With all of the monetization headlines springing up around Diablo Immortal, it’d be easy to understand why fans watching the development of Diablo IV might be a little concerned. These fears were not being helped by a recent job posting for a project manager, which listed various microtransaction duties involving management of “virtual product offers of the Diablo IV in-game storefront,” “planning and maintaining the shop content roadmap,” and maintaining “an ever-growing catalog of virtual products.”
These concerns have prompted several members of the game’s development team to try and allay player fears on Twitter, with global community lead Adam Fletcher, franchise senior VP Rod Fergusson, and Blizzard president Mike Ybarra all putting out tweets that affirm D4 will be a 100% full-priced game, with the promise of “tons” of content offered after launch and monetization focusing on optional cosmetics and full story-driven expansions.
These announcements have been met with a healthy dose of skepticism based on player replies, with some pointing to statements made by developer Wyatt Cheng as an example of how not to take devs’ words at face value. Other replies argue that the ability to customize a character’s visual style shouldn’t be paywalled for a full-price game, and still others believe that lootboxes will be rammed in on top of cosmetics and expansions. All told, the way D4 will be monetized is still a bit up in the air, but the team does appear to be at least trying to read the room.
