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Some bad news recently came out for Diablo Immortal fans concerning the game’s launch. The game will not be released in Belgium and the Netherlands at all.
According to a statement by Activision Blizzard, this is due to gaming laws in those countries. Fans of the game will have to wait for Diablo 4 since the free-to-play mobile and PC game will not be launching in those areas.
Due to regional laws, Diablo Immortal will not be available in certain regions
Both Belgium and the Netherlands have a pretty firm anti-lootbox stance and have declared them a form of gambling.
That means they’re illegal in that country, and that goes for other games with lootboxes, such as FIFA’s Ultimate Team packs. Activision Blizzard spoke to Eurogamer about this, confirming the situation.
"Diablo Immortal will not be available in Belgium or the Netherlands, and will not appear on Battle.net or the Belgian and Netherlands App or Google Play Stores. Thi sis related to the current operating environment for games in those countries. Accordingly, pre-registrations for the game are not accessible in those markets.”
Diablo Immortal is a free-to-play game. Thus, there will be other ways to monetize the game. This includes lootboxes, which are banned in the country as they are considered a form of gambling.
Both countries declared the form of monetization illegal back in 2018, and due to this, Activision Blizzard will not be running the game in either area. A post on Reddit caught some attention recently that revealed a message from a Blizzard gamemaster.
The post revealed that lootboxes are against the law in the player’s country, so they will not be able to play the game there. The gamemaster also said it would be illegal for the player to visit a different country and install it there.
The gamemaster further said that they could not guarantee a player wouldn’t get banned from installing the game in another country. It’s terrible news for Diablo Immortal fans, though, at least in those countries.
Some people in the Reddit thread feel like this was just a way for Blizzard to advocate using a VPN. This means that a player could play the game as usual in a region where the game is otherwise banned.
Other countries that have banned or penalized lootboxes may meet similar fates, but that has not been revealed as of this time.
The developers could perhaps choose to change how their monetization works in those countries or even remove the lootboxes completely, but that is not the case now.
Diablo Immortal is launching on June 2, 2022, on PC and mobile devices, bringing the hack' n' slash and item looting action to both platforms. The story takes place between the events between Diablo II and Diablo III, bringing the franchise back to life while fans eagerly await the next mainline title in the series.
