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There was a ton of buzz around Diablo being featured at the upcoming Blizzcon. Fans were anticipating either a Diablo 4 announcement, remaster of Diablo 1 or 2 announcement, or more info about the upcoming Netflix series. Blizzard released a statement that, while I don't believe outright said there would be no Diablo 4, said that they would show a bit of Diablo 4 when it was ready. Regardless, they also stated that there would be Diablo related content at Blizzcon.
Fast forward to today, and the major Diablo announcement turned out to be Diablo: Immortal. This is a mobile game set in Sanctuary (Diablo's world) and is largely a recycling of Diablo III in terms of class, combat, and more. It got almost no reaction when the trailer was released. The crowd didn't give the presenters anything aside from the occasional very light applause or mild booing. During the Q&A, one man even asked, "Is this an out-of-season April Fool's joke?"
Since this was the only major Diablo announcement, the disappointment was palpable. While some people are saying the fanbase should blame itself for getting too hyped up for something that wasn't confirmed, many also think that it was a dick move by Blizzard to not only make this the focus of their Diablo announcement, but also spend time building that hype for weeks leading up to the event.
Edit: for those who may not know much about Diablo -
Its first two games came out in 1996 and 2000. Both were praised for their art, story, gore, and combat. While how well they've aged is debatable, they still hold a special place in the hearts of Diablo fans, especially the second game.
The third game was released around 6 years ago and was not very well received by fans for numerous reasons (more World of Warcraft style in terms of art, a worse plot, killing off one of the most important characters in the series with little fanfare, servers crashing on day one, etc.). That being said, it's one of the highest selling PC games of all time. While it's more well received nowadays (thanks to, in part, the Reaper of Souls expansion), it is still with its drawbacks and not held in reverence like the previous 2.
Diablo doesn't get much love from Blizzard. World of Warcraft and (more recently) Overwatch are their large projects, so Diablo's fanbase is smaller, though very dedicated. The fact that Blizzard hyped up a new Diablo project only to give this was a slap in the face to many.
A post from reddit
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