction could anyone expect?
 
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Neki

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Do these games really make that much money?

Mobile games or 'Gacha' games, make a shitload of money.

Here is a list of the highest-grossing video game franchises in history

List of highest-grossing video game franchises - Wikipedia

At the top of the list, you have the long established franchises that you expect to be there like Pokemon, COD, Warcraft, Mario, Street Fighter etc.

Just below GTA, you have Monster Strike which came out in 2013 and grossed $7.2 billion on the mobile platform.

The next game after that is Puzzle & Dragons with a $7 billion.

When you continue down the list, you get more and more mobile games such as Clash of Clans ($6 billion) and Westward Journey ($5.606 billion).

What is more shocking is these games grossed more than well known franchises like Pro Evo Soccer ($5.503 billion), Halo ($5 billion) and Star Wars ($4.858 billion).

You go down the list and the mobile games keep popping up with ridiculous numbers. Arena of Valor ($4.847 billion), Candy Crush Saga ($4.5 billion), Clash Royale ($2+ billion).

I watched the Fate Stay Night anime recently and enjoyed it a lot. I was surprised when I got to know that there was a mobile game called Fate/Grand Order based off it and considered checking it out until I found out it was a Gacha game and noped the fuck out of that.

Fate/Grand Order - Wikipedia

Fate/Grand Order is an online free-to-play role-playing mobile game based on the Fate/stay night visual novel and franchise by Type-Moon...

...It was first released on July 29, 2015, on Android, with a subsequent release on August 12 on iOS.

An English version was released on June 25th 2017 in the United States and Canada. A Korean version was released on November 21, 2017. Fate/Grand Order grossed $982 million in 2017, making it the year's sixth highest-grossing mobile game. As of July 2018, the game grossed over $2 billion in revenue worldwide.

It's no surprise that it made so much money when you have whales like this guy dropping a casual $70k into the game.

A look into a dude who has spent $70,000 on Fate/Grand Order

Another popular Gacha game is Fire Emblem Heroes

Fire Emblem Heroes earns $400 million globally

Fire Emblem Heroes remains the most profitable of Nintendo's mobile catalog by a longshot. The game has brought in over $400 million in revenue worldwide since its launch, over six times that of Super Mario Run and nearly ten times that of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

SensorTower reports that the game has crossed the $400 million mark 18 months after launch, around $100 million of which came in during 2018 as the game brought in $295 million in its first year.

Going back to the list, you can see right near the bottom of the list is the Diablo and StarCraft franchise with their paltry $1 billion each over their lifetime

So yeah, these games do make a shitload of money with much less development needed than 'traditional' games. Why spend years and years of resources and development to create Diablo 4 and maybe gross a few hundred mill when you can produce a watered down Diablo Immortal for mobile with in-app purchases in less time, resources and effort and most probably rake in over a billion?

It's fucking sad that this is the case but it is the reality we live in now.

The people on this forum are into their 30s/40s now and have to accept that the gaming industry no longer gives a shit to this demographic. We have spending power but are considered a niche part of the market. We can drop $100 on a amazing game if we feel it is worth it but that is not enough to these gaming companies. They want you to spend thousands. These games companies want to target to the larger mobile generation and the obscene potential profits they can garner from the repeated in-app transactions.

When Diablo Immortal starts raking in the cash (and it will), you can bet your ass that these games companies will continue to bring their biggest IPs to the mobile market in the future and starts to ignore the PC or even console markets.
 
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Punko

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Because that's what I said right? Controller support for phones isn't unreasonable I'm sure there's phone controller/holder combos coming

There are already controllers for mobile around.

Guess why you didn't know?

Because noone fucking uses that shit.

People with the money to buy a quality smartphone and to spend on games aren't going to sit on the bus playing COD on a 6.2" screen.
 
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Therage

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I don’t think anyone cares that Blizzard is making a mobile Diablo. That’s well within their right to pursue customers and profit.

I think the issue is that they announced it at Blizzcon to a heavy PC crowd and then acted surprised by the blowback.

You could have asked one or asked one thousand Diablo players what their reaction would be to a mobile Diablo and I’d get $1000 you’d get 100% “meh” as a response.

