The reaction was still a bit silly. ;-)
It depends on whose reaction you're talking about.
Are there silly, disproportionate and terribly trollish reactions on the internet? Yes, there is, ever was, ever will be.
Now imagine you've been a die-hard Diablo fan since 1992 (26 years ago!).
Blizzard teases you with the following:
BlizzCon 2018 is almost here and we’ve seen a lot of rumors flying around about our plans for Diablo at the show. These are very exciting times—we currently have multiple teams working on different Diablo projects and we can’t wait to tell you all about them . . . when the time is right.
While we won’t be ready to announce all of our projects, we do intend to share some Diablo-related news with you at the show.
So this is the moment you've been waiting for some 4 years or so, Diablo 4's announcement. And you get to share it with people who share the same niche tastes as you!
You then spend the following:
- $400-600 on a flight + return to California
- $200 on the ticket to Blizzcon
- $200 on food, lodging, ubers, etc.
And on the moment of revelation, all the Diablo-related news revolve around a reskinned chinese F2P game, only for Android and iOS.
Blizzard doesn't even bother to
show a 30-second teaser of Diablo 4, in fact they outright refuse to mention "Diablo 4" as if it was a very dirty word.
Anyone in this situation would be furious. To say the least.
That guy in a red t-shirt who
took the microphone to ask if the fans were being pranked wasn't trolling.
If you look at his face you'll see that his expression is of very serious disbelief and disappointment, not one of a guy who's saying shit for laughs.
It's not even about it being a mobile game. It's the blatant bait-and-switch that led thousands of people to the convention and shows Blizzard doesn't give a crap about them.
For example, Bethesda also released Free2Play mobile games out of their strongest franchises and made lots of money from them. But Fallout Shelter was announced as a companion game to Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls Blades' announcement was succeeded by the Elder Scrolls VI teaser. Not only did Bethesda avoid the bait-and-switch thing by presenting the games during general conventions, they also made sure to give their core audience at least a glimpse of what they really wanted.
Blizzard executives are just disconnected from reality or they just don't give a fuck. Or both.