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Blizzard dev: Diablo 4 will have cosmetic microtransactions, seasonal content, and expansions (plural)

Helios

Member
One of the main draws of these games is seeing your character evolve. This includes appearances. In diablo 1/2 there were obvious limitations to this but later games in the genre expanded on this. On the opposite side, in PoE it's a bummer seeing your character evolve from hobo on a beach to hobo with a white dress to hobo with random stuff piled on to him. Meanwhile everyone else that paid is some winged demigod with spirits coming out of them.

Here's what my character looks like. Level 90

5bblfPT.png


And here's some random schmuck level 30 that I found in the fourth town


8xYVgmT.png


Now PoE gets away with this because all it's content is completely free and this is how they fund development. There is no excuse for D4 to have it.
 

Terce

Member
D3 has seasonal content without a cost associated to it, I would hope they'd be able to manage this with D4 as well but gotta keep china happy. They also said wow would never have MTX and look where we're at now.

Stop supporting blizzard
 
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D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
I'm certainly willing to give it a go. Diablo III was already always-online on PC, but they didn't really do much with it.
 
You expect 5 years of free content because of the initial purchase of 59.99. The whining over cosmetics to fund on going content is funny. People think the content teams are free for blizzard. I rather cosmetics only for content and support than basic things like different types of stashes in POE. They introduce something to flood the inventory to sell a new stash. If you don't want to buy a skin you don't have to and it does not affect the game play 1 bit. The entitlement these days is off the charts. If it was pay to win or pay for basic QOL I could understand but skins blah who cares. Also games don't stay 59.99 forever. After year 1ots of sales will be 29.99 or less. With a good chunk of that on console and 30% cut does not leave lots left over.

Your argument would stand if there wasn't 25+ years worth of evidence to the contrary.

Companies used to give away free shit all of the time and then recoup money with worthwhile expansions. Some of those companies are still big names today...
 

Fuz

Banned
One of the main draws of these games is seeing your character evolve. This includes appearances. In diablo 1/2 there were obvious limitations to this but later games in the genre expanded on this. On the opposite side, in PoE it's a bummer seeing your character evolve from hobo on a beach to hobo with a white dress to hobo with random stuff piled on to him. Meanwhile everyone else that paid is some winged demigod with spirits coming out of them.

Here's what my character looks like. Level 90

5bblfPT.png


And here's some random schmuck level 30 that I found in the fourth town


8xYVgmT.png


Now PoE gets away with this because all it's content is completely free and this is how they fund development. There is no excuse for D4 to have it.
Your character looks better than that darkmegalord emo kid shit.
 

Hotspurr

Banned
PoE is owned by tencent now. Not sure if ppl know. I was reading steam reviews and ppl were saying that if u mention Winnie the Pooh or Hong Kong you get muted.
I kinda feel iffy supporting any Chinese shit now. Too bad the US built their economy on cheap Chinese garbage (I'm exaggerating, but you get what I mean,).
 

PaNaMa

Banned
So long as my Necromancer can wear his Texans Jersey, Rayban sunglasses, and converse high tops without breaking immersion I fail to see the big deal
 

Fbh

Member
Will wait for more info.
On paper cosmetic microtransactions for a loot based game sounds bad though. At least to me one of the most fun parts of these games is upgrading my character and seeing their visual evolution over time. If some of the nicer looking loot is either only available through microtransactions or made extremely hard/grindy to get in order to push microtransactions while still being able to claim that "everything can be obtained in game" , then it kills my interest in it
 
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llien

Member
I don't get all the fuss with cosmetics not being free.
It's a game without subscription and they need some source of money to keep it running.
What would people not paying on top lose? Some silly pixels.

Yes, I know it worked other way with D2, but note that D2 had fully offline mode, with D3 lots of stuff happens server side (which, frankly, was also driven by the dubious idea that it would substantially increase sales, because it wouldn't be piratable)
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
Your argument would stand if there wasn't 25+ years worth of evidence to the contrary.

