Real-money transactions aren't new by any D2R Items stretch or imagination. Diablo Immortal didn't pioneer them however it would be false to say that this is a fact. Blizzard's action-RPG isn't the root of the problem, but instead is it's the most terrible amalgamation of free-to-play mobile as well as PC games. With two distinct Battle Passes, each of which comes with different rewards, each only available to characters (and not part of your overall roster) and a myriad of different currencies for the average player to keep track of Diablo Immortal's economics read like a giant mobile market.

The practices, even if they're met with resistance but have now become commonplace in the overall industry. One could argue that the presence of loot boxes as well as other real-money transactions in AAA games has created this type of unregulated economy, but the more AAA gaming shifts toward the games-as-service model as it shifts to the games-as-service model, the more in common with game-based mobile apps that've been in this wildly popular field for more than a decade.

And this doesn't just show in the use paid currency to buy items however, it is also evident in gacha mechanics, and the disclosure of drop rates among more difficult items. Gacha is playing with in-game currency, no matter if it's free or acquired through an in-game shop to acquire something random items, such as equipment pieces in the case of Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia, or characters in the ever-popular (and constant) Fate/Grand Order buy D2R Ladder Items or Genshin Impact.