‘Diablo Immortal’ is franchise’s “biggest launch” despite being Blizzard’s worst-rated game

In one week, 'Diablo Immortal' has become Blizzard's most successful 'Diablo' game and the studio's worst-reviewed title

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that Diablo Immortal has achieved “the biggest launch in franchise history”, despite being the company’s worst user-reviewed game.

Today (June 10) Blizzard posted a tweet that shared “in just one week, Diablo Immortal is the biggest launch in franchise history.”

However, it’s not the only milestone Diablo Immortal has reached – as yesterday, it sank down to Blizzard’s lowest-ever user score on Metacritic.

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While Diablo Immortal‘s successful launch was likely helped by the game’s free-to-play status, that’s also where many of Diablo Immortal‘s issues lie.

Despite the game itself being free, players have accused Blizzard of making microtransactions in Diablo Immortal dramatically overbearing. Earlier in the week, one player claimed that it would cost £87,568 ($110,000) to achieve maximum stats on one character, while another player said that unlocking each character’s final resonating bonus would cost between £39,831 and £47,797.

Diablo Immortal. Credit: Blizzard Entertainment.

A quick look at Metacritic reveals that costly monetisation is the biggest issue for Diablo Immortal players. “The most frustrating part about this entire thing is that hidden under all of the predatory business practices is a really decent mobile game,” reads one review, while another notes that “What could have been one of the best ARPG experiences in recent history [has been] irreparably marred by unnecessary, greedy, and exploitative monetization.”

In NME‘s review of Diablo Immortal we said that while the game was a lot of fun to play it could be “prohibitively expensive for the perfectionist player”, and said that “it’s fairly obvious that the end game is going to turn pay-to-win in time”.

Blizzard is yet to comment on the backlash surrounding Diablo Immortal.

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In other gaming news, Stranger Things star David Harbour has shared that World Of Warcraft “ruined” his life for a year, and it took a revealing moment in The Sims to get away.

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