All that ruckus about Diablo Immortal and its pay to win schemes will not die soon, as new details about just how much money you need to max out your character comes to light.
diablo immortal trailer screencap
As reported by GameRant, a Redditor by the handle ShiftYourCarcass has made a new calculation about Immortal's microtransactions and have come to a new, startling conclusion. Without relying on luck and just wanting to get the absolute best for your character you'll need to spend over $540,000 to fully max your character out.
This is already far, far beyond the initial assessment of $110,000 made by the YouTuber channel Bellular News shortly after the game's release. And it's once again put Activison Blizzard's already spotty reputation on the chopping block.
ShiftYourCarcass' calculations were pretty extensive, and they all point to the same thing: just how ridiculously expensive the 5/5 star legendary gems (the things you need to get to upgrade your character) in Diablo Immortal are. According to them, there's some sort of a "hidden mechanic" where there's a total of up to 36 potential 5-star gem slots that can be unlocked via a process called "Awakening."
The math can get quite confusing, so just read ShiftYourCarcass' post on Reddit on your own and you'll see why this is just insane:
The post on r/gaming has already earned over 42K upvotes at the time of this writing, and almost all comments are making fun of Activision Blizzard's obviously predatory pay-to-win system for Immortal. Some of them were even commenting on how ActiBlizz may find even more ways to get people to spend even more money, which once again highlights how problematic these Diablo Immortal microtransactions are.
Even renowned pro gamer and streamer Shroud was right in assuming that the game is a so-called "half-a-million dollar investment" in one of his recent streams:
Read also: Diablo IV's Hype Was 'Damaged' By 'Shallow' Diablo Immortal, Says Asmongold
The Sheer, Unadulterated Dangers Of Out-Of-Control Microtransactions
Diablo Immortal's microtransactions, no matter how bad they can get, are still perfectly legal. It's a free-to-play game after all, and its developer still must make money. But this still doesn't take away the fact that so many people - especially young ones who don't know any better - could bring about financial ruin to them and their families' lives.
Several examples of predatory microtransactions already exist, and they're not even exclusive to Diablo Immortal. In 2020, a Connecticut woman's six-year-old son spent an insane $16,000 on microtransactions on the game Sonic Forces Speed Battle (via Gaming Bible UK). The woman compared the microtransactions to "lines of cocaine" that her son just couldn't get enough of, but this was mainly because the kid doesn't actually know that the money being spent is real.
Just think of someone who doesn't know better unknowingly spending $500K or more in Diablo Immortal, and you'll see the problem. This is why microtransactions as a whole have been reviled for years by so many gamers. And yet, there really is nothing they can do - pay-to-win schemes, while grubby and predatory, are still legal.
Related: Diablo Immortal Streamer DELETES Character After Spending Over $15K To Upgrade It
