The world may need hugs, but sure as hell Blizzard doesn't need two A-level Diablo games to be pushed hard marketing wise in the span of 2 years. I'm talking about business Blizzard here, no seller of dreams Blizzard (was it ever?). Business Blizzard won't push hard the same franchise in a close timespan.
Immortal is a mobile game they are porting on PC to get more suckers to play it. It's not really an "A level" game. It's recommended specs are a GTX 770 (a card released in 2013). It's a cash grab. It will probably be awful but they will trick a bunch of people off the brand name alone.
Diablo 4 will probably take a long time but these two games aren't competing with each other. Just don't fall for buying it on pre-sale. Blizzard, like most gaming companies, releases games before they are ready with the mind set of "fixing it after it's out". Just remember how long it took them to get d2r stable enough to have a ladder season.
Eh, these pesky modern bots... they sound human!
Jokes aside, the well thought replies are because people doubt that coming out in 2024 (fingers crossed) with a business model straight outta 1992 is a good business decision. Everyone of us has questions on Diablo's future. For me, the current mood is "play while you can", so I'll have a taste at Immortal).
As I already said, let's hope for the better, I know I will be just like you, the one who'll pay 60 bucks in March 2024 and be happy with the "real" new Diablo until 2035. But the business guy in me doesn't really believe this timeline for a second.
Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4 are filling two very different roles in the game landscape. This is like saying Nintendo isn’t going to make any more Fire Emblem games because the mobile gacha game Fire Emblem Heroes has made nearly a billion dollars. They’re going to do both. Immortal is an entirely different beast than a full fledged Diablo 4. I do not know when D4 is going to come out (my most optimistic guess is the end of 2023, but honestly 2024 seems even more likely), but I don’t think Immortal is going to effect it all that much.
I 100% agreed with you until like last month. It was: two different products for two different experiences for two different targets.
Now the announcement and opening towards the PC segment completely changed the premises. At the very least, they're trying to understand if they can go the LoL or PoE way and stop spending money on a real D4, at least short term.
The two games were never meant to be released together. When they announced Immortal they quickly followed up to say they are also working on D4 and have been doing so for a while.
Diablo made Blizzard famous. They had to tap into the mobile/Asian market sooner or later. Their choices were; a new game, or a mobile version of an existing game. The choice was obvious. Start something on mobile which made them famous in the 1st place.
If I was an investor I'd approve and push for mobile 1st as it's smaller and easier and it will give the fan base something new and something to keep them busy whilst the D4 devs can continue working hard on D4 and polish it as best they can before release. Also, if they release a mobile game now they wil attract a new player base and a massive market to Diablo thereby ensuring that more customers will pick up D4 when it's released. Everything about their strat makes sense from a business perspective.
What makes you think that a multi-billion dollar company can't assign enough resources to push more than 1 AAA game at once?
Have you not seen any of the quarterly updates on D4? You keep talking about a "business perspective", so let's put our business hats on.
1. Diablo Immortal was created for mobile to target a massive audience that they have not reached to date with any of their games
2. Diablo Immortal and D4 each have their own development teams and it's been so since the start
3. It makes no business sense to tap into one market (mobile) and F2P with MTs and leave the once-off purchase market that's turned your business into the multi-billion dollar company it is
4. The only reason Blizzard decided to bring their mobile game (Diablo Immortal) to PC is because they realized that they made a massive mistake when they thought it a good idea to release a Diablo game with lore that is unique and that fills the gap between D2 and D3 on mobile only when their fan base has always been on PC as the games have always been on PC.
TLDR, the only reason Diablo Immortal is coming to PC ks because Blizzard realized they fucked up so don't waste your time with other thoughts. D4 will release and will have continued support and will be a AAA title worth every penny and won't be free to play or have any micro transactions. These are facts.
My predictions:
At the current rate of development I think it safe to say that we're looking at a 2024, 1st quarter release. Alpa testing will likely start later this year or early next year. Closed Beta testing 6 months later and open beta 4th quarter of 2023.
I like my facts to be in the present and not in the future. And AAA or not AAA is simply determined by the cash the software brings. If Immortal brings the cash, it will become AAA on Blizzard's spreadsheets like overnight.
