Diablo Immortal is Now Banned in China

Diablo Immortal, the latest iteration of the long-running series, has run into multiple points of criticism, ranging from its progression system to its focus on microtransactions. The free-to-play massively multiplayer online action role-playing game’s issues have further compounded as its release into the Chinese market has been delayed, with rumors stating that the game may have been banned altogether.

Sportskeeda’s review of Diablo Immortal mentioned that the game was a well-made experience that was a worthy entry in the Diablo franchise, trapped within an excruciating microtransaction system that affects progression. The game holds an abysmal 0.3 User Score on its Metacritic page.

News of the delayed entry into the Chinese market is an added headache for the developers. Here’s everything known about the delay so far.

Diablo Immortal is Now Banned in China [ Reddit]

Hello Chinese Diablo fan here, and I can explain to you what happened and what that might mean. There’s a guy who works in Diablo Immortal’s marketing team (which have access to the official social media account) did something very sensitive. Now we don’t know did he forgot to switch the account or he use DI’s official account intentionally – but the result is, he used DI official account to post a thread which complains “When would THE BEAR(implying Chairman Xi) fall off the seat?”

It is not the thread itself called down the thunder, but instead it very quickly exploded in Chinese internet, people see it as an open provocation and eager to know what will happen next. That’s why DI marketing was completely shut down in China, and Netease itself was heavily affected too. Rumor says Netease will not get any license for game publish in the following three whole years, but we don’t know whether it’s true or not. If that’s true, it will also affect Diablo4, Overwatch 2 and WoW Dragonflight, and might even force Blizzard to change their cooperator in China mainland.

edit more context:

Important Notes:

• There is no confirmation on Diablo Immortal being banned in China; This is just assumption. However, it does appear the game’s release will, at the very least, be further delayed there.
• The red-circled text “美国” shows that the post originated from the United States, meaning a non-Chinese DI team member made the post. Other posts by the account are usually made from “广东”, or Guangdong, China.
• The actual post contents are “熊怎么还不下台…”, which translates to “Why isn’t the bear stepping down…”.

here is a news article (CN) covering it.

Checkout: Diablo Immortal: Normal Gem & Legendary Gem List