The upcoming Chinese release of Diablo Immortal has been delayed at the last minute.
Blizzard‘s free-to-play mobile andPCgame was due to be released on June 23 in the region, but a new message on the officialChinese Diablo website(as reported by analystDaniel Ahmad) has informed players that this will no longer be the case.
“We are sorry to inform you that Diablo: Immortal’s scheduled launch on June 23rd will be delayed,” it reads.
“The development team is working on a number of optimisations to the game – greater device support for a wider range of models, maximum graphics quality on more models, a number of experience, network and performance optimisations and more.
“We believe that the game experience will be smoother in the official launch version, bringing you better game content.”
Blizzard hasn’t provided a new release date for the game, but has promised to give players rare items upon launch as an apology.
If Blizzard’s claim is true, it’s unclear why it’s decided to undergo optimisations to Immortal so soon before its planned release.
As noted by Niko Partner’s Ahmad, the delay comes shortly after one of China’s biggest social media platforms, Weibo,banned the official Diablo Immortal accountfor what it called “violation of related laws and regulations”.
Diablo Immortal did not release in the Netherlands or Belgiumdue to its use of loot boxes. However, China does not have similar restrictions.
The delay is the latest episode in what has been a controversial launch for Blizzard’s latest game.
Diablo Immortal was released on June 2 oniOSandAndroid, and as an open beta on PC, butquickly saw a negative receptionfor its heavy focus on microtransactions.
This included a report published during the game’s opening weekend that calculated that itcould cost players up to $110,000 to fully upgradea character in the game.
Within 10 days of its release,the game’s Metacritic user score had dropped to 0.2/10– the lowest ever in the website’s history.
Further reading
It should be noted that Metacritic user scores do not require proof that the user has even played the game before submitting a score, and that other factors, such as recentActivision Blizzardcontroversies, may have had an influence.
Despite its criticisms, the game has still reportedlyearned Blizzard more than $24 millionand been downloaded more than 8 million times.
