What do you think about Diablo 4 steam re-release ? (ended)

It's more like people are leaving their games and profit is dropping due to their shitty decisions, so they are trying to get more, steam is the biggest client with the largest player base after all. Same reason Overwatch 2 was released on steam, don't think microsoft had a say in it, since the acquisition wasn't a done deal yet.

There's nothing unusual for big game companies having their games on their own launchers and on Steam too. We can only speculate if they knew already their merger would go through as D4 came to battlenet and if it had made a difference.

Did ActBlizSoft want people to double dip? Of course.

From my perspective, once it drops to $19.99, it'll be worth playing. The ability to play on the Steam Deck without the extra steps of getting battlenet to work on the Deck will then be a nice feature.

Blizz just trying to get new players as D4 currently lacks end game to keep players hooked like the competition(primarily path of exile and last epoch(which if I remember right is getting full release this December), and most importantly... D2R or D3), definitely not to get people to double buy(as many Blizzard fans already just use blizzards client as well... all the blizzard games are there and many of us were addicts as is.

D4 is still worth buying just for a single playthrough of the story, that alone has many many hours of game play(double+ what many other AAA games asking for the same amount give) though, its just lacking the holding factor for the endless grind.

I personally am giving it until season 3(the first season fully developed post game launch) before I uninstall.

I think they wanted to squeeze the expectation of "finally! Diablo 4!" and take all the profit for a while, and then dump it on Steam for more sales but 30% less profit. It's just another theory as valid as others mentioned here. The possible merge with Microsoft? I don't think it would affect my theory or have much weight on the final result. Mine is based more on "we're greedy and let's profit on 100% of the first sales". Thinking that people might buy the game twice on Steam is the cherry on top and probably thought of before Microsoft bought them.

Cool, now I can ignore it on more platforms.

No clue if Diablo 4 is worth it, I would never buy it for that price, but as long as even on Steam it still needs a Blizzard account and client, I see no need to be interested out of nowhere, they can come back when we don't need those anymore and offer a very nice discount, then I will check the game out ^^

I doubt many people are buying in steam after having it on battlenet. I would guess they just want more people to discover the game, since it's not moving that many fans compared to other games of the same genre, and even the same saga.

I would say they just want to reach broader audience. I remember when amongst my friends Blizzard was a synonym of quality games offering many hours of gameplay(not always straight from launch, but even if there was something wrong they patched it and games like D2, Starcraft or Warcraft 3 stayed popular way after their releases. Partially due to mods support. W3 - DotA even started a new genre) It's no longer the case. Without the fanbase they used to have they basically could no longer ignore the competition like they used to and have to adopt to current standards. Keeping everything exclusive to their launcher simply cannot be justified economically any more(but an exclusivity period is as it allows to avoid fees on initial sales)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2344520/Diablo_IV/

...🤔So far, it seems to have a reputation for raising hell if you touch the billing elements.
I haven't touched it since Diablo 2 a long time ago, but we'll see how it goes.
I can't consider buying it,..

I don't really care if it's steam or not. The price tag and the overall quality of the game matters a lot more. I'm interested in the game, but like...10€ much. While waiting I way pick up the Diablo 2+3pack, wh40k Martyr, and eventually the announced Grim Dawn DLC.

I know hating on ActiBlizzardKing is popular right now, but no, they did not do this to make players 'double dip'. That's just absurd and makes no sense whatsoever. They are doing this to show the regulators that corporate consolidation does not take away choice from players and instead increases the available options to them. It's why they also promised to port COD to Switch and keep it on PlayStation and gave the streaming rights of all their games to Ubisoft. All this to get approval for the merger.

Blizzard was once a company I would buy games from. Not anymore.

I just want all the Blizzard games to come to Steam, even if you'll need the client.

I think there'd be more enthusiasm if Diablo 2 came to Steam instead.

As for me, I spent countless hours in D2 and don't plan to get D4 any time soon. There's still a bunch of Diablo clones I need to play, like Din's Curse.

Absolutely, they get the full-price sales on their own platform without having to pay anyone else, now they get to double-dip on their less-preferred platform, knowing that some will buy it again.

Granted this is the first (paid) game by them to do so, so who knows what the future will hold, but you see it all the time with console exclusives, EGS exclusives, etc.