Despite not selling gears, how has Blizzard turned Diablo Immortal into a pay-to-win title?

Diablo Immortal has in some ways been a good addition to the iconic franchise, and players have been excited to receive a fresh addition after years. While the core gameplay seems promising, the game has glaring issues.

As with any free-to-play title, they often come in the crosshairs of the public due to the practices they imbibe. Unfortunately, it appears that the same occurrence has taken place with the recent Diablo game, despite what the game's developers had said earlier in this regard.

The onus is on the developers to balance the revenue. Unfortunately, greed is a large part of today's gaming world, irrespective of the nature of the game. For example, when Diablo Immortal was in development, director Wyatt Chang said that the game would not be selling gears.

That part has come true, as players cannot buy gears directly with real-life money. Yet, the system of legendary gems makes the decision completely redundant.

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Diablo Immortal not selling gear becomes redundant in the face of its microtransactions

Historically, gears have been an important part of the Diablo games. The same follows with Diablo Immortal, where players fit their characters with different gears. However, Blizzard decided not to sell them directly, and they kept their promise due to their nature.

It seems that gears will never be sold, if one goes back to an older tweet of Wyatt Cheng. He replied to a content creator who was puzzled at the sale of the gems. Cheng clarified that players would be able to buy gems with real money in the past.

The gears have to be obtained by playing the game when it comes to the gears. It looks quite positive initially, but the issue begins with how strong the gems are in Diablo Immortal.

There are two types of crests from which the gems can be obtained - rare and legendary. Unfortunately, rare crests don't drop legendary gems in a guaranteed way, and even when they do, the gems are capped at 2 stars. Suffice it to say, these are not the best legendary gems and are significantly weaker than the 5-star gems.

The 5-star gems can only be obtained from legendary crests, and these are obtainable in a significant portion only with the use of money. To make matters worse, the legendary crests are gacha and can also give out 1 and 2-star legendary gems.

There is indeed a Pity system, but players will need to spend above $100 to guarantee themselves a single 5-star legendary gem. If a Diablo Immortal player is lucky, they might get the better gems at a lesser cost. However, it would be foolish to think that players will be able to obtain a huge number of 5-star gems at less cost.

These legendary gems are the pinnacle of Diablo Immortal's pay-to-win system. Of course, there were legendary gems in Diablo III, but the system was radically different in that case. In Immortal, the system consistently induces players to spend their real-life money strengthening their characters.

As things stand, it looks quite bleak for those who are free-to-play players. The current iteration does not have a provision for them to earn the best legendary gems, which acts as a barrier to their progress. While one can choose not to be the best player in the game, there is PvP in Diablo Immortal. This essentially means that free-to-play players will always be at a grave disadvantage.

Blizzard was right in not allowing players to buy gear directly. However, it has been left undone due to just how strong legendary gems are. There might have been some salvation if the game had been more generous with those. Unfortunately, that is not the case, and players are already getting irritated with Diablo Immortal and its microtransactions.