Companies used to give away free shit all of the time and then recoup money with worthwhile expansions. Some of those companies are still big names today...
I used to get gas for a dollar fifty a gallon. Things change diablo 4 to get green lit had to show long term earnings like over watch and other games like it. D3 got fat off the auction house on PC to fund it. Give me skins over that garbage. In this game I don't even notice my skin to much shit going on and coordinating the team. Just be happy it is not characters classes they are selling like d3. If I get a few thousand hours out of my 59.99 plus expansion costs I got my money's worth.
 

Nydius

Member
It's a game without subscription and they need some source of money to keep it running.

Goddamn I hope this is sarcasm. Because we spent more years in gaming without subscriptions than we have with them and games did just fine. It doesn't need a subscription and Blizzard isn't some fucking indie company that needs constant recurring revenue to support Diablo 4.

The big deal is that loot, including cosmetic loot and transmogrification loot, is the core concept of Diablo and here we are with Blizzard announcing they're paywalling it, AGAIN.

And to head off any potential dumb retorts, don't bother bringing up WoW because there's a huge difference between running, maintaining, and supporting a MMORPG than a shared-world RPG they're proposing with D4.
 

sn0man

Member
Sold 30 million copies.

I bought it on PS4 and resold it to gamestop and bought the edition with the necro. If the game is good enough I’ll support it.

I agree, yet it is inevitable in gaming anymore. I'm 38 years old and would LOVE if games were buy once and be done with it like they once were, but I also want games supported to make them worth playing for a LONG time(ARPG's at least). I don't want what happened to D3 happen to D4.

I’m 38 too. I’m okay with a game costing more money as long as the transaction is me giving $$$ and they give me the game and leave me alone.

I think cosmetics might work okay. If they just sell stuff like color or palette differences of the existing armor and such. But...


"seasonal content"?
Just what Diablo needs... Lunar new year (for the Chinese big bux!) and Christmas events.

This crap combined with always online single player world with dudes running around will really sour it all in my opinion.

they should just add an offline mode and charge me money for expansions every year. If the content is interesting I’ll buy it.
 

llien

Member
Goddamn I hope this is sarcasm. Because we spent more years in gaming without subscriptions than we have with them and games did just fine
I actually mentioned that, but let me elaborate.
A game like Starcraft doesn't need that much of a server infrastructure.
Once you have matched players for a game, it continues between them.
With D1&2, it was a bit more work on the server side (e.g. loot was generated server side), but still most of stuff, monster AI etc, was happening on the client side.

Non-console version of D3, however, is different, more like World of Warcraft. Monster AI etc is happening server side and it requires much more computational power, than what D1&2 needed. It's not on WoW levels, of course, but neither is income side of it.
 

Fuz

Banned
And to head off any potential dumb retorts, don't bother bringing up WoW
No, no, no. MTX have no rights to be in WoW either. Fuck them for that, it was one of the reasons I stopped playing it forever.

You pay the box, a monthly subscription and they fill it with microtransactions? Fuck you all for accepting this shit.
 
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sn0man

Member
Also realize a new diablo story with new classes allows for heroes of the storm to make new characters to sell and cosmetics for those characters as well.

(I like Heros of The Storm so I’m not against it.)

the place for all the mtx year of the dog gold hats isn’t in my diablo though. Heros of The Storm is a ridiculous side story so just put it there.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
You would think 30 million copies would buy you some leeway but it's 2019 and the gaming industry has become a monetisation hellhole.

As others have said, part of the allure of loot games is seeing your character evolve, once you offlfoad that to microtransactions it's a big blow. And it is one of the reasons I can't get into PoE, your character mostly looking like a walking turd is a huge turn off. But hey, at least PoE is free to play, that's the only way they have to keep the studio open you know.

Perhaps not as extreme, but this will happen to Diablo 4 too. After all you cannot sell cosmetics if people can get to look cool without paying a dime.
 

sol_bad

Member
I'm someone who cares about what my characters look like in ARPGs. I'll even skip a piece of armour when it's better quality stats wise but looks bad visually. For me, cosmetics is tied in to the game play loop for this.

I can't and won't accept microtransactions as it will have an impact on the game play for me. These games don't need ongoing monetary support, Diablo 2 came out 19 years ago and people still happily play it today after thousands of hours.

