Looks like being / going "mobile" is the new thing @ Blizzard.
The don't you guys have phones meme is direct response to the Blizzcon announcement that the next Diablo was going to be a mobile game not even produced by Blizzard. The reaction of the product team at Blizzard really came off as aghast followed by incredulous that the fans reacted so negatively and harshly as a whole. They so missed the boat with what the fans were expecting it makes you wonder, just who were they listening too?
Activision's problem was taking the loot box and in game transaction model too far and embedding too deeply into franchises that were not accustomed to it if not openly hostile to it. that many of the purchases looked like or were portrayed as pay to win did not help.
Where is the industry going? I certainly don't know and not knowing I don't have an opinion to offer on that subject. The opinion I do offer is that perhaps it doesn't know where its fans think it should be going and some franchises are at cult levels of fandom
I mean, it isn't just a meme. A Blizzard representative literally said "Do you guys not have phones?" during a Q&A session, after someone asked whether the new Diablo game would be available on PC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5QRgpjfarY
Fans were going to be disappointed either way, but this dismissive response is what really set off the reaction.
For everyone that won't play mobile games (like me), there are probably 100 people that will. And they only have $5 for an add-on, not $60 for the entire game. That's the economic reality these days. Computer ownership is becoming an obscure niche thing.
This is a strange way to look at it considering that Blizzard is primarily a PC game developer, and the extreme majority of their customers are PC gamers. They will already have the PC.
Blizzard is a AAA developer. Mobile games don't exactly have a reputation for being AAA quality. PC gamers often scoff at mobile gaming, and the Blizzard fan base has been hoping for a Diablo 4, so for them to announce a mobile Diablo feels like a slap in the face. It feels like they're abandoning their core audience in favor of the mobile world, which is frequently ridden with microtransactions.