Diablo Immortal now has the worst Metacritic user score in the website’s history.
At the time of writing, thePCversion of the free-to-play MMOhas a user score of 0.2 out of 10, based on nearly 2000 user ratings.
Blizzard‘s previous lowest-rated game – its 2021 re-release ofWorld of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade – received a 0.5 score for adding microtransactions and a much-criticised faction system.
TheiOSversion ofDiablo Immortal also has a user score of 0.5 on Metacritic.
UPDATE:Despite criticism of its microtransactions,Diablo Immortal has reportedly already earned Blizzard more than $24 million.
Diablo Immortal was released on June 2 on iOS andAndroid, 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 thatit could cost players up to $110,000 to fully upgrade a characterin the game.
Blizzard has since claimed thatDiablo Immortal is the “biggest launch in franchise history”.
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.
Further reading
Shortly after launch the game’s director Wyatt Cheng claimed on Twitter that the backlash to the gamewas “based on misinformation surrounding it”.
Months earlier, Cheng had said: “In Diablo Immortal, there is no way to acquire or rank up gear using money.”
However, Diablo Immortal lets players use real money in a bid to acquire powerful Legendary Gems, one of three progression pillars alongside regular gear and XP level, which can be used to upgrade a character in the post-game.
As such, while it may be accurate that ‘gear’ itself can’t be purchased with real money, some players have now labelled Cheng’s comments as disingenuous following the game’s release.
