Asmongold weighed in on the Diablo 4 developer gameplay showcase that’s causing an uproar from the Diablo 4 community. He was left wondering why the video was ever released, claiming that the developers were set up to fail.
Diablo 4 has sold extremely well, though it hasn’t been spared from post-release controversy. Players have had their fair share of gripes with the game, and, while many have been addressed, there are those who aren’t thrilled with the current state of the title.
To try and build a bigger connection with the community and introduce the team, Blizzard released a video that had two dungeon designers sit down and chat about working on the game and their background as developers.
While their discussion in the video was fairly non-controversial, the gameplay that went up in the background has sparked massive backlash against the devs. Asmongold chimed in, and, while he wasn’t happy with the video, he also felt bad for the two developers who were put in that position.
Asmongold claims Diablo devs are “out of touch”
Asmongold hasn’t played Diablo 4 in a while. He claimed he was quitting and he committed to that claim, with him airing his grievances about the game and moving on.
Even when his chat was telling him to watch a video that showed the developers playing Diablo 4, he was hesitant to watch it. However, he ultimately took the plunge.
Asmongold then spent 40 minutes breaking down the video, drawing conclusions about Diablo 4’s current state and some of its issues, and called out Blizzard for releasing a video that put their developers on the spot.
As one commenter put it on the original dev gameplay video, “Blizzard just sacrificed these two right in front of our eyes.”
Asmongold was in disbelief as he watched the video, and ultimately wound up feeling bad for the developers whose gameplay was put out there for the world to see.
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“Clearly, they don’t have a lot of experience playing this game. They have no idea what they’re doing. Anybody who plays the game knows that. And all it does is open these two people up for criticism and hate from an entire community. The people who made the decision to release this video should be ashamed of themselves.”
Asmongold continued. “You just put two people on your team – regardless of if they deserved the criticism – you put them in the crosshairs of everybody.”
Regardless of the quality of the gameplay and the content of the video, Asmongold was shocked that Blizzard sent this video out the door in the first place. And, though it’s partially a matter of disappointment that the developers who design the game’s dungeons aren’t as proficient at the game as some of the more hardcore players, this video was ultimately approved by someone else on the team.
“All this does is it confirms a lot of people’s concerns about the game. The developers – they don’t have a proper build. Yeah, you could say they’re talking and whatever, but that’s not really gonna come across.”
Asmongold continued: “I stream video games, I understand being on autopilot, talking and playing the game. But I also understand, whenever you’re putting something out for an audience, what that audience is gonna respond with. It’s out of touch – not only is it out of touch, it’s irresponsible.”
He also gave what he claimed to be a “hot take” by saying, “I think that if you’re in a senior position for a video game, you should know how to play it proficiently.”
At the time of writing, the video is only getting more and more dislikes as the community discovers it. Blizzard has yet to give a public statement about the ongoing backlash.