Leaked Diablo 4 Survey Reveals Blizzard’s Monetization Plans

Authored by esports.net and submitted by HappyNerdBear
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Leaked Diablo 4 Survey Reveals Blizzard’s Monetization Plans

Blizzard seems to be under quite a lot of fire lately due to various decisions revolving around their games. However, this time, the news is somewhat of a double-edged sword, as it can be seen as both a good thing and a bad thing.

After the Diablo: Immortal’s p2w backlash, it would be quite a shame that Diablo 4 follows the same steps and is a catastrophic failure. Of course, we all knew that this probably wouldn’t happen, as Diablo: Immortal is a free-to-play game, while Diablo 4 will come with a box price similar to the previous installments in the Diablo franchise.

Even if the Diablo 4 release date is still unknown, besides the fact that it is coming out in 2023, there is already some information about the monetization from a survey that has been going around. As we mentioned earlier, there is some good news, which is that they will only sell cosmetics. While having no pay-to-win features will be nice, we all know that the coolest armor, mounts, pets, and other fun items will be locked behind a paywall, which is always disappointing.

The surveys do not cover the price of each item. Still, they do showcase a few bundles that range from 40 Euros (which is the basic game only and not really a bundle) to 150 Euros which includes all kinds of goodies like armor skins, mount armors, back ornaments, a battle pass, and other cosmetics.

Some bundles might give early access too!

One of the things that are not in the cosmetics category is getting early access, and while we do not know if Blizzard will actually put this into a bundle or not since it is all speculated on a survey, it would be pretty neat. Until that arrives, enjoy the best Diablo 2 builds if you are still playing Diablo 2: Resurrected instead of the frowned-upon Diablo: Immortal.

McShane727 on August 17th, 2022 at 02:11 UTC »

On its face: I don’t care too severely about low price cosmetic micro-transactions

On Blizzards reputation: I don’t have any faith in that they’ll stop there, and also feel skeptical that they would approach even cosmetics in an ethical way

Fortunately, even if Blizzard fucks it, nowadays we have plenty of reasonable alternatives. (Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, etc)

Blakath on August 17th, 2022 at 01:52 UTC »

I’m over Blizzard. I love Diablo, but after playing Path of Exiles, Diablo seems so lackluster thanks to Blizzard.

I mean I knew Blizzard was shitting on Diablo, but Path of Exiles made me realize just how far jack and slash games have progressed. It has far superior gameplay and story than Diablo ever had.

Scodo on August 17th, 2022 at 01:23 UTC »

Fuck this. The game is already monetized with a sticker price. Paid cosmetics belong in budget or free-to-play games, and I will die on that hill.

If you buy a game for $60-$70 dollars, all available content at the time of release should be included in that price, including cosmetics. Cool-looking armor and weapons used to be something you achieved through challenges in-game. Now they're just something you buy.

Luckily there's a thriving indie scene with games that you still only have to get your credit card for once.