Diablo Immortal started rolling out to the masses on June 1st, with the official release date of June 2nd. This left little time for everyone to test the stable version of the game outside of beta, but over the weekend, many gamers and streamers have been digging into the free-to-play MMORPG, and what everyone has discovered is that it will take an incredible sum of money to fully max-out a character, over $100K. While Blizzard hasn't been shy about the fact Diablo Immortal would be pay-to-win through its Crests system that rewards the Gems necessary for improving gear, having revealed this predatory mechanic after the first alpha, this is at odds with the lead game designer Wyatt Cheng claiming that there is "no way to acquire or rank up gear using money" which has clearly turned out to be untrue, angering the internet just as much as the failed announcement for the game in 2018.

As you can imagine, people are turning to Wyatt Cheng on Twitter to ask what's up with all the pay-to-win monetization inside of Diablo Immortal, as it is clear as day that the Crest system was built to be abused so players can pay for Gems, a gated item that indeed improves gear. Wyatt, of course, claims he wasn't being untruthful but was simply referring to specific gear (for the game's 12 item slots) in the offending Reddit post now bandied about the web. Ultimately, despite what Wyatt claimed, anyone can spend money for higher chances of improving their gear in Diablo Immortal, shining a bright light on the weasel words used to describe Diablo Immortal and its many questionable mechanics. After all, there's a reason the game is blocked in Belgium and the Netherlands, and it has everything to do with Blizzard's greedy monetization that borders on gambling.

In other words, it comes as no surprise that a lead developer for Blizzard is running damage control on Twitter playing a game of semantics as to the meaning of a previous description of the game that claimed there would be no way to pay for a gear advantage, but it's not like this isn't expected. Diablo Immortal was always going to turn out like this, especially with NetEase attached. Blizzard simply took the time to disguise its awful F2P monetization more than most, having a four-year opportunity to do so, perhaps explaining why it took several days after release for fans to add up just how much it will cost to fully gear up a single character.

There is no world in which it's excusable that anyone can spend more than a brand-new Lexus LC500 in a single game. And sure, tossing $110K around is salacious since nobody has to spend this to enjoy Diablo Immortal's story mode, but it sure puts a number on just how much money and time is necessary to actually gear a character to its fullest extent, framing just how little Blizzard respects its player base, explaining the review-bombing taking place on Metacritic.

So there you have it, Diablo Immortal is a game that set off plenty of alarm bells that it would be pay-to-win back in 2018, which has turned out to be true after four years of development. While this is surely a low point for Blizzard as far as fans are concerned, there's no doubt that Diablo Immortal will rake in billions regardless of how angry the internet gets, which is even more depressing. Despite plenty of outrage focusing on misleading statements and psychologically abusive monetization, Blizzard will come out on top all the same, which is why plenty of developers will continue to produce similar cash grabs using well-known franchises to entice would-be players.