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> is going to hurt their bottom line far more than China will. Yea right. a) China has a huge market and b) most people don't really care. Go to /r/hearthsto

> is going to hurt their bottom line far more than China will. Yea right. a) China has a huge market and b) most people don't really care. Go to /r/hearthstone or /r/wow and browse by new. People don't care.

lucasmullens 7y ago
I just looked at https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/new/ https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/new/ and 2 of the 3 first posts are about China.
- streb-lo 7y ago
  That's not really representative. 5/30 posts are about HK and of those 5 I counted the post that says "I don't care bout HK stuff." Across all the blizzard subs except maybe /r/blizzard it's almost business as usual.
  - magashna 7y ago
    That's not true. It's spilled over in Overwatch and even the NintendoSwitch subs.
desine 7y ago
I have no evidence, but I am willing to bet there is a large China based disinformation campaign regarding players and their opinions. Right now nothing should be taken at face value, nobody should be taking their feelings from someone else's reddit comment. Not that I'm holding my breath.
- sodosopa 7y ago
  Tencent is also an investor in reddit. I wouldn’t doubt they’re turfing the threads.
errantspark 7y ago
Tencent owns a mere 5% of Actiblizzard and they generate less than 10% of their revenue in China. Sure it's an expanding market, but I don't think that the amount of pressure necessary to make it unprofitable is outside the reach of the protesting consumer-base. I don't really believe it will play out like that, but one can hope.
onli 7y ago
Many of the blizzard related subreddits are staffed by mods that remove posts about China. And when you post something in /r/wow you see a big "no politics" banner. Not seeing that many posts about this there means nothing about how the players feel. And reddit in general was up in arms about this.
- streb-lo 7y ago
  >And reddit in general was up in arms about this. For two days. >Many of the blizzard related subreddits are staffed by mods that remove posts about China. And when you post something in /r/wow you see a big "no politics" banner. Not seeing that many posts about this there means nothing about how the players feel. Activity level is pretty much the same. I'm sorry, but this is just the latest outrage target and in two weeks it will be something new entirely.
  - apineda 7y ago
    reddit is not representative of sentiment. I don't think the topic will go away so quickly, esp since NBA and Lebron have brought so much heat on them as well.
- Gigablah 7y ago
  There was a bigger outrage about EA during the lootbox fiasco. The most downvoted post in Reddit history belongs to an EA representative. EA doesn't seem to have suffered.
  - onli 7y ago
    EA changed their lootbox strategy in multiple games and thus lost millions over that. The whole industry took a step back, regulations were announced or at least threatened in several countries. The outrage against EA had a huge effect. It didn't destroy EA, but that also wasn't the goal nor feasible. Semi-political outrage can not destroy a gaming company (not until politicians carry on). Each year there are new 10-year old kids going into stores/the first time onto Steam and buy something flashy they want to play. And in countries like Germany a third of the population plays games. Those buyers are not unified politically nor culturally. But: If the opinion that a company does harm to gamers or people in general becomes prevalent, that's a huge danger for the company in the long run. It dampens its success, how their marketing is received, what they can do and what they can say. They lose access to the core group. Stuff like this is important enough.
donio 7y ago
https://investor.activision.com/news-releases/news-release-details/activision-blizzard-announces-second-quarter-2019-financial https://investor.activision.com/news-releases/news-release-d... It may be a huge potential market but it's not a huge portion of current revenues. All of APAC (which is not just China) is only 12% of the total.
mattmar96 7y ago
I was really disappointed to see this earlier today. Even many of the top posts were gameplay related. It took me .5 seconds to say goodbye to Blizzard and all their games.

lucasmullens 7y ago

I just looked at https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/new/ https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/new/ and 2 of the 3 first posts are about China.

streb-lo 7y ago
That's not really representative. 5/30 posts are about HK and of those 5 I counted the post that says "I don't care bout HK stuff." Across all the blizzard subs except maybe /r/blizzard it's almost business as usual.
- magashna 7y ago
  That's not true. It's spilled over in Overwatch and even the NintendoSwitch subs.

desine 7y ago

I have no evidence, but I am willing to bet there is a large China based disinformation campaign regarding players and their opinions. Right now nothing should be taken at face value, nobody should be taking their feelings from someone else's reddit comment. Not that I'm holding my breath.

sodosopa 7y ago
Tencent is also an investor in reddit. I wouldn’t doubt they’re turfing the threads.

errantspark 7y ago

Tencent owns a mere 5% of Actiblizzard and they generate less than 10% of their revenue in China. Sure it's an expanding market, but I don't think that the amount of pressure necessary to make it unprofitable is outside the reach of the protesting consumer-base. I don't really believe it will play out like that, but one can hope.

onli 7y ago

Many of the blizzard related subreddits are staffed by mods that remove posts about China. And when you post something in /r/wow you see a big "no politics" banner. Not seeing that many posts about this there means nothing about how the players feel. And reddit in general was up in arms about this.

streb-lo 7y ago
>And reddit in general was up in arms about this. For two days. >Many of the blizzard related subreddits are staffed by mods that remove posts about China. And when you post something in /r/wow you see a big "no politics" banner. Not seeing that many posts about this there means nothing about how the players feel. Activity level is pretty much the same. I'm sorry, but this is just the latest outrage target and in two weeks it will be something new entirely.
- apineda 7y ago
  reddit is not representative of sentiment. I don't think the topic will go away so quickly, esp since NBA and Lebron have brought so much heat on them as well.
Gigablah 7y ago
There was a bigger outrage about EA during the lootbox fiasco. The most downvoted post in Reddit history belongs to an EA representative. EA doesn't seem to have suffered.
- onli 7y ago
  EA changed their lootbox strategy in multiple games and thus lost millions over that. The whole industry took a step back, regulations were announced or at least threatened in several countries. The outrage against EA had a huge effect. It didn't destroy EA, but that also wasn't the goal nor feasible. Semi-political outrage can not destroy a gaming company (not until politicians carry on). Each year there are new 10-year old kids going into stores/the first time onto Steam and buy something flashy they want to play. And in countries like Germany a third of the population plays games. Those buyers are not unified politically nor culturally. But: If the opinion that a company does harm to gamers or people in general becomes prevalent, that's a huge danger for the company in the long run. It dampens its success, how their marketing is received, what they can do and what they can say. They lose access to the core group. Stuff like this is important enough.

donio 7y ago

https://investor.activision.com/news-releases/news-release-details/activision-blizzard-announces-second-quarter-2019-financial https://investor.activision.com/news-releases/news-release-d... It may be a huge potential market but it's not a huge portion of current revenues. All of APAC (which is not just China) is only 12% of the total.

mattmar96 7y ago

I was really disappointed to see this earlier today. Even many of the top posts were gameplay related. It took me .5 seconds to say goodbye to Blizzard and all their games.