It looks like this week’s launch of Diablo Immortal won’t be happening in two European countries due to laws over loot boxes. The game won't be released in Belgium or the Netherlands, two countries with gambling laws that restrict loot boxes.
According to a report from GamesIndustry.biz, which cites a Dutch outlet with an Activision Blizzard Benelux manager saying that the cancellation of the release is due to “the current operating conditions in these countries”. The debate over loot boxes and RNG is not a new one, of course, but some countries have made laws that affect access.
Meanwhile, the Diablo Immortal team is highlighting some of the accessibility features in the game. This is part of an ongoing effort at Blizzard to improve accessibility in its games, and this newest title is included.
There’s controller support and you’ll be able to remap the buttons, regardless on which platform you play on. If you do use a controller, pressing the right arrow on the D-pad will open up a free cursor you can use to access menus and other interfaces. This too can be remapped. In settings, you’ll be able to adjust skill button positions on the screen.
Other features designed to increase accessibility cover all aspects of chat. Since communication is key for a party, there are many bases covered. Options include the ability to change the size of text in the chat and a voice chat description option you can toggle. This will effectively turn voice chat into a transcript so you can keep up with your party even if you have trouble listening to or can’t hear chat. Related is the text to speech option and speech to text.
With the first, a synthetic voice will read chat. Each channel will also have other customization features, like being able to choose which things get narrated, whether your own messages are also read, and speed controls. With speech to text, it will convert spoken words into text you can review, edit, and send into chat. Finally, there are audio cues available in settings to let you know of certain actions you deem important via a sound cue. This could be someone sending you an invite or a chat message.
The accessibility blog also cites world brightness settings to help those for whom the default trip to hell is a bit too (visually) dark. They’re also hoping to add additional options like adjustable contrast and settings to help color blindness.
For more on the accessibility efforts rolling out with the game on June 2nd, head to Diablo Immortal.
