This weekend at BlizzCon, Blizzard announced a newDiablogame for mobile platforms, titledDiablo Immortal. The announcement of the game was received with a lot of negative feedback, to say the least, to the point where thetrailer was flooded with negative commentsand over 257,000 dislikes on the trailer. On another panel at BlizzCon, though, Blizzard representatives assured upset fans thatDiablo Immortalis not the onlyDiablogame that is currently in development.
Yesterday at BlizzCon, Polygon had a short interview with Blizzard Co-Founder and Executive Producer Allen Adham and Production Director Dan Elggren about the strong response toDiablo Immortal. During the discussion, Adham and Elggren repeatedly stressed thatDiabloImmortalis, in fact, just one of theDiablogames currently in development at Blizzard, and they hope that fans will remain patient for futureDiabloannouncements.
Adham stated in the interview that “we have said that we have multipleDiabloteams working on multipleDiabloprojects and that remains true, even after releasing [Diablo 3for Nintendo] Switch and announcingDiablo Immortal.” Later the two stated again that “we still have multipleDiabloteams working on multiple unannouncedDiabloprojects." They further emphasized that “Diablois a tentpole franchise for [Blizzard]. And it always will be. We love it. We hope our fans understand what we’re saying when we say that.”
The negative response to theDiablo Immortalannouncementis largely due to the fact that it is a mobile game and hardcore gamers feel thatDiablo Immortalis simply a watered-down version of the critically acclaimed long-running game franchise. Fans may also be upset because they expected a more substantial Diablo announcement at BlizzCon, since the lastDiablogame was released in 2013.
However, Adham is of the opinion that someDiablofans will probably change their opinion ofDiabloImmortalwhen they actually get their hands on it. Despite the backlash, mobile platforms for video games seem to become more popular, with other franchises likeThe Elder Scrollsalso releasing games on mobile. We are yet to see the quality ofDiablo Immortalat its release though.
