Anet, Please Never Do What Blizzard Just Did to Diablo Franchise

[mtpelion.4562]

The reality of the situation is that phones are an insanely profitable area for game developers to focus on, which means that they will eventually become the EXCLUSIVE platform for any game company that has a publisher attached (i.e. PC games will be Indie only and Console games will be done in-house by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft with almost no 3rd party games).

 

Whether we like it or not, mobile games are the mainstream future of gaming due to their accessibility, ease of programming, and high profit potential.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Odinens.5920" said:

> > @"Unknown.3976" said:

> > A couple of weeks ago, Blizzard mentioned that they have a couple of teams working on multiple Diablo projects.

> >

> > https://us.diablo3.com/en/blog/22549433

> >

> > "BlizzCon 2018 is almost here and we’ve seen a lot of rumors flying around about our plans for Diablo at the show. These are very exciting times—we currently have multiple teams working on different Diablo projects and we can’t wait to tell you all about them . . . when the time is right."

> >

> > This is yet another overreaction from the gaming community.

>

> Never played Diablo, but I can can tell you this, if I had been getting hypes from Blizz that a major announcement was coming for my favorite franchise, and then spent hundreds of dollars on travel, hotels, and tickets to see and be witness to said announcement, and then the big announcement is for a new game on a platform that I have no interest in, which also is inferior in every way to the platform the game has been on since the beginning, and won't even be available to that original platform, I'd be pretty pissed too.

>

 

Uh huh ... could have just watched it online too. On your phone perhaps. Probably could have used the money to buy the latest and greatest phone too.

 

Unless it is iOS only in addition to mobile only then it is also possible to play it is desktop.

 

> Quit calling gamers entitled (I know you aren't, but others are). Gamers are pissed companies don't give a kitten about making good games anymore and are instead going the "we want ALL of the money route."

>

> I love GW2, and consider it one of my all time favorite mmos, but I'm telling you right now, if Anet were to ever announce GW3 as a **mobile only** game I'd be done with them. Yep, I'd totally uninstall and delete everything Anet from my PC, and wouldn't think twice. It's a slap in the face to everyone playing GW1 AND GW2 right now. I wouldn't even care if it was a cross-platform game....that's cool. The more platforms the more people playing. But, not mobile only.

 

The announcement wasn't for D4 either.

[Turin.6921]

I find this thread and the whole situation with immortal so funny.

 

Mostly cause i am absolutely sure that if blizzard pulled a Bethesda (ES6 teaser) and gave 4 seconds of a meaningless teaser of Diablo 4 (which they said it is in pre-production) and then showed the mobile game, everyone would shut up even though it would practically have absolutely no difference than now.

[Zeivu.3615]

> @"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:

> Would it even be possible to turn an mmo into a mobile game?

 

Runescape just did it. But turning Gw2 into one, is another issue entirely. I don't think Anet has to worry about such a blunder, especially right now. They aren't even large enough to have a full con related to themselves yet to betray. And I don't see Arenanet teaming up with YouTube to try and censor the hate they received.

[Douglas Mines.7362]

> @"Justine.6351" said:

> > @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > > I would happily take gw1 or a new gw game on mobile. It is just a platform - as long as the game is accessible and fun, it shouldnt matter.

> >

> > getting gw1 to run on my tablet would mean instant money from me for Anet.

>

> GW1 probably would be pretty nice on tablet with click to move, 8 skill buttons to tap and hero ai to do a lot of the passive work.

 

It's not bad, but looking around is tricky, so have a bluetooth mouse to go alongside. Skill clicking and the UI (on large) work well on my $100 windows based tablet. Do it semi-regularly when round at a friends (just introduced someone to Tyria a couple of weeks ago) and lugging PC is too much work.

 

As for the OP, it's been said a bunch of times, but agreed; Anet, please don't randomly give the creative rights to GW for a third party company to re-skin an (apparently poor) mobile game with your assets with poor communications hyping the next evolution in the game making the playerbase upset.

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

I hope that the only official Guild Wars 2 phone app that comes out would be along the lines of using the trading post and checking skills/gear on your characters. Warframe does something similar to this, being able to manage resource extractors from their companion app, but nothing I would call actual gameplay.

[Xenon.4537]

Guaranteed Anet will eventually make a mobile game of some sort... (polymock?) It's impossible for a big company to resist the urge. Mobile games make tons of money. Low cost for development + huge profits (especially in China). It's only a matter of time before Anet makes this move. However, just because mobile makes profit doesn't make them good games.

