J. Allen Brack, who recently succeeded Mike Morhaime as CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, said during his first earnings call in the role that Blizzard has "seen some interesting reactions" to Diablo Immortal, the mobile game that was announced to widespread disappointment at BlizzCon. But he also believes that it will prove to be "a very authentic Diablo experience" that will open the door to a much larger audience than it's ever had previously.
"I think that it's clear that there's a lot of players who are eager for more Diablo PC and console content. I think that came through loud and clear from BlizzCon," Brack said. "Frankly we feel fortunate to have a community that cares so much about that franchise."
But the mobile market is the biggest in the world and represents a "very significant opportunity," he continued, which is why Blizzard is developing Diablo and other games for mobile platforms.
"Taking a game like Diablo onto that platform in a way that is really reflecting our quality standards, it can open that franchise and other franchises to a global audience, including people who don't have PCs, or especially in China, where Blizzard is a very, very strong Western brand," he said.
But he reiterated that Blizzard is not turning its back on game development for more conventional platforms: "Diablo is an important tentpole franchise for Blizzard entertainment, and one of the things we've said is that we have multiple teams working on multiple different projects for the Diablo community."
Diablo Immortal was playable at BlizzCon (and apparently went over quite well with people who actually got to play it), but Brack wouldn't commit to any kind of timing for a public rollout, saying only that the priority right now is to ensure it's "an excellent, excellent experience when it is released."
