Diablo 4’s latest microtransaction controversy is a $30 portal recolor: “You can get Palworld for this price”

Fans despair as Blizzard charges “almost half the price of the game” for class-specific portal colors

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Blizzard is charging $30 for portal colors inDiablo 4, and players are having none of it.

From therecent confusion surrounding cosmetic items in Diablo 4’s Lunar Awakening event, to what players deemed"mathematically the scummiest"coin reward Blizzard could have given battle pass purchasers in Season 1, the action RPG has had its fair share of controversy when it comes to paid content. Now players are once again up in arms, this time over portal colors that cost “almost half the price of the game.”

Over on theDiablo 4 subreddit, user Mwatki20 sparked the conversation by posting an image of the Dark Pathways pack, which offers town portals in orange, green, purple, yellow, and blue, as well as 1000 Platinum for a considerable sum. “$20 for different color portals? LMFAO Blizz!” they write.

Amazingly, it’s even worse than that. As another player points out, the bundle actually costs $29.99, making it “almost half the price of [Diablo 4].” Further down in the comments, user Cmionor rightly says that for the same sum, you could purchase Pocketpair’s ‘Pokemon with Guns’ sensation: “You can get Palworld for this price…just sayin…”

Adding salt to the wound is the fact that each color is locked to a specific class. “It isn’t even just that it costs money,” says WhiteVoltage. “I wouldn’t necessarily mind paying $5 or something for it. But $30 for a portal that Imightget two classes' worth of use out of? Hell no.Hay-ellno.” Rather than being outraged, Patient_Competion4 finds the situation downright laughable, saying, “The fact that they’re CLASS LOCKED is hilarious to me lmfao.”

As some other players point out, switching up your portal color is merely cosmetic and doesn’t affect the gameplay in any way, so you can enjoy Diablo 4 just the same without having to cough up the additional dough. Though with so many voicing their dissatisfaction at the lofty price tag attached to items in what’s already a full-price game, perhaps Blizzard will rethink how much it charges for these kinds of cosmetics in the future.

Check out ourDiablo 4 DLCguide for everything we currently know about the game’s first major expansion, Vessel of Hatred.

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Originally from Ireland, I moved to the UK in 2014 to pursue a Games Journalism and PR degree at Staffordshire University. Following that, I’ve freelanced for GamesMaster, Games TM, Official PlayStation Magazine and, more recently, Play and GamesRadar+. My love of gaming sprang from successfully defeating that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros on the NES. These days, PlayStation is my jam. When not gaming or writing, I can usually be found scouring the internet for anything Tomb Raider related to add to my out of control memorabilia collection.

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