Blizzard's Mike Ybarra Defends Diablo Immortal Monetization, Says Goal Was Free, Quality Content | M

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Blizzard's Mike Ybarra Defends Diablo Immortal Monetization, Says Goal Was Free, Quality Content | MMORPG.com

Blizzard's Mike Ybarra defends monetization system, says that Diablo Immortal was made to deliver a free Diablo experience where players can do "99.5% of everything" including the full campaign.

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emperorhades1

“give a free Diablo experience to hundreds of millions of people, where they can literally do 99.5% of everything in the game”

Yes, yes.... Our goal was clearly not to make money. Let me translate this. "We didn't make money and failed to launch overseas which was going to be the real piggy bank, so we are going to tell investors that we meant to lose money." $10million in sales at best is my guess since this website can guess and use fake numbers, I will too.

Iselin

Right... because the point of ARPGs is to spend a week with it doing the campaign and then just put it down and go away to some other game.

This is why no ARPG ever has extensive loot grinding progresion systems after the campaign is over.

Lying piece of shit channeling the pretense of being a clueless dev who doesn't even know what they made or why they made it.

FrodoFragins

New Boss, Same as the Old Boss.

kitarad

The significant thing is that Apple and Google took a cut and I presume that is 30% of the profits so the amount that Blizzard made is after that cut.

kitarad

Aori said:

kitarad said:

The significant thing is that Apple and Google took a cut and I presume that is 30% of the profits so the amount that Blizzard made is after that cut.

We also don't know how much NetEase gets which is likely quite large.

Good point.

Slapshot1188

So this article tries to say that Blizzard wanted to give 99.5% of the game away for free, yet also tell us they made godly amounts of money in the first month...

Those things do not compute.

Nobody every follows up.. It's question... answer.. then amplify answer as truth.

So sad.

Simonic

At this point, I'm more or less done with Blizzard as a company. Immortal just solidified it. I'm sick of the acceptance that mobile games MUST be heavily monetized and often predatory.

Celcius

Wow, he must think everyone is a moron if he thinks that Diablo players only want the ability to do the content one time and not GRIND FOR GEAR LIKE EVERY OTHER DIABLO GAME EVER CREATED. The majority of players don't spend money on F2P games. That is how they work. F2P players are the small fish that the whales eat to keep them well fed. As a F2P player in a game like this, it is designed for you to have a miserable experience just so whales have a good experience. Also, claiming that 99.5% of the game is just an outright lie because the content of the game is...as I said...GRINDING FOR GEAR. 

Dattelis

Unfortunately, ARPGs are like 80% about the loot.....they are the makers of Diablo after all so they know that....that's why its monetized. I hate majority speak but I dont think MANY people played Diablo for its story. I'm sure there's some, but not like a huge lot.

Slapshot1188

Aori said:

Slapshot1188 said:

So this article tries to say that Blizzard wanted to give 99.5% of the game away for free, yet also tell us they made godly amounts of money in the first month...



Those things do not compute.



Nobody every follows up.. It's question... answer.. then amplify answer as truth.



So sad.

Well Ybara says 99.5 is free, the article states they made gobs of money. Ybara also states the majority of players havent spent a dime.

Yup....  exactly.  Re-read my third sentence.

Dattelis

It might also help to remember that he's the same person that doesn't see anything wrong with selling clears (and even participated). The main reason why that's at least controversial coming from the head of the company is that many people who buy runs etc buy tokens, so in a way its like advertising the token.

Asm0deus

...lmao their goal was to make money however their approach failed (at the very least did not work as expected) , sucks and no amount of BS spinning will change that.

TheDalaiBomba

Aori said:

If you're going to take stuff from another article for your own at least copy the entire quote instead of trying to turn it into something less than what he said.

"The monetization 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."

I LOATHE writers who just take snippets of a quote. Reading what he says instead of your version of what he says, sounds better to me. Either way, nothing he said is wrong.

His defense comes off as, to let people play the game free, we're milking the whales. Honestly I still believe a cosmetic only system would have net them more money but whatever, people will would have complained.

That conveniently builds a sunk cost fallacy and then hits hardest at the part of the game that has kept the franchise relevant beyond new release weeks.

He may even believe his full quote, truly, but it doesn't really change the effect.  And they really should have been smart enough after its reception at Blizzcon to realize this would happen.  The announcement at Blizzcon also doesn't jive with your claim this title wasn't for the fans of the franchise.

Iselin

TheDalaiBomba said:

Aori said:

If you're going to take stuff from another article for your own at least copy the entire quote instead of trying to turn it into something less than what he said.

"The monetization 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."

I LOATHE writers who just take snippets of a quote. Reading what he says instead of your version of what he says, sounds better to me. Either way, nothing he said is wrong.

His defense comes off as, to let people play the game free, we're milking the whales. Honestly I still believe a cosmetic only system would have net them more money but whatever, people will would have complained.

That conveniently builds a sunk cost fallacy and then hits hardest at the part of the game that has kept the franchise relevant beyond new release weeks.

