Diablo Immortal’s PC version exists to combat emulation

Diablo ImmortalBlizzard announced Monday that PC will get the game, early Monday morning. Blizzard also revealed a variety of improvements for the PC version including cross-progression, controller support, UI scaling and controller support. The studio also showed why the PC edition was named. Diablo ImmortalExists: To combat emulation.

Blizzard talks a little about wanting to go back and forth in blog posts Diablo ImmortalIt is not compatible with PC. “On one hand, we felt that we wouldn’t be doing the title justice by releasing a game originally designed for mobile on PC,” Blizzard said, “on the other hand, we wanted to make sure the game reached as many players as possible—especially our most dedicated PC fans.” But, Blizzard explained, “the deciding factor was that we knew many of you would attempt to play this game through an emulator, thus leading us towards building a better experience.”

Not only should this lead to a more curated experience — with UI and controls specifically tailored for PC — but players won’t need to circumvent the studio just to get their pre-Diablo 4 fix. It’s a Blizzard that clearly learned from the fan-made “Classic” World of WarcraftServers from many years back, which enabled it to create World of Warcraft internally.

Blizzard’s candid answer about emulation is a far cry from the oft-memed “Do you guys not have phones?” from Immortal’s 2018 reveal. With the extended apology from the studio at the beginning of the reveal stream World of Warcraft: Dragonflight last week, we’re trending toward a more open Blizzard than we’ve seen in some time.

Players must wait until they can get their hands on it. Diablo Immortal (especially the new PC beta), it’s impossible to say how Diablo’s latest title will land with hardcore fans. But if 2018’s Diablo Immortal BlizzCon announcement was the height of Blizzard hubris, Monday’s announcement may give players faith that — at least in terms of game development — that Blizzard is listening again.