Blizzard built Diablo Immortal PC “to make it for mobile”

pcgamesn.com:

The Diablo Immortal release time is imminent, the first new Diablo game to release in ten years – but it wasn’t always going to be the case, as the Diablo Immortal PC release is a recent announcement. However, according to a new interview with Blizzard, the PC version was actually built first “to make it for mobile”.

The Diablo mobile game was announced all the way back in 2015 to a less than enthusiastic response, mostly because everyone was waiting on the reveal of Diablo IV. With the Diablo Immortal release date on June 2 so close we can touch it, excitement is far higher – especially thanks to the same-time release of a Diablo Immortal PC beta too.

While the PC release wasn’t initially on the cards, a new interview at Wowhead with Diablo franchise head Rod Fergusson reveals that the PC version always existed. “The mission of Diablo Immortal was to bring the Diablo experience to mobile,” Fergusson explains but admits “we built it on PC in order to make it for mobile.”

“We were developing [Diablo Immortal] on the PC,” he adds, “so it wasn’t the first time we had ever seen it on PC.” However, as the mobile version was the primary planned release, Blizzard had to make sure that it was “locked down before we started to think about other platforms.”

As for why a PC release was considered at all, the Diablo head explains that it’s about “maximizing accessibility to the game.” Content creators apparently had a hand in the decision too, as several told Blizzard that they would need to emulate Diablo Immortal in order to play it. “Obviously that’s not ideal,” Fergusson says.

Regarding the PC version as only being a beta release, Fergusson explains that Blizzard still has “a lot to learn for the PC version, because we didn’t