Blizzard’s Diablo Immortal officially launched last week on June 2. Going live as early as June 1 for most people on mobile. Everything seemed relatively positive the first couple of days. Then the weekend hit. And players started to dig into the game’s Elder Rifts activity. Where you can slot in crests to improve your chances of getting legendary gems, which in turn will improve your gear. According to GameRant (who cites Bellular Gaming) it would take upwards of $110,000 to buy enough crests to help you max out your character with rank 5 legendary gems. Leading to Blizzard’s fanbase being rather unhappy with the studio’s choice of monetization practices. And rightfully so. As it’s absolutely ridiculous to spend that amount of money on any game. This backlash has led fans to reach out to Diablo Immortal Game Director Wyatt Cheng on Twitter asking for explanations. To which Cheng responds that the team was always clear about what was being monetized.
Micro transactions in Diablo Immortal don’t impact the campaign
There’s no arguing that Diablo Immortal’s monetization system feels pay-to-win at this point. And no matter how good the game is, it’s these kinds of predatory practices that cause people to hate mobile games. That being said, Diablo Immortal is a very good game. It’s fun to play, and there’s loads of content. You can get through the entire campaign without spending tons of money. Or really any money at all. And that’s probably what players should take away from this whole experience. You can certainly enjoy the game’s story content without spending money. Unfortunately, where the micro transactions are likely to have an impact are on the highest-level endgame content. Which is certainly going to impact the experience for players who like to maximize their characters. As it currently stands, free-to-play characters can have a good experience playing Diablo Immortal. As long as min-maxing isn’t something you’re really concerned with.
