Diablo 4 appears to be a scam from an outsider's perspective.

I was shocked when I found out how the monetisation works in Diablo 4. When I heard the news about Blizzard polling its fans over what they’d pay for a Diablo 4 expansion, with prices ranging from $50 to $100, I didn't really know much about the game. It turns out it’s not a free-to-play game, but costs £60 and already has battle passes that cost up to £20.99 each.

This made me think about why live service games seem to be so popular with publishers. It's obvious that millions of people are willing to pay these prices, given that Diablo 4 has been one of the biggest games of the year. I suppose the only thing that's unusual is that you have to pay for the game itself as well.

It's not just Diablo 4 either; I think this set-up explains why publishers are so keen on live service games. It's easy to see why they're so appealing, given that they can generate income for a long time after the initial launch. I mean, look at Fortnite - it's not a great game in itself, but it's been supported so well over the years, and it's become a massive community.

But I think most live service games just don't have the same level of success. It's almost like a lottery, and a lot of it seems to come down to timing. The right game needs to catch people's interest at the right time, and then it's all luck.

These games are designed to make money and they rely on people buying microtransactions and DLC. If this is all that games are going to be in the future, I don't think I'll have any interest in them. I'm not saying people shouldn't enjoy these games, but I'd like to see publishers realise that single-player games can be just as successful, and that there's still a lot of potential in them.

So, that's why I wrote about Diablo 4 in the Inbox. It's just one example, but it's a good illustration of what I'm talking about. I don't want to be part of this future, but I guess millions of other people do.

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