Activision just want microtransactions for more money. The content users will get in exchange for the millions Activision will make will be pathetic. Don't fall for their shit.
 

DavidGzz

Member
Then go and be happy with Last Epoch, Wolcen, and Pagan Online. Maybe PoE and Lost Ark will fulfill your no microtransaction ARPG void....oh wait. Every AAA game will have this, hell even indie games have them. Just quit gaming. And bringing up D2 which had 1 expansion and no real support since then besides ladder resets is laughable. I want much more out of D4 than that.
 

DavidGzz

Member
Perhaps not as extreme, but this will happen to Diablo 4 too. After all you cannot sell cosmetics if people can get to look cool without paying a dime.


Yep, I'm sure after the rabid fans like me buy the game up for the first year, it may go F2P or at least be heavily discounted if the micros are successful enough.
 

Ichabod

Banned
Aside from GD and PoE, Wolcen is a fun arpg and has a major content drop coming in January including 3 acts, a level cap increase, and new skills. I've been enjoying the hell out of the beta and if the devs keep content trickling in, the game should have some long legs.
 
Did not expect otherwise. I expect Bethesda's upcoming Elder Scrolls game to be full of this nonsense too. These companies put so much faith into their brand names, and loyal followers that they think that they can get away with these exploitative practices. And as long as people support these companies, high production titles will remain the way they are; rushed, broken, and a source for endless greed.
 

DavidGzz

Member
Aside from GD and PoE, Wolcen is a fun arpg and has a major content drop coming in January including 3 acts, a level cap increase, and new skills. I've been enjoying the hell out of the beta and if the devs keep content trickling in, the game should have some long legs.

Honestly, that is my current fave replacement. Still needs something to keep me going for the long haul, so hopefully, the January content drop will help a lot. I like the combat roll and the resource tug of war.
 

kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
I'm assuming the expansions will be classes, areas and maybe even campaign? Glad the micro-transactions are just pointless stuff like cosmetics! Great news IMO
 

Gargus

Banned
Well I won't lie, I will play the game and own it on ps4.

But what I will do is buy a used copy off ebay so I dont actually give blizzard any money.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
I mean Diablo is so zoomed out so I don't understand the point of cosmetics. It is not like you are 3rd person behind the back. It is completely stupid to do this in a game where the entire point is to endlessly acquire loot. If the main draw of the game is acquiring loot, why would you nerf that even a little? You should lean into it more with many hard to acquire sweet looking sets. It is like they completely did not learn any lessons at all with the auction house fiasco. It seems like they are designing the game for a small group of whales and are just conceding that the majority are going to play through the campaign once and be done with it. A good game design studio would try to keep as many people as possible.
 

LOLCats

Banned
I feel like they'd make more money on cosmetics if they allowed character customization. But hey, who am i?... lol
 
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quest

Not Banned from OT
I feel like they'd make more money on cosmetics if they allowed character customization. But hey, who am i?... lol

Really don't care how my character looks. I'm not into dressing up my virtual barbie. I just care about them being a 1 man wrecking crew. If someone wants to pay to dress up their barbie more power to them they are paying the bills for us cheap bastards.
 

gatti-man

Member
I don't get all the fuss with cosmetics not being free.
It's a game without subscription and they need some source of money to keep it running.
What would people not paying on top lose? Some silly pixels.

Yes, I know it worked other way with D2, but note that D2 had fully offline mode, with D3 lots of stuff happens server side (which, frankly, was also driven by the dubious idea that it would substantially increase sales, because it wouldn't be piratable)
Serious question did you play D3 at launch? Game sold MILLIONS had a real money AH and got shit support for over a year. Also the game was short and difficulty content was walled off to force you to buy gear.
Do you really expect blizzard to suddenly change that with D4? I don’t. Paid content in $60 loot games is cancerous to the actual design of the game itself.
 
Serious question did you play D3 at launch? Game sold MILLIONS had a real money AH and got shit support for over a year. Also the game was short and difficulty content was walled off to force you to buy gear.
Do you really expect blizzard to suddenly change that with D4? I don’t. Paid content in $60 loot games is cancerous to the actual design of the game itself.

