[ckozlowski]

This Microsoft response reminds me of the 2018 Blizzcon event, where the Diablo Immortal developer challenged the audience with "Do you guys not have phones?" when the audience asked if the game was coming to PC.

Then - like now - it seemed that they couldn't understand that what they made was not what their customers wanted.

[crote]

Don't forget the audience member who literally asked if it was a joke - and got cheers and applause from the rest of the audience. It was probably one of the biggest PR disasters in gaming history - and it does seem like the AI CEOs have been taking quite a bit of inspiration from it.

[xeonmc]

I think the intent is to provide a sense of pride and accomplishment when rivaling the same monetary dedication on the mobile platform comparable to the PC counterpart. You think you want bread, but you don’t: we are making subscription-based cake available which is better in every way.

[tokioyoyo]

I just got curious, and googled around how much Diablo Immortal made - "Diablo Immortal has achieved over $500 million in revenue in its first year". To put it bluntly, nobody cares about this PR disaster internally, because at the end, they made a lot of money and proved them wrong.

[ProllyInfamous]

>"Do you guys not have phones?"

My local state representatives just attempted this at our latest "town hall meeting" [i.e. to participate: scan the 8.5"x11" QR code, taped upon each chair].

I do not carry a phone, let alone one that scans QR codes... so instead I just provided 300 pound union dude commentary throughout our entire meeting. I definitely participated.

[markus_zhang]

My thought exactly. From hindsight, Diablo immortal is not a bad game, but that moment was really…not great. I guess the guy knew that phone games were getting momentum but unfortunately that specific group of users in Blizzcon didn’t want a phone game.

[Grimblewald]

I think if they'd teased a phone game it would have been well received. From memory, the problem was they teased something much larger/exiting (new diablo, not a chinese arpg reskin) so when the reveal hit everyone was massively let down.

I guess this is kind of similar though. what is promised isnt and likely wont be delivered.

[collinmcnulty]

I actually think that 2018 was about the time when phone games had very much lost momentum and now are much less exciting than they were circa 2013. By 2018, both the potential and the limitations of phone games were very much understood by the audience. I'd argue that the top of the hype cycle of "maybe phone games will actually become really good" was 2010's Infinity Blade. Clash of Clans came out in 2012, and by 2018 phone games were fully devoid of momentum.

[rootlocus]

It also had the absolute worse monetization scheme in history with the general sentiment being they abused every dark pattern and made the experience horrible.

[satvikpendem]

And yet Diablo Immortal made about a billion dollars, orders of magnitude more than the other Diablo games combined. Sound like they knew exactly what their customers wanted.

https://mobilegamer.biz/three-years-after-a-fiery-launch-dia...

[rincebrain]

The nuance there, I think, is that over half the players are reportedly new to the Diablo games, which suggests that their primary intended market was likely not existing Diablo players.

The core kernel of it always seemed, to me, to be an extension of the Diablo 3 RMT auction house idea - they wanted a recurring revenue source from a franchise where traditionally they were not charging one, and in this case, they squared that circle by appealing to users who were not existing players, and so did not have those norms in mind.

[hereme888]

Google made billions by scamming the world with "free email" and a search engine that would "never display ads" or "censor content".

It was "exactly what customers wanted". Microsoft Windows is just as successful....financially speaking.

Now, if I could just get teenagers to pay more money for a magic digital rune, besides extracting all that juicy marketing data from their phone app... Because more money = better corporation.

[Krssst]

At the time I got the feeling that the presenter got the genuine impression that players would at least not be completely disappointed by the announcement.

Here it's hard to understand Microsoft's surprise when almost everything Windows has done for the last ten years was despised by mostly everyone. I was thinking that decision makers knew they were making unpopular moves but did not care since there's no way Windows can lose market share. I assume he must be faking surprise, but I am not sure for what purpose since staying silent and going forward would have had less press. Well I guess bad publicity is still publicity.