blizzard "Diablo Immortal Pretty Much Ready" Says NetEase CFO

[Stan 5,240]

Blizzard is co-developing Diablo Immortal with NetEase Inc. and the company's Chief Financial Officer Yang Zhaoxuan told analysts during a conference call that the game is ready from their perspective, according to Bloomberg reports.

Blizzard announced Diablo Immortal at last year's BlizzCon. Reveal of Blizzard's first mobile game sparked a lot of controversy and hate among PC fans, because obviously, everyone among the hardcore PC gamer audience at BlizzCon was expecting Diablo IV, but that's a story for another day...

Blizzard has been working with NetEase Inc to develop and launch Diablo Immortal primarily in China, where these types of games are particularly popular and NetEase's CFO said the following during a conference call to analysts:

Quote

“From a co-developer’s perspective the game development is pretty much ready,” he said of the title that is slated to be released this year. “As to the exact launch timetable, I would encourage the market to direct their questions directly to Activision Blizzard.”

Yang Zhaoxuan (NetEase Inc. CFO)

Diablo Immortal is pretty much ready for release and Blizzard is currently polishing the game for a global release that is slated for later this year.

Are you looking forward to playing the game?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

 

Are you looking forward to playing the game?

No.

But I have no problem that Blizzard launches it. How they introduced it was a bad joke, but if people are ready to pay hard currency for handy games (personally, I wouldn't even spent 1 cent) - hey, why shouldn't Blizzard grab it? Easy money.

And Blizzard is doing society a favor in general. If you have looots of money and your purse is very heavy - there is a high risk of getting a bad back and stuff like that. It's not good for your health to carry too heavy. Luckily Blizzard offers you a chance to get rid of all that money. ?

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by Guest

[Prophet001 598]

I actually don't have a phone that can play this.

Seriously.

[Guest]

Just now, Prophet001 said:

I actually don't have a phone that can play this.

Seriously.

I have never used my phone for anything else then to call somebody. My mobile phone is turned off for 99,9% of the time. (I turn it on if I have to call somebody. Which is approx. 2 times a month.)

If my 12 year old phone wouldn't have broken I would still use this. Luckily a friend of mine had a phone (several years old) that he no longer used...

But I guess I am one of the last persons in Germany who doesn't use a mobile phone.

[Infinal 16]

23 minutes ago, WedgeAntilles said:

But I guess I am one of the last persons in Germany who doesn't use a mobile phone.

Evident by the fact you call it a ‘handy’. ;D

[Lawrenz 105]

24 minutes ago, WedgeAntilles said:

But I have no problem that Blizzard launches it. How they introduced it was a bad joke, but if people are ready to pay hard currency for handy games (personally, I wouldn't even spent 1 cent) - hey, why shouldn't Blizzard grab it? Easy money.

I think many people underestimate the potential of mobile gaming. The power that some phones bring to the table is already far better that some of the pcs i used in the past. And the quality of the games for the future MIGHT improve. But if people stick to their mentality that mobile gaming isnt real gaming, and let the dumb society that throws their money into the mouths of shitty companies that make just mobile games with horrible monitization systems just continue doing what theyve always done, nothing will change.

The fact that games like fortnite and pupg released on phones as well is a big step up, for f2p games with somewhat fine monetization. If blizzard now can pull of a game with a fair system, it will improve the situation a bit further. So i am worrying, but at the same time hopeful.

[Kal876 0]

Currently playing a mobile WoW clone on my iPad. I had to quit WoW when parenting and real life got in the way, and lots of my fellow mobile players have a similar story. I'm looking forward to Diablo Immortal.

Incidentally, remember the "come back free for a few days to WoW" promo they just had? That was done during the week of the mobile WoW-clone's launch. Blizzard is watching the mobile market and they are smart to do so; it's larger than you'd think and lots of people sink an incredible amount of time and money into their mobile games.

[Abom 31]

this news is 6 weeks old.

[Kurosu 58]

"Are you looking forward to playing the game?"

Yes please make all the future intallments of every title on mobile only in the future. After all most of us have phones therefore its completely logical to do so. Cant wait to play warcraft 3  and Overwatch on my mobile ? 

[ThomasC 65]

Honestly - I hope this game is successful.

I say this in a great deal of my comments, but Acti-Blizz is a for profit company. Identifying new channels of revenue (in this case mobile gaming) is just basic business strategy, and China is a huge market who loves  mobile games. Any new revenue streams increase profits for the company which in turn let the company continue to develop great new games and content for us to play.

