3 ms·

I'm not sure if I agree. "Expansion in Chinese markets" seems to be a staple of quarterly earnings reports.

by dvt 7y ago

CamperBob2 7y ago
Do you see companies that aren't partially owned by Chinese interests doing things like this? Admittedly I'm not fully up to speed on the situation, but I doubt Blizzard would have taken this action without considering Tencent's influence.
- tomnipotent 7y ago
  > without considering Tencent's influence At 5% ownership, Tencent doesn't have the muscle to force Blizzard to do anything it wouldn't have already done of its own volition.
  - oarsinsync 7y ago
    Activist investors often have less than 10% stakes in the companies they’re trying to institute changes in. 5% is not a meaningless amount to hold.
    - tomnipotent 7y ago
      I hadn't thought about the parallel to activist investors, that's a very good point. I've seen the hell raised by folks like Carl Icahn...
    - morningseagulls 7y ago
      Agreed, but Epic Games, which is 40% owned by Tencent, is now claiming it won't do what Blizzard did: https://www.insider.com/epic-unlike-blizzard-wont-ban-players-talking-politics-hong-kong-2019-10 https://www.insider.com/epic-unlike-blizzard-wont-ban-player...
  - tyri_kai_psomi 7y ago
    What is going to be more interesting to me is to see what Riot Games, who is wholly owned by Tencent, does when the inevitable Hong Kong protests come in during this years Worlds. There's even a Hong Kong team in the mix, and there's already reports surfacing that Tencent has directed casters not bring up Hong Kong.
    - yomly 7y ago
      If I were the caster, I probably would simply not "live"stream it. Seconds delay lets you pull the cord before it goes public and or change feed. Minutes potentially let you omit the footage and do some super rough and ready edits. Not that I want that to happen...
  - morningseagulls 7y ago
    >At 5% ownership, Tencent doesn't have the muscle to force Blizzard to do anything it wouldn't have already done of its own volition. And at 40% ownership, Tencent apparently also doesn't have the muscle to force Epic Games to do anything: https://www.insider.com/epic-unlike-blizzard-wont-ban-players-talking-politics-hong-kong-2019-10 https://www.insider.com/epic-unlike-blizzard-wont-ban-player...
- dvt 7y ago
  > Do you see companies that aren't partially owned by Chinese interests doing things like this? I think this is kind of cheating (Tencent, Alibaba, etc. have zillions of small-ish investments). I was mostly thinking about Apple, Google, heck, even the NBA.
jrockway 7y ago
I am not sure where I stand on this issue. I see two sides: 1) China has 1.4 billion potential gamers. That is a TON of money to be had. It's almost 5x the population of the US. If you can make money selling to 330 million, you can probably make more selling to 1.4 billion. 2) China might not want our games. A lot of game tropes that we love in the West are simply not allowed to be depicted in China. A group of renegades bands together to throw off the shackles of oppression? Not allowed. One of the characters is openly gay? Not allowed. The heroes don't wear enough clothing? Not allowed. Even "blood and gore" is apparently objectionable in first-person shooters. So it really calls into questions what story you can tell that is going to be well-received in both the US market and in China. Americans aren't going to buy a watered-down game teeming with Communist propaganda. So you are already developing two separate games. I worry that we see $$$ in China, but it's not ever going to pan out. If we can all increase our wealth by 5x in a year by censoring a video game, maybe it's worth it. But if we do that and see nothing in return, then we just look like fools. My fear is that the second case is more likely than the first.

I'm not sure if I agree. "Expansion in Chinese markets" seems to be a staple of quarterly earnings reports.

by dvt 7y ago

I'm not sure if I agree. "Expansion in Chinese markets" seems to be a staple of quarterly earnings reports.

Do you see companies that aren't partially owned by Chinese interests doing things like this? Admittedly I'm not fully up to speed on the situation, but I doubt Blizzard would have taken this action without considering Tencent's influence.

tomnipotent 7y ago
> without considering Tencent's influence At 5% ownership, Tencent doesn't have the muscle to force Blizzard to do anything it wouldn't have already done of its own volition.
- oarsinsync 7y ago
  Activist investors often have less than 10% stakes in the companies they’re trying to institute changes in. 5% is not a meaningless amount to hold.
  - tomnipotent 7y ago
    I hadn't thought about the parallel to activist investors, that's a very good point. I've seen the hell raised by folks like Carl Icahn...
  - morningseagulls 7y ago
    Agreed, but Epic Games, which is 40% owned by Tencent, is now claiming it won't do what Blizzard did: https://www.insider.com/epic-unlike-blizzard-wont-ban-players-talking-politics-hong-kong-2019-10 https://www.insider.com/epic-unlike-blizzard-wont-ban-player...
- tyri_kai_psomi 7y ago
  What is going to be more interesting to me is to see what Riot Games, who is wholly owned by Tencent, does when the inevitable Hong Kong protests come in during this years Worlds. There's even a Hong Kong team in the mix, and there's already reports surfacing that Tencent has directed casters not bring up Hong Kong.
  - yomly 7y ago
    If I were the caster, I probably would simply not "live"stream it. Seconds delay lets you pull the cord before it goes public and or change feed. Minutes potentially let you omit the footage and do some super rough and ready edits. Not that I want that to happen...
- morningseagulls 7y ago
  >At 5% ownership, Tencent doesn't have the muscle to force Blizzard to do anything it wouldn't have already done of its own volition. And at 40% ownership, Tencent apparently also doesn't have the muscle to force Epic Games to do anything: https://www.insider.com/epic-unlike-blizzard-wont-ban-players-talking-politics-hong-kong-2019-10 https://www.insider.com/epic-unlike-blizzard-wont-ban-player...
dvt 7y ago
> Do you see companies that aren't partially owned by Chinese interests doing things like this? I think this is kind of cheating (Tencent, Alibaba, etc. have zillions of small-ish investments). I was mostly thinking about Apple, Google, heck, even the NBA.

jrockway 7y ago

I am not sure where I stand on this issue. I see two sides: 1) China has 1.4 billion potential gamers. That is a TON of money to be had. It's almost 5x the population of the US. If you can make money selling to 330 million, you can probably make more selling to 1.4 billion. 2) China might not want our games. A lot of game tropes that we love in the West are simply not allowed to be depicted in China. A group of renegades bands together to throw off the shackles of oppression? Not allowed. One of the characters is openly gay? Not allowed. The heroes don't wear enough clothing? Not allowed. Even "blood and gore" is apparently objectionable in first-person shooters. So it really calls into questions what story you can tell that is going to be well-received in both the US market and in China. Americans aren't going to buy a watered-down game teeming with Communist propaganda. So you are already developing two separate games. I worry that we see $$$ in China, but it's not ever going to pan out. If we can all increase our wealth by 5x in a year by censoring a video game, maybe it's worth it. But if we do that and see nothing in return, then we just look like fools. My fear is that the second case is more likely than the first.