 

All Anet needs to do is make sure they announce a new expansion or a new PC game alongside the mobile game. Blizzard's mistake was announcing a mobile game to a PC audience with nothing else. It makes it look like they are abusing a beloved franchise for shameless corporate greed (which they are, lets be honest...). I think we would all be happy to hear about a polymock mobile game, as long as we also hear about the future of the PC side of the franchise which we love.

[Grampybone.3716]

Sometimes friendships end, both go their own ways, it happens IRL. How many friends you have from the past, the years on school?

Same with Blizzard, they were my insta-buy anything company from late 90's, loved WoW untill WotLK. After that expansion I got less enthousiastic. Still bought anything, SC2, D3 (hated the AH).

During Overwatch, Hearthstone, HotS I felt estranged (is that correct english? or alienated). Too much new IPs being pumped out of Blizzard in a short time.

 

That is where Blizzard became just another developer to me. And that is why it doesn't surprise me they go mobile. But I feel sorry for all those enthousiastics who bought a (virtual) ticket for BlizzCon. They deserved better than this and Blizzard should've known their Diablo audience didn't buy a ticket for a mobile announcement.

 

It's sad. It's nothing to be furious about imo except for those who didn't spent $$$ to buy a ticket. Like I said sometimes friendship ends and go their own way.

 

I think if you're honest, we all knew these changes was just a matter of time. We knew it was coming.

[Lily.1935]

In a lot of ways Blizzard has succeeded in my eyes where Arena Net has failed. And vis versa. For me, Diablo III did necromancer extremely well. Not at all perfect, but my God is it extremely fun to play. Where as GW2 didn't even attempt to make a decent necromancer, opting to make a tanky beginner profession which is the exact opposite of what it was in gw1. Because of this I've been loving D3 and have had lots of fun with the stressful, glassy nature of their necromancer. It's been thrilling and thematic to what I enjoy about necromancers and I can honestly say my interest in ARPGs has been rekindled because of how well their necromancer was executed. GW2's necromancer on the other hand leaves something to be desired in me and the play style I love is just not present in gw2 which is a shame. Anet designed a profession that wasn't for the fans of gw1 necromancers. And the closest we've got to that is scourge which plays more like curses than blood or death necromancer from gw1. Which is great but I crave old school death magic and blood magic.

 

Baring my rant, I personally want a GW mobile game. Shocker I know. But not a main series game. I'd like a mobile game tied into gw2. Like being able to work on gathering or progress for gifts like gift of battle on the go. This would be awesome to have a mini game like this. Or even a GW1 port to mobile. Get into a couple of Jade Quarry matches for Mobile or even expanded gw1 content we can link to GW2. Maybe even something we can do for the hall of monuments to gain access to cosmetics like unique armors, weapons, mini pets and so on.

 

Now if Anet did something like "GW3 is a mobile MMO" I'd be quite upset. Typing on mobile is difficult let alone playing a game.

[Cormac.3871]

Blizzard just messed up their process on how not to overhype. It's simple, if there is something that is likely to be a deal breaker, mention it first. If Blizzard had said something along the lines of "Blizzard are going into the mobile space because we think we know a way to make it work. Just like we did with card games and MMOs, we are going here because we know we can change the rules on games design in this sphere, and we're doing it with a great Blizzard IP!" it would have been fine. You get the hype and speculation and you don't get the let-down. It would be like if ANet said "We have some great news about the Tengu coming up!" and it turns out that there is just an NPC who gives us some lore and a few cash shop items instead of the playable race everyone will be speculating on.

[MissCee.1295]

Frankly I can't take mobile games seriously. I have a 4K gaming rig and I'm not giving up my huge flatscreen monitor to play on an inferior device anytime soon.

[kharmin.7683]

> @"Xenon.4537" said:

> Guaranteed Anet will eventually make a mobile game of some sort... (polymock?) It's impossible for a big company to resist the urge. Mobile games make tons of money. Low cost for development + huge profits (especially in China). It's only a matter of time before Anet makes this move. However, just because mobile makes profit doesn't make them good games.

>

> All Anet needs to do is make sure they announce a new expansion or a new PC game alongside the mobile game. Blizzard's mistake was announcing a mobile game to a PC audience with nothing else. It makes it look like they are abusing a beloved franchise for shameless corporate greed (which they are, lets be honest...). I think we would all be happy to hear about a polymock mobile game, as long as we also hear about the future of the PC side of the franchise which we love.

 

Polymock would be a grand idea. I was never into it all that much, but I think a lot of players were and would quickly jump onto this.

