Diablo 3 opened huge, selling more than three-million copies instantly, but a month later players had already jumped off the Blizz ship in search of new waters. Why are gamers abandoning Diablo 3 when its father, Diablo 2, is still on store shelves after ten years? Diablo 3 has no endgame. Where Diablo 2 offered players the opportunity to craft items and refine character builds, Diablo 3 features a more permissive character-building system and an auction house that makes item hunting irrelevant. Blizzard is just waking up to the fact they’ve pinned their hopes on a game with no staying power. Venture Beat has the story.
Blizzard sure seems to be running into problems. That whole bit about compromising the player experience to protect their real money auction house sure seems silly when they couldn’t get the RMAH running on release. Now that players are bailing out, there won’t be enough customers for the RMAH to turn a worthy profit. Something something fun before money? Who would have thought.