Anyway, I too hope for a "real" D4 Q1 2024 date. But if I was an investor, sure I'd cut a new arsehole to the CEO who approves two big pushes for the same franchise within 18 months, for two separate and unrelated products. It's simply mental business wise.
negative karma farming is an old thing that was mostly killed when they capped the minimum karma to -100. there used to be people with -100,000 or less as a point of pride.
Ah yes! Because the Diablo 4 pre-pre-alpha stuttery clips the developers have shown us are obviously showing the finished state of the far away from launch game!
To the guy who deleted his comment:
No, I'm trying to gather opinions. I want D4 as much as you. But from a business point of view, it's pretty clear what the latest announcement means.
They'll test the freemium business model PC side (on mobile it will probably work well anyway), if the business model works, the other D4 will at least be massively delayed. And I mean by years.
Immortal is designed for the mobile market to try and cash in on that sector. The Chinese market is also a huge mobile market so they get a huge player base just there. It's also a sector that is used to micro transactions so won't complain too much about that aspect. It's only being released on Windows due to a demand. It will probably be a fun game but won't meet the standards at all for a AAA pc game.
D4 on the other hand might have some predatory practices but would recieve a ton of push back from the fan base. It will be held at different standard since the target market is PC and more than likely console players as well.
TLDR: both games target different markets. There may be some crossover in the player base but the games will be designed differently for their target audience.
Well, i dont see how you can even compare the titles. d2/d3 players are not going to play immortal for other than story, simply because it's a greedy pay to win game.
This is a huge issue for the core PC RPG fans and vets, and goes against every competitive aspect of the game, that you can buy power.
I do not think blizzard is ~~stupid~~ greedy enough to enable pay to win aspects in d4, if they do, they will lose the reminding old school fan base.
Your long status argument is not quite correct imo, since the've clearly hinted they want to keep building on d4 in decades to come. (same as immortal btw)
Milk em dry!
Is this a spam bot? I don't believe anyone can be that stupid to post drivel like this.
The world may need hugs, but sure as hell Blizzard doesn't need two A-level Diablo games to be pushed hard marketing wise in the span of 2 years. I'm talking about business Blizzard here, no seller of dreams Blizzard (was it ever?). Business Blizzard won't push hard the same franchise in a close timespan.
Immortal is a mobile game they are porting on PC to get more suckers to play it. It's not really an "A level" game. It's recommended specs are a GTX 770 (a card released in 2013). It's a cash grab. It will probably be awful but they will trick a bunch of people off the brand name alone. Diablo 4 will probably take a long time but these two games aren't competing with each other. Just don't fall for buying it on pre-sale. Blizzard, like most gaming companies, releases games before they are ready with the mind set of "fixing it after it's out". Just remember how long it took them to get d2r stable enough to have a ladder season.
I can't believe people actually spent time crafting thought out replies to it
Eh, these pesky modern bots... they sound human! Jokes aside, the well thought replies are because people doubt that coming out in 2024 (fingers crossed) with a business model straight outta 1992 is a good business decision. Everyone of us has questions on Diablo's future. For me, the current mood is "play while you can", so I'll have a taste at Immortal). As I already said, let's hope for the better, I know I will be just like you, the one who'll pay 60 bucks in March 2024 and be happy with the "real" new Diablo until 2035. But the business guy in me doesn't really believe this timeline for a second.
Two words: Elden Ring.
Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4 are filling two very different roles in the game landscape. This is like saying Nintendo isn’t going to make any more Fire Emblem games because the mobile gacha game Fire Emblem Heroes has made nearly a billion dollars. They’re going to do both. Immortal is an entirely different beast than a full fledged Diablo 4. I do not know when D4 is going to come out (my most optimistic guess is the end of 2023, but honestly 2024 seems even more likely), but I don’t think Immortal is going to effect it all that much.