[crepuscular.9047]

GW2 on mobiles phones? your battery probably wont event last 15mins

 

what Blizzard went wrong is to bring a brand new game with exact same style to an existing game, which will split the player base while not contributing to the original and true D3 experience.

it would be fine if was something to supplement the existing game, like being able to play D3 account on your mobile, then the fans will have a totally different reaction.

[ReaverKane.7598]

> @"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:

> Would it even be possible to turn an mmo into a mobile game?

 

Several already have... In fact NCSoft (parent company for Arena Net) have several of them, including a Lineage port. Mobile was actually their most lucrative market.

[Urud.4925]

> @"ReaverKane.7598" said:

> > @"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:

> > Would it even be possible to turn an mmo into a mobile game?

>

> Several already have... In fact NCSoft (parent company for Arena Net) have several of them, including a Lineage port. Mobile was actually their most lucrative market.

 

Yep, actually, ALL the major NCSoft games (Blade&Soul, Lineage, Aion) have a mobile version. GW2 is the only one missing it...

[Castigator.3470]

The problem is with the mobile only nonsense. If your loyal established fanbase consists of PC gamers, you can't just make a serious releases and exclude the core fanbase. That's treating those people, who have been funding the continued existence of Blizzard Games as disposable. And no one likes to be treated like that.

Had they said it will be a mobile toy to bridge the development time until D4 releases, no one would have batted an eyelid.

They could have released mobile spinoffs, everyone would have been okay with that.

No, they dig their grave deeper by saying:"It's a fully fledged Diablo experience on mobile." C'mon, Blizzard people. Even Codemasters managed to save face when they explained Overlord: Fellowship of Evil was a spinoff title, that was released to experiment with a few technical features (procedural generation) and not a full release. Unlike the other spinoffs it was still regarded as a bad game even with the lesser expectations attached to a spinoff, but at least the playerbase was pacified.

 

As for Arenanet, I hope they will have the multiplatform support to release their spinoffs, should they ever feel the need to create one, on multiple platforms. This would prevent the issue of players feeling left behind.

[ReaverKane.7598]

> @"Castigator.3470" said:

> The problem is with the mobile only nonsense. If your loyal established fanbase consists of PC gamers, you can't just make a serious releases and exclude the core fanbase. That's treating those people, who have been funding the continued existence of Blizzard Games as disposable. And no one likes to be treated like that.

> Had they said it will be a mobile toy to bridge the development time until D4 releases, no one would have batted an eyelid.

> They could have released mobile spinoffs, everyone would have been okay with that.

> No, they dig their grave deeper by saying:"It's a fully fledged Diablo experience on mobile." C'mon, Blizzard people. Even Codemasters managed to save face when they explained Overlord: Fellowship of Evil was a spinoff title, that was released to experiment with a few technical features (procedural generation) and not a full release. Unlike the other spinoffs it was still regarded as a bad game even with the lesser expectations attached to a spinoff, but at least the playerbase was pacified.

>

> As for Arenanet, I hope they will have the multiplatform support to release their spinoffs, should they ever feel the need to create one, on multiple platforms. This would prevent the issue of players feeling left behind.

 

I don't disagree that it was a crappy move, especially when you look at the game, it's easy to see it's pretty much just an asset swap from other games produced by the company making the game. It's not even Blizzard doing the work.

It's just an obvious money grab on the expense of a beloved franchise that has hit a big snag with their previous release (Diablo 3).

Honestly, at this point, Diablo is a bit overrated as it stands, being outshone by stuff like Divinity, Torchlight, etc. And instead of a new high quality release, or even the HD remaster of diablo 2 that's been so awaited, they release a mobile only half-ass asset swap game entirely produced by a third party as if it was the next big thing. And when people were incredulous at this, their response is "you all have smartphones, right?".

 

That's a move that'll go down in history akin with Mass Effect Andromeda and Battlefront 2 (the bad one).

 

The problem isn't as much the mobile port, those are actually a good thing, bringing more people into the game, and i don't think GW2 would suffer immensely for it. The problem with Diablo was releasing such a version without having a "big brother" to back it up in the form of an actual PC AAA release for the franchise.

Kind of like what happened with Fallout Shelter and Fallout 4.

Even just Porting Diablo 2 to mobile along with the remastered release for PC would have been welcomed as an extra.

 

TLDR: The problem with Diablo Immortal, is not that it exists, it's that it exists alone. And unlike what the OP is trying to represent, mobile games aren't a bad thing. They're a good extra if well managed. The problem with Diablo Immortal is that it wasn't well managed and was released in a vaccum, as a main title, instead of being an accessory to a main title.

