Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment, Diablo, Diablo Immortal

Blizzard Expected Backlash to Diablo Immortal But Not To This Degree

Published Mon, 05 Nov 2018 07:40:34 -0600

Speaking at BlizzCon, Blizzard Co-Founder Allen Adham stated that he expected there to be a backlash to Diablo Immortal's reveal. (Although, not quite to this degree.)

Diablo Immortal has had a rough start to life. The game closed the BlizzCon Keynote presentation and since then all hell's (pun intended) broken loose. From angry hashtags, to even boos at the game's panel, it's clear that the core Blizzard audience isn't in love with the new mobile game. While many were hoping for a new Diablo game, a mobile game is a big departure from fan expectations.

This didn't come as a complete surprise to Blizzard. Speaking to Kotaku, co-founder of Blizzard Allen Adham said that the team expected some backlash, though "not to this degree.' (There's some controversy with likes on the trailer for the game to illustrate just that point.) However, Adham said that Blizzard wasn't completely blindsided, saying:

We know our audience here is passionately PC- and console-focused. We've also seen this before. We saw a similar response when we announced that we were bringing Diablo to console, and we saw a similar response to the announcement of Hearthstone… That being said, we knew our audience here desperately wants to see and hear about one thing in particular.

We can assume he means Diablo 4 here, I'm guessing.

He went on to reiterate that there are multiple Diablo games in the works though that fans should be patient for.

I know our community here, there's a concern that we are focused on this instead of that. The truth is that we have multiple Diablo teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects even after announcing Immortal."

And look, I get it. Some fan responses have been overblown, but Blizzard didn't help themselves by closing their big yearly show with a mobile game in-front of their core audience. Especially an audience that was expecting something major from the Diablo team. That said, taken away from its reveal, I think Diablo can translate to phone really well. There certainly could be a good game in there. For now though, that core audience is going to just have to be patient. By all accounts, Diablo 4 is coming. The real question is, when?

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