Diablo Immortal director Wyatt Cheng says the community uproar in regards to the in-game microtransaction system is based on misleading information rather than facts. The game was released last week, and it’s been surrounded by controversy ever since. Online, fans allege that maxing out characters will cost over $100,000 - or take nearly a decade for free-to-play users, raising concerns over pay-to-win mechanics and ludicrous money and time investments.
Despite being officially scheduled to launch on June 2, Diablo Immortal started rolling out in multiple regions a day earlier, although it was only the mobile version that was released prematurely. And while the game has already attracted tremendous amounts of money since last week, the reception from the core audience has been predominantly unfavorable. This has mostly been tied to claims that maxing out a character in Diablo Immortal costs $110,000, which would amount to almost 10 years for F2P users.
Wyatt Cheng, Game Director on Diablo Immortal, has taken to Twitter to clarify some misleading information that fueled the claims that it’s possible to buy in-game gear with real money (via VGC.) According to Cheng, the term “gear” relates to 12 item slots that cannot be directly purchased by players. In a discussion with streamer Zizaran, the Game Director reiterated that money can be spent on advancing regular gems and Legendary Gems in Diablo Immortal rather than actual items. Circulating claims that players can only buy and upgrade Diablo Immortal gear if they spend additional funds are false and misleading, stressed Cheng. However, the developer did admit that the criticism surrounding the very idea of buying power to upgrade gear is fair. At the same time, Cheng felt he needed to step in to shed some light on the matter because he’d prefer players not liking the game for its particular merits rather than due to misleading information.
Regardless of whether players can buy gear directly or not, upgrading a Diablo Immortal character can be difficult if approached without investing any money in the RPG. A mobile title at its core, the game relies heavily on microtransactions. To progress further and level up a character, players have to either wait a lengthy period - or spend money to skip the wait and get back into action. Not only that, but the emphasis on upgrading gear makes it almost impossible to advance further without improving items.
Wyatt Cheng did a great job addressing semantical inaccuracies in how Diablo Immortal microtransactions are described by players. But the issue of having a P2W Diablo title is still present. As revealed previously, Blizzard utilizes subtle tactics of encouraging players to spend money on cosmetics, bundles, and gems by navigating users directly to the store. In that context, it doesn’t matter if Wyatt Cheng clarified that gear cannot be bought directly. It is still possible to upgrade items via spending money on gems, and Diablo Immortal is still an example of a game with too many microtransactions.
Source: Wyatt Cheng/Twitter (via VGC)