I'm not sure I agree that Blizzard has set themselves up for an extreme reaction every time Blizzcon turns out to be disappointing, because the Blizzcon audience is used to being disappointed. It seems like the rabid nature of the fans has been very exaggerated. More than 30000 people attended Blizzcon and the worst thing that happened was some rude questions during a Q&A.
I think the fan rudeness of people at the event is being somewhat blown out of proportion and maybe mixed up with the online reaction (which is an absolute train wreck on fire). One guy asked a question that you could see as being snarky and then the fans at the event booed when the answer to the question "Will this come to PC?" was "No". Outside of that the reaction at the show was mostly muted. It's online that people are being much more angry and inflammatory. Asking if the game would go to PC is a legit question and people where unhappy with the answer. It sucks to get booed but it's an extremely common reaction that crowds of people will do when something they dislike happens.
Having said that - I can tell you as someone who spends time on all the various Blizzard related game sub-reddits - anyone who was a community manager or a dev on the Diablo teams who frequented those sub-reddits knew that announcing a mobile game was going to be met with this kind of reaction. The problem is that person is probably so low down the pecking order that their opinion means nothing.
The journey sort of went like this
The schedule for Blizzcon is announced weeks and weeks ago. Everyone noticed that a Diablo panel immediately followed the free opening ceremony. There's also a "gap" in the panel allocation on the main stage - the last time that happened was the year Overwatch was officially revealed. People generally take it to mean there's something new being announced.
Blizzard release a video saying they're working on many Diablo projects and can't wait to show them off.
The floor map is released. People again notice that there's gaps in the floor plan, gaps that based on previous years are big enough to fit new demo stations in, for new unannounced projects.
At this stage people on the online communities are all pretty hype for a new Diablo project - with one exception. Everyone joked online saying they hope it's not just a mobile game, that a mobile game would be the worst and most disappointing outcome. It becomes a common enough joke on hype and speculation threads that nobody wants a mobile game. The order of what people generally would've been excited about is Diablo 1/2 Remastered, Diablo 4, a new Diablo 3 character, new improvements and updates to Diablo 3 and that's about it. Nobody wants a phone game.
Blizzard put out a blog post to say (without ever mentioning the worlds "Diablo" and "Four") that Diablo 4 won't be shown and that maybe people should cool their jets on what to expect. At this point the mood online has changed to two things. Speculation that Blizzard are lying and will show Diablo 4 anyway as a big hurrah or the thing that people don't want is happening and there's a phone game coming.
If Blizzard are actually taken aback by the reaction to announcing a mobile game then they either a) don't pay any attention to the vast online communities at all or b) ignore the people who are paying attention.
@maxxcanti: - FFXV is a single player game that came out in 2016. Overwatch is a multiplayer only game as a service title. They're two completely different types of games. I'd wager there's way, way more people still playing Overwatch than people who are still regularly booting up or even thinking about FFXV these days.
@no8axel: Dan doesn't have a film degree, and it's super disingenuous for him to continue claiming that he does. His degree is in General Studies.
It would be more accurate for him to say that he took some film classes that he never went to, because his General Studies degree required for him to have a pseudo-specialty.
@ilserpente - He does have a film degree. He has a Bachelor of General Studies: Theatre and Film. That's like a Bachelor of Engineering: Electronic and Computing (which is what I have) or a Bachelor of Science: Biology.
@no8axel - By his own admission he never went to the classes. It's entirely possible and highly likely that his course did teach that subject matter and he wouldn't know because he didn't go to class.
@bisonhero: I thought Jeff was right to ask him and Brad almost agreed that sure, someone will probably eventually figure it out. Ten minutes later he's back to saying it's an impossible puzzle. And as others have pointed out here - it was solved by Saturday.
@humanity: "I really want to check out that new CRPG, but they just take so much time. Welp, time to spend more hours in DOTA/Assassins Creed/Destiny 2"
I still play WoW - I have done for over 10 years now. But it's mostly an hour or two here or there. Sometimes you slip into playing it for longer, it's just a weird comfort thing.
@heatdrive88: I noticed it as well. Lots of cross talk, particularly early on.
@assirra: Just like PoE and Divinity 1 and 2, expect it to continue to be left in the dust as they constantly bring it up and run through the script of "I've been wanting to check out <CRPG here> but I just haven't found the time yet". Then in a year or two a new CRPG will come out and the cycle will continue.
They've talked about Session before. I think Jeff (maybe Brad) mentioned it or played it on a stream. He had the same problem I had with it, the controls are messed up. Using the left stick and right stick to control feet feels awkward when you compare it to something like Skate.
@petefic: The day that trailer came out people pointed out it's probably a relaunch or a new Tenchu game. You could easily make a Tenchu style Soul's game. Nioh had some pretty good success with it and there's both enough fondness for Tenchu and it's been long enough that re-imagining it for 2019/2020 as a Souls-like game isn't much of a stretch.
The original GB squad was really just perfect. None of the newer members, both past and present, ever really fit in that same amazing way. Thats ok though, but the office split is what really kills me because as a unit they work so well together. I mean I get it, I know why it happened and I absolutely respect the decision because family is more important than work, but it's a darn shame is all I'm sayin.
I agree.
I know the biggest hurdle now is just timing - there's a three hour difference between both studios, but I wish they did more cross-coast stuff. It's very possible now. You have bedroom streamers putting out decent quality video podcasts, casting amateur division esports leagues etc, all in different time zones and all without years an years of audio/video experience.
They've started to bridge the gap with a few things - Murder Island for example, but I wish they could do more.
@humanity: This episode made me wish there was a series of podcasts with Jeff B, Jeff G and Vinny.
@108 - The comments are for discussion of the podcast. If you don't want any part of the podcast spoiled, just don't scroll down to the comment section.
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