Blizzard’s highly-anticipated game “Diablo 4” has released its preliminary version, along with the controversial item shop. The item shop allows players to purchase in-game items with platinum, the conversion rate of which varies depending on the package size. The store is accessible directly from Blizzard’s Battle.net launcher and all items can be bought for platinum. The most expensive outfit currently costs €25.
The German prices in the “Diablo 4” item shop reveal that all items must be bought for platinum, and the conversion rate is approximately 100 platinum per euro. The cheaper platinum package options have a conversion rate of 100 platinum per euro. Only from the package for €25 does this rate improve. Finally, there are packages with 5700 platinum for €50 and 11500 platinum for €100, but the exchange rate only slightly increases even at the higher levels.
Various priced packages are available on Battle.net, which range from 800 to 2800 platinum. The cheaper packages do not contain complete outfits, but rather back trophies, emotes and tombstones. More expensive packages, on the other hand, contain full costumes and weapon skins. According to Blizzard, all items are purely cosmetic and have no effect on gameplay.
The pricing of “Diablo 4” has been a topic of discussion for weeks. In addition to the purchase price of €70, console players also need to pay for Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus because the game requires permanent online gaming. Blizzard is planning Battle Passes with unique items that can be unlocked through game progress, but only if players buy the pass for at least 1000 platinum.
Blizzard has stated that the item store is intended to be a way for players to express themselves, so players can interact with it as much or as little as they want during their time in the game. This principle is common in “live service games”, which include “League of Legends”, “Fortnite” and “Overwatch”. Blizzard has experience with these systems from its previous mobile game “Diablo Immortal”, which even includes Pay2Win elements.
