There’s a lot of talk going on about Diablo Immortal. No, not so much its fun mobile action RPG gameplay, but rather the endgame cost that’s potentially worth thousands of dollars.

Which is why the game’s director had to speak up about the game’s negativity focused on “misinformation”. Cheng did say months earlier that there is no way for players to acquire or rank up gear using money. However, some players have labelled his comments as “disingenuous” due to players using real money in a bid to acquire Legendary Gems. There are claims right now stating that fully upgrading a post-game character would cost up to US$110,000 worth of gems.

Cheng was asked on Twitter over what has changed since his pre-release comment about players not being able to buy gear. Not much, it seems.

What happened in 4 months? Or are the gems not considered gear? pic.twitter.com/d39rnQadk9

— Zizaran (@Zizaran) June 4, 2022

"You can only upgrade your gear with $$$ once you reach the free quota of the day. […]it's currently almost $12 to just simply even try to upgrade one piece of gear as the "failure rate" is 50/50. " I think it's pretty clear with the game out that this was not the case.

— Wyatt Cheng (@candlesan) June 4, 2022

He was also asked why he responded to the arguments over the weekend. The short answer? To set the record straight.

“I don’t like it if information is misleading. There’s a difference between players liking or not liking a game based on it’s merits (which I can accept, not every game is for everybody) vs. liking or not liking a game based on misinformation surrounding it.”

<3 thanks for asking.

I don't like it if information is misleading. There's a difference between players liking or not liking a game based on it's merits (which I can accept, not every game is for everybody) vs. liking or not liking a game based on misinformation surrounding it.

— Wyatt Cheng (@candlesan) June 4, 2022

What Say Us?

It’s a matter of choice, when you think about it.

Yes, you can choose to play through the game and finish it for free at max level 60, which you can. But you can choose to max out your character and get the best possible buffs and setup, at the cost of paying money for Legendary Gem rolls.

It’s always been about choice. No one is forcing you to max level out your character and paying money for the Legendary Gem rolls. The same way you’re not obligated to pay for Primogems for character gachas in Genshin Impact. Provided the game has their rate drops stated by law, it’s up to you, the player, to make that choice. Yes, there are games where their advertising of gacha and similar mechanics are pretty aggressive and all in at your face (like War of the Visions), but so far Diablo Immortal has been pretty tame about it from my experience. Or maybe I just tapped the screen too fast and quick to avoid these blips and ad rolls.

Plus, there’s no energy meter that needs refilling and no “watch a video for 10 seconds to continue” ad nonsense that disrupts the flow of the game. There are worst examples of this in other F2P games; Diablo Immortal seems less egregious by comparison. Sure, I do wish the game had a fairer microtransaction system ala Path of Exile, but to each their own.

The worst thing that could happen to you with Diablo Immortal is you stop playing the game after 20 hours of playing without spending a dime. And if you feel a bit butthurt about Diablo going down this F2P path, you can always go back to Diablo 3 (or even Diablo 2: Resurrected). That’s still available, people are still playing it, and it’s only US$30 for everything it has to offer, power-leveling and max-leveling included. Or if you rather not support Activision Blizzard because of this (among other s*** they did), there are other action RPGs like the aforementioned Path of Exile and Grim Dawn you can play instead.

There’s always a choice.