Well, there’s a twist. Diablo Immortal, the controversial Diablo mobile project from Blizzard, is coming out on June 2 – including an “open beta” on PC. After years of development as a mobile-only project, alongside many requests from the community for it to have a PC release, the game will now feature full cross-play and cross-progression with Windows.
This was announced in a new video today that went out alongside Activision Blizzard’s Q1 2022 financial results. The video, hosted by Game Director Wyatt Chung of ‘do you guys not have phones?’ infamy, is fairly short, detailing some specifics about the game as well as the release date and move to PC.
Importantly, there will be one account shared across all devices. So, log in on your phone on the way home from work, and when you get back you can immediately switch to playing the same character on PC. Full controller support, as well as mouse and keyboard and some new control mechanisms for the franchise with WASD movement, is present. Given that, ports to consoles feel like they can’t be far behind.
Chung and Blizzard’s reasoning for the move to include a PC version is about having the largest user base possible. Given the PR disaster that was the initial announcement, and the long time since that the community has been asking for a PC version, plus the massive success of Lost Ark in the MMOARPG space, it all adds up to a smart move. Quite why they couldn’t have saved themselves the years of hurt and announce this in 2018 is anyone’s guess.
Here’s the full announcement, and a couple of articles from Blizzard about it.
In addition, the Q1 financials announced a downturn in performance for the company overall. This was blamed on “lower results for Call of Duty and product cycle timing at Blizzard” – COD Vanguard sold badly and Blizzard didn’t release a major game/expansion, in English. They also said this year’s COD, a sequel to Modern Warfare 2019, is “the most advanced experience in franchise history” and a “new free-to-play Warzone experience” is on the way.
There were also further teases about a new “Warcraft mobile experience” being announced in the coming weeks. Rumours have long-persisted of a ‘Warcraft Go’ AR game similar to Pokemon Go, which would be the leading candidate.
Finally, Diablo 4 has begun company-wide internal testing, King is still making more money than God, and the Microsoft-ATVI buyout is still on the way. No mention of that Blizzard survival game though.
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