Blizzard Entertainment CEO Mike Ybarra said that Diablo Immortal is getting PC support at launch because "people will emulate it anyway."
Blizzard Entertainment has announced that Diablo Immortal, one of its first major titles to push for the iOS and Android marketplaces co-developed with NetEase, will also be playable on desktop computers when it launches on June 2, 2022.
The news comes from a launch date announcement trailer for the game that also shows off finalized gameplay. Not only will this mobile-first Diablo title be playable on PC, it'll have cross-platform support between mobile and desktop platforms, meaning players can play together on different devices.
This also means that like with Hearthstone, players will be able to use their Battle.net accounts to jump between multiple platforms.
Why the sudden inclusion of a non-mobile platform? Blizzard president Mike Ybarra tweeted that players in the alpha and beta tests for Diablo Immortal told the company that they wanted to play the game on PC. "It's a phone game, not a PC game, and we designed it for phones," he added.
But even as a mobile game, applications like Bluestacks or Windows 11's support for Android apps meant some users might play on PC anyway. Ybarra (surprisingly) acknowledged this, telling a fan that "We knew people would emulate it anyway, and that Windows 11 actually lets you with Android, so we figured we’d do some support but reinforce it’s a mobile game first."
Diablo Immortal got a frosty welcome at BlizzCon 2018, but its continued development has been viewed as important for Blizzard Entertainment's financial future. It and other triple-A game companies have begun the process of expanding their PC and console franchises for the mobile market. Activision Blizzard is currently working to bring Call of Duty: Warzone to phones, while Electronic Arts is nearing the launch of its mobile version of Apex Legends.
Ubisoft even got in on the action recently, showing off a version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (inspired by the recent Siege series) meant for mobile devices.
It'll be curious if this development will send other large publishers down a similar cross-platform route. There's less reason to, given that Warzone, Apex Legends, and Rainbow Six are already successful PC franchises—but hey, so was Diablo!
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