Will Diablo Immortal make tons of money? Most definitely. Should it have been rolled out in this manner and shit all over your core fan base? Absolutely not and that’s a huge blunder that could ultimately cost Blizzard a lot of money even when DI is profitable.

There was no reason to take advantage of that goodwill like that and it was completely tonedeaf which is what I think has the common Blizzard fan concerned.

Did one of our all time favorite franchises just completely abandon us? What other type of reaction could anyone expect?


Oh I totally get it, this was a monumentally dumb announcement especially after touting all the hype for awesome diablo news leading up to it. Fucking retarded on their part. Personally have never followed blizzcon enough to follow the announcements. Haven't really played wow since wotlk, always played magic and not hearthstone. Haven't played sc2, since launch. Diablo 3 played during rmah, inferno. Quit and came back during console to play with the roomate, and came back last season when necro was on sale. I was totally hoping for much better announcements d 2 remake or d4. This is incredibly stupid way to announce it. I thought Bethesda was dumb to bring up the phone game during E3 or whatever too for the record.
 
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Kyougou

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Mobile games or 'Gacha' games, make a shitload of money.

I should clarify that I meant mobile ARPGs, are any of those ARPGs?

Not trying to deflect, I'm honestly curious because I always felt this type of game wasn't a good fit for mobile.
 

Punko

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The people on this forum are into their 30s/40s now and have to accept that the gaming industry no longer gives a shit to this demographic. We have spending power but are considered a niche part of the market. We can drop $100 on a amazing game if we feel it is worth it but that is not enough to these gaming companies. They want you to spend thousands. These games companies want to target to the larger mobile generation and the obscene potential profits they can garner from the repeated in-app transactions.

When Diablo Immortal starts raking in the cash (and it will), you can bet your ass that these games companies will continue to bring their biggest IPs to the mobile market in the future and starts to ignore the PC or even console markets.

Assuming what you state is true, wasting the diablo franchise on the larger mobile generation is a waste, since they don't really know the franchise and a generic one would have done as well.

Its going to be received as yet another mediocre-good mobile game by that audience, and in 2 years tops it will no longer generate profits of any significance.

I spent 3-5000$ on the RMAH btw.
 
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Therage

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There are already controllers for mobile around.

Guess why you didn't know?

Because noone fucking uses that shit.

People with the money to buy a quality smartphone and to spend on games aren't going to sit on the bus playing COD on a 6.2" screen.


I don't disagree with you on a personal level. But I work with kids who constantly play fortnite and PUBG on their smartphones. I can't stand playing games on my phone personally.
 
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Punko

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I don't disagree with you on a personal level. But I work with kids who constantly play fortnite and PUBG on their smartphones. I can't stand playing games on my phone personally.

Its going to take a lot of kids to do this:

kids.gif


Star citizen has gathered over 200.000.000$ by now, don't tell me they couldn't market the Diablo franchise in a more profitable way then selling it to chinamen in order to make a kids game.

Also microtransactions with random stuff have been outlawed in Belgium for quite a bit now, it is in some other Euro countries also, it is only a matter of time before it is outlawed in all of Europe.
 
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Synj

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Mobile games or 'Gacha' games, make a shitload of money.

Here is a list of the highest-grossing video game franchises in history

List of highest-grossing video game franchises - Wikipedia

At the top of the list, you have the long established franchises that you expect to be there like Pokemon, COD, Warcraft, Mario, Street Fighter etc.

Just below GTA, you have Monster Strike which came out in 2013 and grossed $7.2 billion on the mobile platform.

The next game after that is Puzzle & Dragons with a $7 billion.

When you continue down the list, you get more and more mobile games such as Clash of Clans ($6 billion) and Westward Journey ($5.606 billion).

What is more shocking is these games grossed more than well known franchises like Pro Evo Soccer ($5.503 billion), Halo ($5 billion) and Star Wars ($4.858 billion).

You go down the list and the mobile games keep popping up with ridiculous numbers. Arena of Valor ($4.847 billion), Candy Crush Saga ($4.5 billion), Clash Royale ($2+ billion).

I watched the Fate Stay Night anime recently and enjoyed it a lot. I was surprised when I got to know that there was a mobile game called Fate/Grand Order based off it and considered checking it out until I found out it was a Gacha game and noped the fuck out of that.