Please don't remind me of that shitfest that was D3 launch. Remember the PVP promise that came half assed like 3 years later?
 

SleepDoctor

Banned
Pretty much killing this game if this is really the case. I don't understand why they'd even announce it if its so far from release.
 

llien

Member
Serious question did you play D3 at launch?
No, only on console. Coop screen with my spouse was fun, but game felt too easy to play, no challenge.

Also the game was short and difficulty content was walled off to force you to buy gear.
Buy what gear? Cosmetics only? Because that is what we are talking about.

Do you really expect blizzard to suddenly change that with D4?
Well, they didn't say they would sell gear for money, they said they'd limit themselves to visual bits, which I'm fine with, but many seem pissed off.
 

Mahadev

Member
Have they confirmed it is $60? Besides, was Overwatch free to play? Is WoW not $15 a month and buy to play? They even charge $40 for their expansions on top of that fee. Why does Blizzard need to make Diablo F2P to justify cosmetic sales? Maybe just don't buy any cosmetics? At least Diablo will have a campaign unlike F2P battle royales.


What the fuck am I reading here? Why are you pretending your post justifies anything when if reality you made a ridiculous comparison with PoE that went nowhere?
 

Ichabod

Banned
One of the main draws of these games is seeing your character evolve. This includes appearances. In diablo 1/2 there were obvious limitations to this but later games in the genre expanded on this. On the opposite side, in PoE it's a bummer seeing your character evolve from hobo on a beach to hobo with a white dress to hobo with random stuff piled on to him. Meanwhile everyone else that paid is some winged demigod with spirits coming out of them.

Here's what my character looks like. Level 90

5bblfPT.png


And here's some random schmuck level 30 that I found in the fourth town


8xYVgmT.png


Now PoE gets away with this because all it's content is completely free and this is how they fund development. There is no excuse for D4 to have it.

HvaGkOR.jpg
 

DavidGzz

Member
What the fuck am I reading here? Why are you pretending your post justifies anything when if reality you made a ridiculous comparison with PoE that went nowhere?

Why in the hell are you so fucking angry? You're the second person who needs to get all lippy. At least Diablo will be a good game. PoE is SHIT.
 
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HelpYouFall

Member
Watch everyone whining about cosmetic microtransactions buy this game day one. Just watch.

I don't care either way, I just want the endgame dungeons to be fun, that's it. There's no skins in Diablo 3 except for some wings and pets and I never cared about it either way. My dude just looks like whatever set I'm currently playing and that's fine. I'm really meh about all the outrage about this. Of all the things to be outraged about concerning Blizzard (which is plenty), this isn't really it imo.

Isn't it bascially the same system Overwatch uses? I always saw that as being okayish and not really irritating as well. Never seemed controversial imo.
 
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I really don't care what other people do with their money.
Imagine feeling some sort of psychological pressure because someone else has cool clothes lmao

I sold a ring on the RMAH and bought Bioshock Infinite. In hindsight, a couple of Big Macs would have been a better investment.
 

SleepDoctor

Banned
who couldve seen coming that blizzard is greedy?!
fuck em. -_-*


because they shat the bed last year and needed to show something worthwhile to keep the fans at bay.

With what? I don't really keep up with news from blizzard tbh. I actually got into Diablo 3 a bit later than most and it is the only one I played. Heard the 2nd was way better tho.
 

DavidGzz

Member
Watch everyone whining about cosmetic microtransactions buy this game day one. Just watch.

I don't care either way, I just want the endgame dungeons to be fun, that's it. There's no skins in Diablo 3 except for some wings and pets and I never cared about it either way. My dude just looks like whatever set I'm currently playing and that's fine. I'm really meh about all the outrage about this. Of all the things to be outraged about concerning Blizzard (which is plenty), this isn't really it imo.

Isn't it bascially the same system Overwatch uses? I always saw that as being okayish and not really irritating as well. Never seemed controversial imo.

It's crazy controversial now. Must be from the boycotters? IDK. Maybe if you're not going to buy it anyway, quit with the outrage or go post on resetera about how angry you are.
 
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