The Weekly Raid: Blizzard Just Played Itself

BlizzCon 2018 took place last week, and boy was it one for the history books. The game announcements were nice, Diablo: Immortal, a mobile-only game being developed by NetEase.

When the game was first announced, the audience's disappointment was palpable, but the real fun started during the Q&A session. My personal favorite clip is the Blizzard representative's answer when asked whether Diablo: Immortals would be coming to the PC platform:

Blizzard quickly went into defensive mode, even going so far as to work with Google to remove hundreds of thousands of dislikes from the Diablo: Immortal reveal trailer. The backlash was so extreme that investors took note, sending shares in Activision-Blizzard down over 7%.

While an impulsive hatred towards mobile gaming by Blizzard's primarily PC-centric playerbase explains some of the story, I think it goes a bit deeper. Blizzard's mobile MMORPG, titled Crusader of Light. Major sites like Polygon covered the story, though there's another NetEase game that's even more similar: Endless of God.

Given Blizzard's reputation for quality, it took many fans by surprise that they would license their IP to a third party. Worse still, it wasn't just any third party. It was NetEase, a Chinese chop shop that has been making knock off mobile games for years. Blizzard teaming up with such a company almost reads like a capitulation and strikes many fans as a deliberate decision to dilute the quality and value of the Diablo franchise. What do you think of the Diablo: Immortal mess? Let us know!