Tencent’s answer to Diablo Immortal bombed in China

To battle Blizzard and NetEase, Tencent released its own Diablo-like mobile game, but gamers hate it

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Tencent’s answer to Diablo Immortal bombed in China

Published: 10:37pm, 2 Jul 2019Updated: 9:08am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Diablo Immortal is probably one of the most anticipated -- and detested -- games of the year. Hundreds of thousands of fans were infuriated by Blizzard’s announcement last year that the next Diablo game would be for mobile devices -- and it would be co-developed with a Chinese company, NetEase.

Meet NetEase, China’s second-largest game publisher

Now NetEase’s rival Tencent has beaten them to the punch by releasing a Diablo-like mobile game first. But if you were hoping that it would show that the classic PC game can work on mobile, well, the reaction in China to Tencent’s Raziel suggests the opposite.

Gamers are already complaining about the game’s heavy emphasis on pay-to-win gameplay and terrible loot drop rate. Chinese game developers have increasingly focused on growing revenue in the lucrative mobile market, where games are typically monetized through in-game purchases.

The dungeons, the isometric camera perspective, the dark and gothic art style -- everything in Raziel comes straight from Diablo’s playbook. (Picture: Tencent Games)

Tencent and NetEase are China’s two biggest gaming companies. Like Coke and Pepsi, the two companies routinely roll out similar products, always trying to one-up each other.

So it makes sense that Tencent would launch Raziel, a loot-based dungeon crawler with a gothic art style, before NetEase releases Diablo Immortal… a loot-based dungeon crawler with a gothic art style.

Tencent said it spent four years developing the game, which is currently only available in Chinese. After heavy promotion, Raziel became one of China’s most downloaded mobile games in its first week.

If you are comfortable with virtual buttons, the controls don’t feel terrible. Too bad the rest of the game is lacking. (Picture: Tencent Games)