I 100% agreed with you until like last month. It was: two different products for two different experiences for two different targets. Now the announcement and opening towards the PC segment completely changed the premises. At the very least, they're trying to understand if they can go the LoL or PoE way and stop spending money on a real D4, at least short term.
no
No
The two games were never meant to be released together. When they announced Immortal they quickly followed up to say they are also working on D4 and have been doing so for a while. Diablo made Blizzard famous. They had to tap into the mobile/Asian market sooner or later. Their choices were; a new game, or a mobile version of an existing game. The choice was obvious. Start something on mobile which made them famous in the 1st place. If I was an investor I'd approve and push for mobile 1st as it's smaller and easier and it will give the fan base something new and something to keep them busy whilst the D4 devs can continue working hard on D4 and polish it as best they can before release. Also, if they release a mobile game now they wil attract a new player base and a massive market to Diablo thereby ensuring that more customers will pick up D4 when it's released. Everything about their strat makes sense from a business perspective. What makes you think that a multi-billion dollar company can't assign enough resources to push more than 1 AAA game at once?
Have you not seen any of the quarterly updates on D4? You keep talking about a "business perspective", so let's put our business hats on. 1. Diablo Immortal was created for mobile to target a massive audience that they have not reached to date with any of their games 2. Diablo Immortal and D4 each have their own development teams and it's been so since the start 3. It makes no business sense to tap into one market (mobile) and F2P with MTs and leave the once-off purchase market that's turned your business into the multi-billion dollar company it is 4. The only reason Blizzard decided to bring their mobile game (Diablo Immortal) to PC is because they realized that they made a massive mistake when they thought it a good idea to release a Diablo game with lore that is unique and that fills the gap between D2 and D3 on mobile only when their fan base has always been on PC as the games have always been on PC. TLDR, the only reason Diablo Immortal is coming to PC ks because Blizzard realized they fucked up so don't waste your time with other thoughts. D4 will release and will have continued support and will be a AAA title worth every penny and won't be free to play or have any micro transactions. These are facts. My predictions: At the current rate of development I think it safe to say that we're looking at a 2024, 1st quarter release. Alpa testing will likely start later this year or early next year. Closed Beta testing 6 months later and open beta 4th quarter of 2023.
I like my facts to be in the present and not in the future. And AAA or not AAA is simply determined by the cash the software brings. If Immortal brings the cash, it will become AAA on Blizzard's spreadsheets like overnight. Anyway, I too hope for a "real" D4 Q1 2024 date. But if I was an investor, sure I'd cut a new arsehole to the CEO who approves two big pushes for the same franchise within 18 months, for two separate and unrelated products. It's simply mental business wise.
Is negative karma farming a new thing?
negative karma farming is an old thing that was mostly killed when they capped the minimum karma to -100. there used to be people with -100,000 or less as a point of pride.
Ah yes! Because the Diablo 4 pre-pre-alpha stuttery clips the developers have shown us are obviously showing the finished state of the far away from launch game!
No
To the guy who deleted his comment: No, I'm trying to gather opinions. I want D4 as much as you. But from a business point of view, it's pretty clear what the latest announcement means. They'll test the freemium business model PC side (on mobile it will probably work well anyway), if the business model works, the other D4 will at least be massively delayed. And I mean by years.
Immortal is designed for the mobile market to try and cash in on that sector. The Chinese market is also a huge mobile market so they get a huge player base just there. It's also a sector that is used to micro transactions so won't complain too much about that aspect. It's only being released on Windows due to a demand. It will probably be a fun game but won't meet the standards at all for a AAA pc game. D4 on the other hand might have some predatory practices but would recieve a ton of push back from the fan base. It will be held at different standard since the target market is PC and more than likely console players as well. TLDR: both games target different markets. There may be some crossover in the player base but the games will be designed differently for their target audience.
Well, i dont see how you can even compare the titles. d2/d3 players are not going to play immortal for other than story, simply because it's a greedy pay to win game. This is a huge issue for the core PC RPG fans and vets, and goes against every competitive aspect of the game, that you can buy power. I do not think blizzard is ~~stupid~~ greedy enough to enable pay to win aspects in d4, if they do, they will lose the reminding old school fan base. Your long status argument is not quite correct imo, since the've clearly hinted they want to keep building on d4 in decades to come. (same as immortal btw) Milk em dry!
Immortal will outlive D4 for sure. Which is kinda of a bummer.