If Blizzard had shared a teaser for Diablo 4 at BlizzCon, even a wafer-thin one like a GIF of a flaming '4', Diablo Immortal's reception may have been more positive. Immortal is not going to detract from Diablo 4, Blizzard has not pivoted to mobile, and it's entirely possible to express disappointment or disinterest respectfully. It's understandable that many people were disappointed by Diablo Immortal - as our sister site PC Gamer reports, Blizzard even said it was expecting some backlash, just not this much - even if some of the doomsaying has been blown out of proportion and some of the naysaying has been taken too far. As a result, many Diablo fans were expecting something meatier than a mobile game from BlizzCon, the ultimate gathering of diehard and overwhelmingly PC-focused Blizzard fans.

The problem, as many see it, is that while Blizzard did advise fans in October to temper their expectations for Diablo at BlizzCon, the studio has also been teasing 'multiple Diablo projects' for months. The game's cinematic and gameplay trailers were besieged with dislikes on YouTube, and the Diablo subreddit is awash with high-upvote posts calling Immortal 'a slap in the face' and accusing Blizzard of being 'out of touch with their fans.' During a follow-up Q&A with members of Immortal's development team, one BlizzCon attendee facetiously asked if the game was 'an out-of-season April Fool's joke.' Others have called Immortal a rehashed version of Crusaders of Light, another mobile action-RPG by developer NetEase, Blizzard's partner on Immortal.

But according to one source, because Diablo 4 has changed dramatically in the past four years, the team decided it wasn't ready to announce anything, so the video was removed from the BlizzCon proceedings as recently as October.ĭiablo Immortal was the only Diablo announcement at BlizzCon, and to put it mildly, many fans have responded negatively. Blizzard's original plan, Kotaku reports, was to show Diablo Immortal and follow it up with a video of Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham teasing Diablo 4.

Diablo immortal blizzcon reception