171–180 of 194 posts
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the Chinese are 14% of their business. They could cut in other areas to make up for that loss.
No. The Asia Pacific region is 14% of their business. That certainly includes China, but it isn't all China. https://www.statista.com/statistics/269665/activison-blizzar...
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>retreats for the next 30 years to build strategic power while the rest of the world gets distracted by the next Thing. You could argue that China may have worked like that in the past, but they don't under Xi. Dictators are never very patient. They are too concerned with personal power to put long term interests ahead of personal gain. Just look at the HK situation for evidence. All they had to do was keep going slo…
He can handle looking weak as long as the economy keeps humming along, which maintains CCP securely in place, which lessens internal party tensions. If the Chinese economy crashes... well, look at history for the sum of dictatorship + economic malaise.
He overreacted to something that wasn't actually a threat because it hurt his ego.
>If the Chinese economy crashes... well, look at history for the sum of dictatorship + economic malaise.
But yes that is a very good point.
My son-in-law has lived in China and confronted me about my boycott. His position is that the content in Blizz games is kinda subversive to the authoritarianism practiced by the CCP. No other gaming company has the breadth of socially reformative messaging contained in WoW, Overwatch et.al. Should Blizz perform corporate harakiri by appeasing the angry SJW (not spoken derisively) in the West, the CCP would have no pr…
They've already been censoring this subversive content. Two Overwatch characters are revealed as LGBT in the comics but those comics have been censored in China.
There's also weirder examples like this: https://www.engadget.com/2007/07/10/china-removes-skeletons-...
IMO, Blizzards actions have been borderline incompetent. I completely understand them not wanting their platform to be used to make political statements. This isn't like the NBA situation where Morey used a private social media account to show support for his private political opiniona. This was a platform owned by Blizzard with a very specific content focus. But banning Blitzchung for any amount of time was just dum…
> "We encourage players and community members to express themselves. However, our tournament coverage is a platform for Blizzard e-sports content only. Any future use of the platform to express personal political opinions on sensitive subject matter without Blizzard's express conscent will be met with punative action." > Follow that up with a description of what that punative action would look like. Players already s…
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Blizzard does not release player numbers, but as a public company, they do release their financials. Per Activision Blizzard's investor calls, approximately 10% of their total revenue is from China. So, with a profit margin of 25% and profits in the billions, Activision Blizzard is not going to go bankrupt even should they lose all their Chinese income.
Would you be impressed as a stockholder of a company that experiences a 10% reduction in revenue, voluntarily through an avoidable action?
At this rate Blizzard will move Blizzcon to China
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I don't know about you, but I don't want every entertainment platform to be consumed by political discussion. Sometimes you just want an escape and that's something video games help provide. Those discussions are worth having but there are already plenty of platforms available to have them on.
The part I find especially frustrating is the double speak. Why do they say "We encourage players and community members to express themselves" while punishing someone for expressing himself? Just be honest. "We discouraged players expressing opinions that make it harder for us to sell in other markets." That has the benefit of being honest, plus everyone knows it's the truth anyway.
I definitely think it would be wrong for Blizzard to threaten any kind of punitive action against a player who is making those kinds of statements outside of Blizzard's platform.
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I'm personally curious if the amount of profit is being overstated. My guess is that video game publishers in China grow to similar quality of western publishers and Chinese nationalism means the gamers from which Blizzard is hoping to glean their "profits" turn to supporting China's home-grown games.
> I'm personally curious if the amount of profit is being overstated. My guess is that video game publishers in China grow to similar quality of western publishers and Chinese nationalism means the gamers from which Blizzard is hoping to glean their "profits" turn to supporting China's home-grown games. China is not turning out to be a land of milk and honey for western corporations. The best business decision for a…
IMO, Blizzards actions have been borderline incompetent. I completely understand them not wanting their platform to be used to make political statements. This isn't like the NBA situation where Morey used a private social media account to show support for his private political opiniona. This was a platform owned by Blizzard with a very specific content focus. But banning Blitzchung for any amount of time was just dum…
I understand your point; but I don't think Blizzard actions would had been this strong on any other similar situation (Say, Blitzchung supporting the Catalonian separatists). All evidence seems to indicate Blizzard acted this way because China.
IMO, Blizzards actions have been borderline incompetent. I completely understand them not wanting their platform to be used to make political statements. This isn't like the NBA situation where Morey used a private social media account to show support for his private political opiniona. This was a platform owned by Blizzard with a very specific content focus. But banning Blitzchung for any amount of time was just dum…
Would you see newscasters held responsible for what an interviewee said on a live feed?