How they introduced this game was horrible and it shouldnt have taken center stage at blizzcon for the diablo panel. However, they have made it clear that the mobile channel is not replacing the pc channel and development is happening simultaneously. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Infinal said:

Evident by the fact you call it a ‘handy’. ;D

AFAIK no one outside of Germany calls a mobile phone "handy" or has the slightest idea what "handy" is^^

 

1 hour ago, Lawrenz said:

I think many people underestimate the potential of mobile gaming. The power that some phones bring to the table is already far better that some of the pcs i used in the past. And the quality of the games for the future MIGHT improve. But if people stick to their mentality that mobile gaming isnt real gaming, and let the dumb society that throws their money into the mouths of shitty companies that make just mobile games with horrible monitization systems just continue doing what theyve always done, nothing will change.

The fact that games like fortnite and pupg released on phones as well is a big step up, for f2p games with somewhat fine monetization. If blizzard now can pull of a game with a fair system, it will improve the situation a bit further. So i am worrying, but at the same time hopeful.

I agree with you - but as long as publishers (I do NOT refer to Blizzard, just a general statement) make tons of money with very simple and cheap to produce stuff nothing will change.

Same is true for the PC too of course. If you can make several hundred millions with some skins - why should you bother to make a "real" game? Which is a thousand times more expensive to make? 

The more player are ready to pay much money for "nothing", the less great games will be published. 

IMO it is very important that player stop buying tons of skins or unfinished games. 

Let's take Anthem as an example: The core of the game isn't bad. Flying works, optic is good. Flying around the landscape is even great. Firefights aren't bad either. However, the game has no content. Which is not surprising, if you take into account, that the game was developed in 12-16 month. (Yeah, Anthem is way longer in the making, but it was completly reworked. There is a interesting interview with Jacen Schreier on youtube about that.) The game is not done. Story is horrible. Fort Tarsonis (or whatever it is called) is an empty shell. All the cool stuff the trailers showed you - you can never play that. Endgame is horrible, next to no content. And what there is is recycled. 

If they would have had another year Anthem could have been a real good game.

But the way it is Anthem is not better then games like Warframe. But Warframe is free 2 play and Anthem is considered a AAA game for 60 bucks.

Still - selling numbers seem to be at least decent.

What is the lesson? Players don't give a *filtered* if you let them buy half finished games. No need to finish a game. Just publish it and take the money.
If players wouldn't have bought the game maybe the next game would not be half-finished.

Publisher realized that they can get away with bad games, buggy games, not finished games, games without content. They still sell those games.

Why should they spent lots of money to make great games? MAYBE they'd sell a few more copies. Maybe. Why take the risk?

For me - as a player - that is horrible. 

[leapingshadow 50]

If it's free and isn't riddled with microtransactions that are ridiculous I'll probably play it. It seems okay.

[Lawrenz 105]

7 minutes ago, WedgeAntilles said:

Still - selling numbers seem to be at least decent.

What is the lesson? Players don't give a *filtered* if you let them buy half finished games. No need to finish a game. Just publish it and take the money.If players wouldn't have bought the game maybe the next game would not be half-finished.

Publisher realized that they can get away with bad games, buggy games, not finished games, games without content. They still sell those games.

Why should they spent lots of money to make great games? MAYBE they'd sell a few more copies. Maybe. Why take the risk?

Yeah, that's true, but when ou take into account how long EA already abuses the FIFA players, since they implemented the "ultimate team" feature to sell the very first p2w lootboxes in a big title, and no one batched an eye about this, it is already very good that Publishers, developers and big AAA titles that do stuff like this get increased attention for that *filtered*. The bubble bursted and they get shitstorm after shitstorm. They numbers for those games will go down eventually, and people will praise the good developer behavior more and more. Now the players are more sensitive.

Contrary to the shitstorm of anthem, division 2 for example, came at the exact right time, to get praise for a good and polished game with lots of content. not perfect of course, but much needed fresh wind. I think we are on the brink of change.

Since all of the developers have had crashes in their stock prices recently, they will have to change something for the future. Just EA, i hope, should go bankrupt very hard. Seems like they dont intent to change anything, ever. Their greed should destry themselves. because EA is short for "Eternal A**holes"

[Kaelos 74]

Yeah this news is old... accidental repost?

[Valhalen 1,484]

I couldn't care less about this game, but if it is a success in China and gives Blizzard the cash to make better main-line games, I wish this nothing but luck. Maybe this will also make them inject more cash into HotS and even bring back HGC (which I doubt).

[Ragingwolf 310]

Just not interested in playing PC oriented games on my phone it's not very appealing nor convenient.  I considered my phone for business and emergency incoming/outgoing calls only and keep it on silent for the majority of the time.  Hence why I play the majority of my gaming on PC or PS4.  But if the small minority of people are interested in trying their hand in on this mobile title then kudos to them.

