Diablo Immortal is terrible, to be sure, but it doesn’t have to be. The Diablo team at Blizzard talked about a lot of the accessibility options they’ve built into Diablo Immortal ahead of the game’s June 2nd release date to produce hell that works for everyone.
One thing that Diablo Immortal required was controller assistance.
“You may play Diablo Immortal with controllers on all mobile devices and on the PC,” Blizzard noted on its accessibility site. “Many controls will be remapped from the controller part of the settings menu, including abilities, accessing chat, and more.”
In addition to controller assistance, Blizzard will provide Diablo Immortal reviewers a Razer Kishi controller, which transforms your smartphone into a Change or Steam Deck-like device.
While Blizzard is providing us a controller peripheral to test as part of the evaluation process, the developer emphasized that the option is “not meant to promote or encourage controller gaming – contact display, controller, mouse and keyboard, and so on.”
One of the interesting features Andrew Webster mentioned in his pre-alpha coverage of DI was that the game didn’t have controller support at the time. That means he was operating the game with his iPad’s on-screen buttons. For a game like Diablo Immortal, this isn’t exactly the most comfortable environment for either a giant iPad or a little cellphone, therefore cellular controller support is practically required.
Chatting with friends is another feature that has been developed to be as user-friendly as possible, with native voice chat transcription and text-to-speech capabilities.
The surprise addition of PC assistance was, in and of itself, a decision made partially for accessibility reasons.
“It’s critical that Diablo Immortal reach as many gamers as possible,” Diablo franchise general supervisor Rod Fergusson said in an interview with The Verge.
After all, the early outrage to Blizzard’s decision to release a free-to-play mobile game with a micro transaction-filled currency shop may have influenced that decision. However, according to precept sport designer Joe Grubb, who also took part in the interview, “it was [also] very much an accessibility choice,” allowing gamers to play on larger, more visible screens with keyboards that could be remapped to suit their needs.
On June 2nd, Diablo Immortal will be released in open beta on iOS, Android, and PC.