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Blizzard stock hasn't suffered yet. And I doubt the cancelled subscriptions and closed accounts will have a significant long term impact. Especially since they

Blizzard stock hasn't suffered yet. And I doubt the cancelled subscriptions and closed accounts will have a significant long term impact. Especially since they mitigated account deletions by only allowing manual deletion requests with a submitted id; due to very conveniently timed and curiously persistent technical difficulties... These public outrage storms quickly subside and people go back to playing the games. It's curios to me though how so many companies completely bend the knee to China, even though Chinese only have a small amount of stock or revenue percentage. I guess the market potential is just too great. And of course for companies like Apple they are at the mercy of Chinese supply chains.

gpm 7y ago
Blizzard stock suffering, or not, just has to do with what the public markets think the likely economic outcome of this is for Blizzard. So it seems that so far their shareholders think this will blow over, but there's nothing that makes them a perfect predictor of that. If they keep cancelling events, if Blizzcon crashes and burns, if sales go way down, the stock will suffer.
rm_-rf_slash 7y ago
Prisoners dilemma. Any individual corporation that stands up for human rights suffers the potential loss of market space to competitors and the likely revolt by shareholders, for which ~1/3 of American stocks are owned by foreign investors for whom there is no guarantee that they care about human rights either. If American corporations banded together to stand up to China the way they claim to care so gosh darn much about LGBTQ+ rights, they could send a powerful signal that some values are higher than profits. But who wants to be first?
falcolas 7y ago
Based on what I’ve seen, investors are taking a wait and see attitude - waiting to see what happens with Blizzcon. There are investment guides that are advocating selling ATVI, and those will rise as the outcry and practical impact on Activision-Blizzard’s marketing and sales show. This hit is a pure hit against Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch marketing, and it’s brought the Switch port into the light of day. Sales of the Switch port will be watched closely by both sides.
mepian 7y ago
I managed to delete my account without submitting ID, and so did some other people on Twitter, so I'm not sure if they really mitigated this. It's possible that the reports about the technical difficulties were overblown.
unqueued 7y ago
I don't think this is over. Blizzard has invested a lot in the assumption that they will make a lot of money in China. And if protesters make enough noise, they might destroy that. It would take very little effort by protestors to destroy Blizzard's plans that they've been working on for years. The straw that breaks the camel's back could be that at an official Blizzard event, someone drops a banner that says: 光復香港時代革命. Even if the deal does not go through, it would severely harm Blizzard's leverage.

gpm 7y ago

Blizzard stock suffering, or not, just has to do with what the public markets think the likely economic outcome of this is for Blizzard. So it seems that so far their shareholders think this will blow over, but there's nothing that makes them a perfect predictor of that. If they keep cancelling events, if Blizzcon crashes and burns, if sales go way down, the stock will suffer.

rm_-rf_slash 7y ago

Prisoners dilemma. Any individual corporation that stands up for human rights suffers the potential loss of market space to competitors and the likely revolt by shareholders, for which ~1/3 of American stocks are owned by foreign investors for whom there is no guarantee that they care about human rights either. If American corporations banded together to stand up to China the way they claim to care so gosh darn much about LGBTQ+ rights, they could send a powerful signal that some values are higher than profits. But who wants to be first?

falcolas 7y ago

Based on what I’ve seen, investors are taking a wait and see attitude - waiting to see what happens with Blizzcon. There are investment guides that are advocating selling ATVI, and those will rise as the outcry and practical impact on Activision-Blizzard’s marketing and sales show. This hit is a pure hit against Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch marketing, and it’s brought the Switch port into the light of day. Sales of the Switch port will be watched closely by both sides.

mepian 7y ago

I managed to delete my account without submitting ID, and so did some other people on Twitter, so I'm not sure if they really mitigated this. It's possible that the reports about the technical difficulties were overblown.

unqueued 7y ago

I don't think this is over. Blizzard has invested a lot in the assumption that they will make a lot of money in China. And if protesters make enough noise, they might destroy that. It would take very little effort by protestors to destroy Blizzard's plans that they've been working on for years. The straw that breaks the camel's back could be that at an official Blizzard event, someone drops a banner that says: 光復香港時代革命. Even if the deal does not go through, it would severely harm Blizzard's leverage.