Unless you’ve been busy diving into one of this fall’s big blockbuster titles, you’ve surely heard about Diablo Immortal. The divisive mobile spinoff of Blizzard’s action RPG has had hardcore fans in a rage since its announcement at Blizzcon 2018. There are still some questions about what how mobile gamers will be killing demons on the go. Thankfully, co-developer NetEase has detailed a few of the game’s systems to Chinese media outlets before its upcoming release.
Diablo Immortal runs on NetEase’s Messiah engine. This is a pre-existing tool that was first introduced in 2010, with the studio’s first release coming in 2013. Games developed with Messiah include Knives Out, a popular mobile battle royale game. It also powers Eternal Arena, another action RPG that fans online have been comparing to the existing Diablo Immortal footage. Despite both NetEase and Blizzard stating that this is a game being built from the ground up, it’s hard not to see where certain UI choices first originated.
As for the game itself, Diablo Immortal will not be as “dark” as its PC brethren. It won’t be all sunshine and rainbows, but it will take a lighter tone to appeal to the different market. NetEase did state that it would have no issue with players running the game on PC emulators. This is interesting considering how hackers generally use hackers to exploit mobile games, especially those with built-in multiplayer.
Blizzard did hold a panel about the game, but the biggest news there came out of the Q&A session. However, there are plenty of options still on the table. NetEase mentioned guilds, PVP, transmogrification, and the auction house as features they’re still evaluating for inclusion. The studio is also testing the feasibility of cross-play between iOS and Android servers. However, the focus now is raising the game’s quality for release.
