Blizzard Boss Defends Diablo Immortal

Diablo Immortal, the free-to-play Diablo on mobile devices and PC, has had a rough go of it since launch with major backlash against the game's monetization. Basically, the thrust of the complaints is that it's way too expensive to get the best gear, and essentially money is required to get to that point with anything resembling a reasonable amount of time. Despite the online furor, Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra recently defended Diablo Immortal and its microtransactions.

"When we think about monetization, at the very highest level it was, 'How do we give a free Diablo experience to hundreds of millions of people, where they can literally do 99.5% of everything in the game?'" Ybarra recently told The Los Angeles Times as part of a larger interview.

"The monetization comes in at the end game," Ybarra continued in the interview. "The philosophy was always to lead with great gameplay and make sure that hundreds of millions of people can go through the whole campaign without any costs. From that standpoint, I feel really good about it as an introduction to Diablo."

According to The L.A. Times, Blizzard PR followed up with a claim that most Diablo Immortal players don't spend money but did not cite specific statistics. Ybarra also apparently pointed to the game's high rating and user reviews in Apple's App Store as an example of the complaints not being reflective of the larger player base.

ComicBook.com's own review of Diablo Immortal previously noted that, while what's available for free is significant and fun, the monetization can be aggressive. "Diablo Immortal does all it can to make sure these purchases can't be overlooked," our review reads in part. "When you open the main menu, the shop is in the top-left spot slot which means it's the first option you'll see. When you collect your daily login rewards, you do so by visiting the Bundles section which means you'll see offers each day. While you're there, Blizzard likely hopes you'll be enticed to check out the other sections including Featured items, Crests, Cosmetics, Services, Currency, and Materials."

As noted above, Diablo Immortal is currently available for Android and iOS devices. The free-to-play title is also technically in Open Beta on PC as well. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the latest and greatest Diablo video game right here.

Have you been playing Diablo Immortal since it launched? What do you think about the video game so far? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!

[H/T PC Gamer]