Activision Blizzard may be facing new legal action over its latest Diablo game. Migliaccio & Rathod LLP, a practice that specializes in “class action litigation against large corporations, including in cases involving unfair and deceptive trade practices,” has announced that it is launching an investigation into Diablo Immortal over what is said to be false advertising. The dispute revolves around a legendary gem in the game called “Blessing of the Worthy,” which could cost players over $100 to acquire but apparently fails to provide the perks that are suggested through its store descriptions.
From a Migliaccio & Rathod LLP news post:
Migliaccio & Rathod LLP is currently involved in the Diablo Immortal False Advertising Investigation, for Activision-Blizzard’s false advertisement of the effect of a purchasable, in-game item in Diablo Immortal. The “Blessing of the Worthy” legendary gem, purchasable in bundles that could cost over $100, changes the description of its effect in vastly different, and detrimental, ways as the gem is leveled up. At level two, the item’s description that the player has a chance to deal damage equal to their maximum health is changed at level three to state that the player has a chance to deal damage equal to their current health. This means that rather than dealing a fixed amount of damage equal to one’s maximum health, the amount of damage that could be dealt instead changes with the player’s current health and is therefore less than previously understood, since the effect is only triggered when the player takes damage.
Rather than offer refunds or some form of compensation, Blizzard has instead responded to the Blizzard community by stating that they will change the item’s text description to reflect its actual effect, at level three. This practice essentially amounts to a bait-and-switch, since a purchasable item was advertised with one effect that players wanted and ended up with something completely different.
Blizzard launched Diablo Immortal on June 2, 2022, a new installment of its action role-playing series that was originally designed for mobile devices but ended up also releasing for PC. The game is infamous for the largely negative response that it garnered from Diablo fans during its announcement at BlizzCon 2018, prompting one attendee to inquire whether it was a late April Fool’s joke. That said, Diablo Immortal appears to be a success for Blizzard, having attracted over 17 million downloads since its release, with $161 million in revenue generated since its launch, according to numbers from Statista.