So over the weekend, Blizzard had their annual BlizzCon EVENT and during their event, they made an announcement for a new mobile game called Blizzard Immortals and fans weren’t too pleased with that. This has created a massive backlash that Blizzard just weren’t prepared for and has gotten everyone talking! However, what I want to talk about are these so called “professionals” who’ve gone out of their way to downplay the backlash and have instead chosen to side with Blizzard and degrade the people who have given honest criticism to Blizzard’s business decision.
Now, let me be clear with this, I do not condone any backlash that involves death threats or insulting the people at Blizzard. That kind of backlash is childish and counter-productive. However, the responses that I’ve seen so far have mostly been normal criticism about the choices that Blizzard is making. At the end of the day, Blizzard has somewhat lost touch with its core audience. It’s wild to me that Blizzard would even consider closing their event with a mobile game to fans who’ve been primarily PC-based and have been clamoring for news on Diablo 4. The icing on the game was the response the representative made when questioned on whether this was an “off-season April’s fool joke. This man looked into the window of everyone’s souls and said “Don’t you have mobile phones?” Yikes!
What’s even worse to me is how the some of these “professionals” in the gaming industry have been handling the situation. A prime example was an article by Mashable that really set me off, with one line in particular that honestly was borderline idiotic.
Mashable’s Kellen Beck had this comment to make:
“Grow up,” Kellen wrote. “You are entitled to nothing. Game companies owe you nothing. You don’t just get to have whatever you want and then throw a tantrum when your own personal dreams don’t come true.”
So let me get this straight, these gaming companies owe us nothing, so we should just sit there and be quiet as they “try” to sell us a product that we don’t want. So who exactly are these gaming companies selling their product too then? Because I’m sure as hell won’t spend a dime on a shitty product that I don’t want, and if millions of fans who’ve placed their trust in a company to stay true to their franchise ideals and core foudings feel the same way, guess what, that gaming company is going to be in BIG trouble. Sure worked well for Battlefront 2 huh?
This was just one of the many ingenious responses from these professional gaming journalist and individuals in the gaming industry. Making smart remarks, downplaying the situation and just straight up belittling the people who have genuine criticism about the product that they’re passionate about is just asinine.
I mean c’mon, Blizzard got a Chinese company known as NetEase to develop the game. They are have been known to make knock versions of Diablo games in the past. And if you take a comparison of one of their games with Diablo Immortals, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. So it’s understandable that some fans feel concerned that Blizzard has forsaken PC and console in favor of mobile games.
I mean heck even EX- developer of Diablo says that Blizzard doesn’t know their core audience anymore. According to him on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1059206672143409155
https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1059207004407754752
https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1059207412995870721
Look, that game is going to bomb, they core audience that Blizzard was hoping to get will never play the game, the casual will for some time, but afterwards that game is dead. Lets not be out here licking these corporate giants asses now. They fucked up and know will reap the consequences of their actions.