He may even believe his full quote, truly, but it doesn't really change the effect.  And they really should have been smart enough after its reception at Blizzcon to realize this would happen.  The announcement at Blizzcon also doesn't jive with your claim this title wasn't for the fans of the franchise.

Put another way he's raving about how wonderful the new bottle design for the soft drink he's selling is and downplaying how shitty the taste is.

Kyleran

Simonic said:

At this point, I'm more or less done with Blizzard as a company. Immortal just solidified it. I'm sick of the acceptance that mobile games MUST be heavily monetized and often predatory.

slowz2secret

what a mtf

TheDalaiBomba

Iselin said:

TheDalaiBomba said:

Aori said:

If you're going to take stuff from another article for your own at least copy the entire quote instead of trying to turn it into something less than what he said.

"The monetization 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."

I LOATHE writers who just take snippets of a quote. Reading what he says instead of your version of what he says, sounds better to me. Either way, nothing he said is wrong.

His defense comes off as, to let people play the game free, we're milking the whales. Honestly I still believe a cosmetic only system would have net them more money but whatever, people will would have complained.

That conveniently builds a sunk cost fallacy and then hits hardest at the part of the game that has kept the franchise relevant beyond new release weeks.

He may even believe his full quote, truly, but it doesn't really change the effect.  And they really should have been smart enough after its reception at Blizzcon to realize this would happen.  The announcement at Blizzcon also doesn't jive with your claim this title wasn't for the fans of the franchise.

Put another way he's raving about how wonderful the new bottle design for the soft drink he's selling is and downplaying how shitty the taste is.

I think he might even have believed his own justifications here.

But, in the end, that's not very relevant.  The end result has been that the game targets the loops enjoyed most by the franchise's core fanbase in a way that's predatory.  His intentions become irrelevant in the face of that reality.

Uwakionna

If 1-60 and the campaign only lasts you a few hours stranded across less than a week, and the rest of the game is a decade long grind...

Then people either;
a) Have not received 99.5% of the game for free.
or 
b) Have just witnessed an over-monetized mess of an endgame that is knowingly lacking content.

Those points are not mutually exclusive either.

TiamatRoar

Lies.  That content wasn't quality at all!

Slapshot1188

Uwakionna said:

If 1-60 and the campaign only lasts you a few hours stranded across less than a week, and the rest of the game is a decade long grind...

Then people either;
a) Have not received 99.5% of the game for free.
or 
b) Have just witnessed an absolutely absurdly stretched out and over-monetized mess of an endgame.

But that involves (although minimal) critical thinking.  It’s much easier to just accept the absurd answers to questions and amplify them… 

Uwakionna

You could ratchet that up to a 60 hour campaign and the statement would still stand when it's competing against decades of stretched out endgame.

25 hours vs 10 years. Where's that % actually ratio out?

Ignoring the rest one doesn't care to consume, doesn't make it not there.

Doesn't matter how many times, a dead horse getting strung up and paraded about in the name of profit by any company should get rung like a pinata.

Uwakionna

And what % of 10 years is 25 hours?

Kyleran

Aori said:

I know a lot of you have this almost obsessive axe to grind and you won't be satisfied until the horse is dead 10 times over but don't be disingenuous. 

The 1-60 campaign isn't done in just a few hours. You get anywhere from 15-25+ hours of content. Yes if you don't stay awhile and listen, you miss a lot of content, that is your choice but it is still more than 15 hours.

Quality is subjective, for a mobile game, the 1-60 campaign is among the best you can get on a phone in my opinion and unlike most of you(through your own self admittance mind you), I've played quite a few of them. The game deserves plenty of flak but not for its FREE 1-60 voiced campaign and quests. Literally no paywall to consume any of its story related content, none and it isn't terrible. 

In my opinion I've received 99.5% of the game for free, it just isn't worth consuming after a point. I've been able to do all the campaign, quests, side stories, shadow conflict, all the dungeons, side activities, pvp, etc

What I've not received is 5 star gems for free.

Where I come from 15 - 25 hours of gameplay is a rounding error.

Face it, the base game is sheiss by any good measure, the free or cheap being far too short makes the entire experience a total waste of time for many.

Uwakionna

A mobile game doesn't profit from the people that simply consume and move on. Almost every mobile title is a GAAS title to begin with.

Buying and enjoying a short game? Sure that is reasonable. Did you buy Diablo Immortal? No? Maybe just a little? Then do you think you are the target audience of their services or long term content/monetization scheme?

This is compounded by the regularly raised point of what ARPGs like the Diablo series is known and popularized for in the first place. Hence the prior point on ignoring content.

Yes, don't be wrong or disingenuous about what one calls Blizzard out about. That means not burying or dismissing when they have broken a massive chunk of a new title, just because one has enjoyed a part of it.

Hence the question "And what % of 10 years is 25 hours?", because many mobile games, especially GAAS titles, are not being made for those that pump and dump. Those players are merely benefitting from the exploitation of other parts of the marketplace.

urriel1970

never believe blizzard about anything...there ceo covered up sexual assault of the women working there..and the death of an intern....they are scum!!!!