Pay-To-Win Diablo Immortal Panned As One Of Blizzard's Worst
Activision's notorious reputation for microtransactions is no misinformation. Its collection of titles ranging from Call of Duty and Overwatch to Candy Crush and Crash Bandicoot are all littered with forms of money-making schemes. But now, they've taken an even worse turn.
The Blizzard branch of Activision has enjoyed a storied start to their most recent launch, Diablo Immortal, with the open beta being released on PC on June 2. With such an iconic franchise being cascaded into the modern era, Diablo fans have poured back to the free-to-play MMO, although, it isn't really free-to-play at all...
How Is Diablo Pay-To-Win?
Click to enlargeHaving seen the full game land on mobile, it's been no surprise that gamers have already surged through Diablo Immortal in its entirety, and much like many games in the genre, the endgame requires your Wizard, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Barbarian, or Monk to have quite a formidable armoury.
Whether it be Dragonplate Scaled Breastplates in Skyrim, Venthyr Crimson Plates in World of Warcraft, or The Omen Elden Ring armour set, you need to be stacked to take on the final boss. Diablo Immortal is no different, however, it'll cost you a hefty fee.
Despite being pay-to-win, Diablo Immortal's $100,000 price tag on a maxed out character is outrageously steep and can only really be sidestepped by ten years of gameplay grinding. To no surprise, fans and critics alike are furious, as Diablo Immortal has become an absolute pay-to-win game.
What Do Players Think Of Diablo Immortal?
Having seen the game's lucrative loopholes con people out of purchasing legendary crates, critics have slammed Diablo Immortal. Metacritic reviews have plummeted to 0.6 user score. The shocking score (rated out of 10) is the third-worst Blizzard rating of all time, with microtransactions proving pivotal. Both Warcraft III Reforged (0.6) and World of Warcraft Classic: Burning Crusade Classic (0.4) were released in recent years (2020 and 2021 respectively), and have both bombed due to the cash-grab technique.
Critics quickly found that after reaching level 50, Diablo Immortal leans heavily into the microtransactions - allowing people to get addicted to the title before slamming them with paywalls. One Reddit player fell victim to the scheme and said, "I am someone who has fallen into this trap with a mobile game. You spend money, get nothing, then you spend more money until you finally get the thing because you don’t want to feel like you just wasted $30, $60, etc."
The damning Metacritic score will likely mean nothing to Blizzard, especially given it hasn't learned from the previous two negative reviews... or was too busy swimming in coins to care. The PC variant of Diablo Immortal still resides in the beta run though, so, hopefully, Blizzard will make some adept changes across the board before releasing the full game.
