Blizzard CEO defends Diablo Immortal's microtransactions: You can 'literally do 99.5% of everything in the game'

Diablo Immortal's microtransactions have caused quite the controversy but Blizzard CEO Mike Ybarra is standing by it.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on July 6, Ybarra explained: "When we think about monetisation, 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 per cent of everything in the game?"

He added: "The monetisation comes in at the end game. 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."

And Blizzard might have been able to achieve just that.

There are close to 700,000 ratings for the game on Google Play's app store and more than 100,000 ratings on the Apple App Store for solid 3.7 and 4.5-star ratings respectively.

The game has also garnered over 15 million downloads, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

While the Diablo game series is loved by many across the globe, the most recent instalment left many disgruntled due to the microtransactions that exist in the 'end game' for Diablo Immortal.

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The 'end game' involves augmenting equipment to its best possible state through the use of items called gems. These gems also add special effects to your equipment, such as dealing more damage when you attack or preventing fatal damage to yourself.

Getting the best quality gems is another story.

One livestreamer on Twitch spent NZ$24,995 (S$21,650) to get one maxed-out five-star gem — the highest quality you can get — only to destroy it and delete the game shortly after.

According to a Reddit post last month, a user calculated that players could expect to spend anywhere between US$2,450 (S$3,434) and US$25,530 to get one maxed five-star gem, given that there was no pity system implemented in the game that would guarantee rewards for players after a certain number of attempts.

Blizzard also previously mentioned that most of their player base isn't actually spending in the game.

However, while they didn't reveal any statistics, it was reported that Diablo Immortal's microtransactions garnered US$24 million for Blizzard two weeks after its June launch outside of the Asia Pacific region.

The game was also not released in Belgium and the Netherlands due to the loot box system being illegal in both countries.

Diablo Immortal launched in Asia Pacific today (July 8), and will be available to play on PC and both iOS and Android mobile devices.

khooyihang@asiaone.com