Blizzard president J. Allen Brack has said that the company is still a PC developer first and foremost.
In an interview with GameSpot, Brack discussed the developer and publisher's decision to bring Diablo to mobile with Immortal.
This was announced at BlizzCon in November 2018 and was subject to a vocally negative response from the community.
Diablo wasn’t even the first of Blizzard’s IP to come to mobile. Hugely popular free-to-play card game Hearthstone is on smartphones and tablets in addition to PC, while team shooter Overwatch launched on both PC and consoles in 2016.
"I think the thing that we did a poor job of when we announced Diablo: Immortal was contextualizing what we think the future can be and what we think of mobile in particular. And I also think the key thing that was lost, that we did a poor job double emphasizing, is we are a PC developer first," said Brack.
"And then we look for other platforms that we think are awesome that can support the types of gameplay experiences that resonate with the type of games and values that we want to put forth into the world. And the example of that is, there was a little bit of a backlash when we [announced] that we were going to port Diablo 3 to console as well."
While the exec can understand the reactions, the company received from long-time fans; he does believe the firm is capable of creating a successful mobile title.
"It's not hard to understand the fan reaction of, 'I'm a Blizzard fan. Blizzard, just keep making PC games like you've always done. Like I like. That will make me happy'," said Brack
"But, I think if you think about the world, and you think about games, it's hard to imagine how anyone who is a core PC Blizzard fan today also has not experimented with console platforms, or mobile platforms in their career, or in their life, rather.
"If you're a core PC gamer, then there are not an insignificant number of mobile games that don't have a great reputation. We've seen these games, and we've played these games.
Brack continued: "But, if we didn't think that we could make great games on a mobile platform, we wouldn't do it.
"Mobile games have been out for quite a while, and Hearthstone is the only one that we have done so far. What has made it take so long is figuring out how we were going to find the Blizzard way of making a great mobile game."
The exec became president of the Overwatch creator last year after Mike Morhaime stepped down after 27 years.