Fate/Grand Order - Wikipedia



It's no surprise that it made so much money when you have whales like this guy dropping a casual $70k into the game.

A look into a dude who has spent $70,000 on Fate/Grand Order

Another popular Gacha game is Fire Emblem Heroes

Fire Emblem Heroes earns $400 million globally



Going back to the list, you can see right near the bottom of the list is the Diablo and StarCraft franchise with their paltry $1 billion each over their lifetime

So yeah, these games do make a shitload of money with much less development needed than 'traditional' games. Why spend years and years of resources and development to create Diablo 4 and maybe gross a few hundred mill when you can produce a watered down Diablo Immortal for mobile with in-app purchases in less time, resources and effort and most probably rake in over a billion?

It's fucking sad that this is the case but it is the reality we live in now.

The people on this forum are into their 30s/40s now and have to accept that the gaming industry no longer gives a shit to this demographic. We have spending power but are considered a niche part of the market. We can drop $100 on a amazing game if we feel it is worth it but that is not enough to these gaming companies. They want you to spend thousands. These games companies want to target to the larger mobile generation and the obscene potential profits they can garner from the repeated in-app transactions.

When Diablo Immortal starts raking in the cash (and it will), you can bet your ass that these games companies will continue to bring their biggest IPs to the mobile market in the future and starts to ignore the PC or even console markets.

I agree with you, they’d be stupid and irresponsible not to tap into that market.

But why advertise it your core fan base in that manner?

Maybe we are obsolete. But I have two kids and lots of options on where to spend my money on them. It could either be my beloved mobile offshoot that I might play with them inbetween sessions of D4, or it could be something completely non-Blizzard.

I’ll leave Blizzard to figure out which direction I’m headed.

The cool thing would have been, hey old dudes, here’s your beloved game for you, and here’s something for your kids! And guess what? When they level up in mobile? Your companion/gems/paragon points level up in game. My kids love seeing their names when I’m playing games, tie it in this way and I guarantee my sucker/pay for it factor goes up lol!
 

Therage

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Its going to take a lot of kids to do this:

View attachment 181802

Also microtransactions with random stuff have been outlawed in Belgium for quite a bit now, it is in some other Euro countries also, it is only a matter of time before it is outlawed in all of Europe.


I don't disagree with you man. I'm not arguing that this is going to be a great thing for blizzard, I'm just saying I can see why they thought they could make money.
 

Punko

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I don't disagree with you man. I'm not arguing that this is going to be a great thing for blizzard, I'm just saying I can see why they thought they could make money.

The great thing is that this is not going to affect their share value short-term, since most of the shareholders don't know fuck about games and Diablo either.
 

Neki

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It actually might be wise to look to invest in their shares since we know DI is going to make Activison a shitton of money
 

Neki

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I should clarify that I meant mobile ARPGs, are any of those ARPGs?

Not trying to deflect, I'm honestly curious because I always felt this type of game wasn't a good fit for mobile.

I have no idea on how ARPG plays generally on mobiles since I don't game on my phone. You would assume that the genre would be just decent on a phone with the limited screen estate and controls and also a shadow of the experience you will get playing on a PC.

If an ARPG is to break revenue records on mobile, you will bet it would be Diablo because there are many many Blizzard fanboys out there who will play their games just on their name alone.
 

Punko

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It actually might be wise to look to invest in their shares since we know DI is going to make Activison a shitton of money

It isn't, its just a reskinned mobile game backed with a franchise that doesn't have special appeal to its audience.

You might think a diablo mobile game is $$$, but the average 13 year old asian whale kid hasn't even heard of it. He's waiting for the next episode of goblin slayer to release.
 

Ambiturner

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I don't disagree with you man. I'm not arguing that this is going to be a great thing for blizzard, I'm just saying I can see why they thought they could make money.

Of course it could make them money. It would also make them money if it was just in app stores one day. At least that way you dont shit all over your reputation and become a laughing stock.
 
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pharmakos

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Best documentary on free to play mobile games I've ever seen is seriously the South Park episode "Freemium Isn't Free.". Anyone that hasn't played F2P phone games but wants to understand them should spend the 22 minutes to watch that.
 
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