[Arden.7480]

I didn't have any context until today, because I didn't care, but my brother was also not super excited, but interested if Diablo actually could be a new MMO RPG that may compete with WoW or GW2, I was also quite interested in that speculation. I mean it would be awesome, not that I care much about this franchise, but because it would be something I could try.

 

But then it just turned out to be a mobile game, I don't really use my phone, I have like 7-8 years old phone, so I wanted to laugh out loud when I heard this outrage. I mean not at the people that care/d about this game, but at this pitiful idea...

 

I also heard the Blizzcon (that i wasn't particularly interested in any of them) was supposed to announce PC games, as I realized it was doing since forever- there was always place for the PC.

 

I play Overwatch since last year and I started playing WoW 2 weeks before BfA, Hearthstone is just a nice game to play sometimes, but there is nothing special there at all, beside it just introduced me to the characters, so I wasn't just standing in Stormwind and think: who the hell is Anduin, is he called like that, right?

 

Anyway I was told that Blizzard is kind of the god of announcing the games, it can build so much interest and then it's very nicely received, but actually hearing "booo" at the devs- "booo" by the people that bought the tickets for at least 50$, some of them flying from some far away countries, so they spent thousands on paying the money for a hotel room and actually fly there.... It's just quite sad...

 

People were expecting the PC game/ the new expansion/ the new rework, and then they got some mobile game, and the devs with, I received it as rude, words: "Don't you have the phones?" Or something like that...

 

I mean how can some serious devs be such not in touch with the community?

 

 

[nosleepdemon.1368]

I'd play gw2 on mobile. Just sayin'. Y'all need to get over yourselves, besides the developers are right - who here does not own a mobile phone?

[Elspereth.1280]

> @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> I'd play gw2 on mobile. Just sayin'. Y'all need to get over yourselves, besides the developers are right - who here does not own a mobile phone?

 

Not that it matters, but I don't :)

[Dante.1763]

> @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> I'd play gw2 on mobile. Just sayin'. Y'all need to get over yourselves, besides the developers are right - who here does not own a mobile phone?

 

Saddly they arent. Just cause you have a phone, doesnt mean you have a phone capable of playing an online MMO, and honestly its idiotic to announce a mobile game as the main event to a bunch of PC gamers, who are going to your event to see what your next PC game is going to be.

[mortrialus.3062]

I really don't see why the Diablo fanbase is freaking out so much over this. Diablo has always been a skill free roleplaying hack and slash, focusing on making tons and tons of new characters with RNG loot and randomized dungeons despite a linear campaign. The graphics have never ever been good or particularly PC intensive. It makes perfect sense for it to be mobile.

[nosleepdemon.1368]

> @"Elspereth.1280" said:

> > @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> > I'd play gw2 on mobile. Just sayin'. Y'all need to get over yourselves, besides the developers are right - who here does not own a mobile phone?

>

> Not that it matters, but I don't :)

 

You'll outlive us all, damn you!

[BlueJin.4127]

> @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> I'd play gw2 on mobile. Just sayin'. Y'all need to get over yourselves, besides the developers are right - who here does not own a mobile phone?

 

Who here does not own a PC?

 

I do not own a tiny phone for games any more than I own a good PC for phone calls.

 

That dev’s comment was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

 

[nosleepdemon.1368]

> @"BlueJin.4127" said:

> > @"nosleepdemon.1368" said:

> > I'd play gw2 on mobile. Just sayin'. Y'all need to get over yourselves, besides the developers are right - who here does not own a mobile phone?

>

> Who here does not own a PC?

>

> I do not own a tiny phone for games any more than I own a good PC for phone calls.

>

> That dev’s comment was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

>

>

 

For the sake of demolishing your rather awkward argument, one can own a good PC for making phone calls. In fact, I call my Dad on Skype all the time and he's usually in his office taking the call on his PC :)

 

Aaanyway most PC gamers, being naturally interested in technology (otherwise why would they own a PC instead of a console?), have phones capable of actually doing more than making the Nokia beep. The developers are correct in their assessment that mobile is the way to go. You may not particularly enjoy that, and apparently neither did the audience, but being able to play Diablo on your phone would be pretty great. It's not as if the game was ever particularly complex or graphically demanding. Like I said, I'd definitely play that, even though the only game I presently have on my phone is one that I made.

 

Don't knock it until you've tried it, is what I am saying.