Diablo Immortal

Watching the Diablo channel as part of this year's BlizzConline, I was surprised to discover that we're going to see a return of the Paragon system from Diablo 3 in Diablo Immortal.

The cackle of a treasure goblin sparks a Pavlovian response in any Diablo 3 player.

It's untrue to say that Diablo Immortal is just a port of Diablo 3 onto mobile devices.

We finally know when Diablo Immortal will get any sort of public test: the answer is "now, if you live in Australia." The announcement of a technical alpha test says invites to Australian players who pre-registered on the Google Play Store have started going out, and there are already streamers showing off gameplay.

Blizzard and NetEase games are joined the Chinese Digital Entertainment Expo ChinaJoy this year with a shiny new Diablo Immortal gameplay trailer.

Diablo Immortal has been one of those frustrating games that dwells in a vague shadowland between release and not-release.

One title conspicuously absent from this year's opening ceremonies, and indeed from the entire BlizzCon schedule, was Diablo Immortal. Announced as the key new product at BlizzCon 2018, the mobile title attracted a broadly negative reaction from a community that had been first told to get hype but then promptly to rein it in.

Diablo Immortal isn't a copy or a re-release of a 2017 mobile ARPG as many of the game's detractors have theorized.