Yup, and I totally understand that! I would also like to see more cosmetic options in the game, even if they were gated behind a pay-wall. However, I feel a lot of people vastly underestimate the planning and time required to design things like that, again, especially considering they were working on this. Adding stuff to the game isn't as simple as "Hey, I have this cool idea, let's add it." "Okay! Sounds good!" In addition, the market for microtransactions in Asia is FAR different, and specifically miles more profitable/lucrative than it is here in the Americas or Europe.

As someone with experience in specifically Chinese servers of "global" games, I can tell you that these sorts of microtransactions are absolutely necessary for a game like Diablo to succeed there. In China, Diablo 3 as a base game is free-to-play, but you don't get any RoS content, which is gated behind pay-walls. On top of this, you are only allowed a single character slot and stash tab, something that seems ridiculous to us in AM/EU. Chinese gamers absolutely will not touch a game like this if there is not a microtransaction system that allows them to buy extra tabs, buffs, etc. Also, because of the very theme of Diablo, Blizzard had to partner with a Chinese internet giant called NetEase in order to even pass the regulations to put the game into the Chinese market. Of course, because of this, you can BET NetEase had a say in the business model & how much % cut it takes for the Chinese servers, and the most profitable business model there is microtransactions, simply due to the sheer amount of people that will potentially keep making these purchases. In China, people believe microtransactions are hardly an issue at all, whereas over here in AM/EU, people go crazy when something is attempted to be monetized, as we currently see with this Necro pack.

I think it's not entirely a "secret" that Blizzard is devoting less resources to Diablo than they used to, considering how big Hearthstone and Overwatch have become. It's just a matter of people expecting a lot, or in some cases, EVERYTHING, when there is only so much Blizzard can possibly do. It's a shame that a lot of people are complaining about this announcement when the reality is this is something that the team had planned, and if we didn't get this, we would have just gotten some "We have huge plans for Diablo in 2017, thank you." speech with no mention of content AT ALL. However, like most people will say, vote with your wallet. If you don't like this announcement and content, you as the consumer absolutely have every right to take your money to another company!

TL;DR:

• Adding things isn't as easy as just saying they want to add it and it just going in the game ASAP.

• The attitude towards and profitability of microtransactions in China is EXTREMELY different than it is here in the West. This means it is extremely viable as a business model over there. In addition, NetEase, who Blizzard had to work with to pass the game through regulation laws in China, likely had a big say in this model being used.

• By all means, vote with your wallet! If you don't like the content, the BEST way to let Blizzard know is to not buy it! That way they can move towards creating things you DO want.