But be forewarned there is always a chance for misuse of micro-transactions that has and continues to be part of the mobile gaming industry, along with gated restrictions put in place to get that individual to swipe that credit card some more.  You see it more in mobile gaming compared to PC/Console gaming.  (Unless you play EA titles.)

 

[Mortalo 1]

7 hours ago, Prophet001 said:

I actually don't have a phone that can play this.

Seriously.

Me too ?

But when I will have one, I'll try it for sure. Who knows, it might be fun ?

[mada7 29]

9 hours ago, WedgeAntilles said:

AFAIK no one outside of Germany calls a mobile phone "handy" or has the slightest idea what "handy" is^^

I hate to ruin that word for you but at least in north america it's slang for a *filtered* act you give to another person with your hand.

[Morcalivan 86]

You can always use Blue Stacks or Nox to play it.

I use those to play Lords Mobile. Which is a mobile pay to win game. Of course, if you have multiple devices in a game like that, or have a PC with Blue Stacks or Nox that can both now create multiple instances, you can play as a dozen+ people. Makes for a unique experience.

Not sure multiple accounts would work for Diablo though. Seems a little too fast paced. Maybe a healer account to support your main tank? I've used my laptop and PC in tandem before to use Abathur/insert hero here together and play Cho'Gall before. So it is possible. Manipulating a support character with my left hand on a phone and using my mouse with my right for the PC could work.

[JestersTear 1]

On 4/8/2019 at 10:33 AM, leapingshadow said:

If it's free and isn't riddled with microtransactions that are ridiculous I'll probably play it. It seems okay.

Of course it'll be full of microtransactions.  The company doing the port is reportedly just re-skinning one of their old games that is loaded with micros.  People that play mobile games and FB games have proven to be exceptionally stupid for the most part, shelling out the cost of a real game every month on content for a crappy mobile game.

[Lawrenz 105]

4 hours ago, JestersTear said:

Of course it'll be full of microtransactions.  The company doing the port is reportedly just re-skinning one of their old games that is loaded with micros.  People that play mobile games and FB games have proven to be exceptionally stupid for the most part, shelling out the cost of a real game every month on content for a crappy mobile game.

That has been the unbased reason for outcry at the time of the announcement. But isn't it already confirmed that they just build up the game in one of the existing engines that they used for their previous games?. And isnt that a reasonable thing to do? People testing the game on blizzcon said it looks and feels way way more polished than other games of this style.

It just depends on the monetization and fairness towards the players now, because gameplayquality-wise you can be sure it won't be bad. (of course, if you dont like phone hack and slay, then this game doesnt have a chance from the get go)

[Morcalivan 86]

6 hours ago, JestersTear said:

Of course it'll be full of microtransactions.  The company doing the port is reportedly just re-skinning one of their old games that is loaded with micros.  People that play mobile games and FB games have proven to be exceptionally stupid for the most part, shelling out the cost of a real game every month on content for a crappy mobile game.

Not all mobile games are crappy. There is a convenience factor that can also more than make up for having a small screen. Graphics and speed does not = great game. Blizzard games for example, are not the highest grade but they are pretty darn good. The same can be said for some mobile games. And being able to play anywhere is always going to have an appeal.

That said, they can be money pits if you want to be the best and have no self control. You need a way to get around that. For me, it's having a P2P account like most of the more competitive players, but also having a bunch of F2P accounts that support it in a way it would normally take an entire guild of F2P players to do so. The P2P account also accelerates the F2P accounts so that they don't lose too much by being played by one person. But, you need to find the game where this works. Play the game, the mechanics and the monetary system as part of the game itself. I'm not sure which other games this can be done with, but it works with this one.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Morcalivan said:

That said, they can be money pits if you want to be the best and have no self control. You need a way to get around that. For me, it's having a P2P account like most of the more competitive players, but also having a bunch of F2P accounts that support it in a way it would normally take an entire guild of F2P players to do so. The P2P account also accelerates the F2P accounts so that they don't lose too much by being played by one person. But, you need to find the game where this works. Play the game, the mechanics and the monetary system as part of the game itself. I'm not sure which other games this can be done with, but it works with this one.

That sounds more like work to me than anything else.

IMO you just prove the statement of JestersTear. If I can either spent lot's of money, do not get any progress or handle several accounts - yeah, I do know why I'll never touch those "games".

But if it works for you, that is great ?

[Morcalivan 86]

The time spent on several accounts is nothing compared to a PC game, lol. Work. Diablo is an RPG of hack and slash. If a mobile game can be considered work, than a PC game like that can be considered a sweat shop.