Diablo Immortal launched to a massive uproar from its fan base, who couldn’t get around the game’s microtransactions system. It required a whopping $110,000 to max out your character. The game has also been the worst rated in the franchise so far.
If that wasn’t enough, Diablo Immortal has been reportedly banned in China. The game was supposed to launch on 23 June but was delayed, and now it seems like it won’t launch at all.
NetEase did not provide a reason for the last-minute delay but suggested in its statement that it was making technical updates to the game. The company did not share a new release date and declined to comment further on the matter. However, the launch plan has reportedly been delayed due to suspicions that CCP leader Xi Jinping had been insinuated, and NetEase’s stock price fell by 10%.
Last month, the Diablo official Weibo account wrote, “Why isn’t (Winnie) the bear going out of the office yet?” This has been directed at President Xi Jinping. Previously, Winnie-the-Pooh was banned in China for resembling the president. If you search on the internet you’ll find tons of memes on this topic right when Xi Jin Ping is about to be re-elected as the president of China.
As of the time of publication, this post has been deleted, and the official Weibo account has also been blocked. But the comments have triggered a lot of Chinese, which lead to the permanent ban of the game as per Reddit user.
Due to all this, Netease has suffered greatly, and DI marketing was also banned in China. We don’t know whether the rumor is accurate, but there according to several news, Netease won’t receive a game publishing license for the next three years.
If so, it will also impact WoW Dragonflight, Diablo 4, and Overwatch 2 and could even Blizzard to switch its cooperator in China.
Despite the uproar, Diablo Immortal had already earned $24 Million in microtransactions. The Chinese market is huge and would’ve only added to the earnings. It is yet to be seen what the future holds and will NetEase keep its charge after this event.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
