Judging by the name, Diablo Immortal was always going to be a somewhat controversial title. However, the controversy doesn’t lie where most critics would believe it should. As it turns out, the biggest complaint that the community has is that microtransactions and in-app purchases have turned this free-to-play game into a pay-to-win nightmare of hellish proportions.
Diablo Immortal has been floundering in a sea of controversy and skepticism since the game’s reveal in 2018 at Blizzcon. Discovering why is as easy as a quick scroll down the game’s main page on Reddit. Here, you’ll see a small concentration of positive posts amidst an ocean of criticism and thundering anger directed at the monetization of the ARPG title. There are, of course, those who try to get the most out of the game without spending too much in the in-game store, but these are few and far between, and you have to scroll past a lot of hate to get to them.
While the community has no fondness for any of the myriad in-app purchases, there’s one microtransaction in particular that is believed to have sparked the controversy; legendary gem upgrades. Players just starting out in the ARPG title won’t have much of an awareness of this aspect of the game, but as it turns out, it is the worst example of shameless capitalist monetization within the game. The gem system results in a cost-to-player of $110,000 to fully upgrade a Diablo Immortal character.
These gems also rob players of the true competitive spirit of Diablo Immortal. Repetitively buying gems means that you can fly through upgrades and thus achieve exponential statistic boosts when it comes to combat ratings and the various skill avenues present throughout the game.
Even though these gems are by the worst offenders, they are not the only microtransaction offenders in the game. The sad thing is that this was not the dream for Diablo Immortal. ‘All the major gameplay systems in Diablo Immortal are free. That includes the main storyline, the dungeons, the helliquary raid, the in-game cycle of strife. You can do everything in Diablo Immortal completely for free.’ There was, however, another core idea running congruently with the notion that everything in the game would be free; capitalism.
On the topic of microtransactions, the dev team said: ‘The other core piece of this that we thought was important was that these optional purchases should never be a way to acquire gear or experience. We will never sell gear. We will never sell experience in Diablo Immortal. What that means is that you have to play Diablo Immortal to increase value.’ However, we can clearly see that this is not entirely how Diablo Immortal has turned out. This seems to be a plain-and-simple pay-to-win title.
If you’re annoyed with the microtransactions, here are the best alternatives for Diablo Immoral you can try instead!
