Diablo Immortal streamer demands ban after spending $13,000 to 'unlock' upgrade

A Twitch streamer permanently deleted his Diablo Immortal character after spending over £13000 ($25000 NZD) in microtransactions.

Quintin Crawford, who goes by the username “Quin69”, was aiming to unlock one of Immortal’s highly coveted 5 star gems which can only be attained through loot boxes, which are randomly generated.

It came after Quintin previously paid an eye-watering $10,000 in microtransactions and received “nothing” as originally reported by Dexerto to demonstrate how difficult it would be for players to unlock Diablo Immortal’s post-game content.

This eye-watering amount would have been enough for most gamers to hang up their headsets, Quin69 persevered by spending an additional $15,000 in order to receive just one five-star gem for his efforts.

After finally netting the rare reward, Quin took to Twitter to thank Blizzard, Diablo Immortal’s developer, with a sardonic response.

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“I can't believe I just looted my first 5/5 gem and it only cost me $25,165.57 NZD

“Thanks @Blizzard_Ent @DiabloImmortal for this authentic Diablo experience.”

Rather than use the item as the developers intended - which is to upgrade end-game level gear from its base stats - Crawford used the gem to power up a lower-level item instead, effectively destroying it, before permanently deleting his Diablo Immortal character for good.

Diablo Immortal has been criticised for its approach to microtransactions which has seen the game made unavailable in the Netherlands and Belgium due to their stringent loot box laws. The free-to-play game has become so unpopular with players that even the Diablo subreddit calling for any mention of the game to be banned as well.

While not every player would be expected to fork out $25,000 worth of loot, one YouTube channel calculated that upgrading characters to completion could cost a total of $110,000 (£88,000).

Characters can have up to six legendary gems equipped at once, so Quintin’s initial investment is still quite steep, especially if it were to be sextupled.

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