There is definitely a right way and a wrong way to announce a game. Not just mobile games – any game, really. The context of the game, and the events around the game is important. We won’t rehash the exact hilarity around the Diablo: Immortals announcement last year, but that was definitely the ‘wrong’ way to announce a game (despite all reports indicating Immortals is quite good, for what it is).
Last Friday, Path of Exile developer Grinding Gears Games announced a mobile version of their flagship title. In case you’re not familiar with what that is (it’s not one I’ve played myself either) Path of Exile is a Diablo-like free-to-play Action RPG that was first released in PC in 2013, and was later brought to PS4 and Xbox One.
It was (and still is) unusual because there is no in-game currency, instead there is a barter-like system that uses ‘currency items’ to pay for things. The business model also bases itself on so-called “ethical” micro-transactions. Largely cosmetic-based, but here are certain late-game quality of life features (like automatic trading) and things like custom serves that are gated behind a paywall. Here’s the video that announced that sequel:
It’s quite on the nose, and definitely a commentary on how Blizzard announced Immortals. Path of Exile itself is well known to have taken a lot of inspiration from Diablo II, so the comparison is an easy one to make. Path of Exile Mobile is also being made by GGG themselves, and not someone else, and the company seek to bring their same ‘ethical’ business mentality that they brought to the free-to-play Browser/PC space in 2013 when PoE originally launched.
You could argue that the strength of this announcement wouldn’t have been as powerful had Blizzard not botched their own announcement, but then GGG also announced Path of Exile 2, AND continued support for Path of Exile 1, in the same stroke as announcing the mobile version.
Although they do use the word “Bull****” twice in the video when talking about mobile gaming. That’s a little bit harsh.
There was no release window or confirmed platforms given for Path of Exile Mobile, so we’ll keep you posted.
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2019/11/...to-mobile/