Blizzard boss defends microtransactions in Diablo Immortal

Criticism of Diablo Immortal's shameless microtransactions that lock players out of the game's real endgame has been rife. But the top dog at Blizzard doesn't see the problem, and in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mike Ybarra defended the game's set-up.

"When we think about monetization, at the very highest level it was, 'How do we give a free Diablo experience to hundreds of millions of people, where they can literally do 99.5% of everything in the game?'"

"The monetization comes in at the end game. The philosophy was always to lead with great gameplay and make sure that hundreds of millions of people can go through the whole campaign without any costs. From that standpoint, I feel really good about it as an introduction to Diablo."

Diablo Immortal has been under heavy fire from several critics since its launch on June 2, with reports indicating that it can cost players upwards of a $100,000 to fully upgrade a character. Something that is, of course, downright disgusting.

On Reddit, the game's sub-reddit has been filled with disgruntled players wanting to make their voices heard and several prominent Diablo YouTubers have broken down the game's problems. Despite all of this, money is pouring in and the game is generating upwards of a million dollars a day for Blizzard.

What do you think of Diablo Immortal and its microtransactions?