3 ms·

A genuinely impressive list. They clearly know the valuable and successful properties to throw money at. I wonder why other USA tech players passed on those k

by snoshy 6y ago

A genuinely impressive list. They clearly know the valuable and successful properties to throw money at. I wonder why other USA tech players passed on those kinds of investments, because they certainly had the chance, and would ostensibly have been preferable given equivalent terms. There's clearly a bigger play here that other large players in entertainment aren't valuing the same way. What is it?

Negitivefrags 6y ago
As a founder of one of the companies on that list, I can at least say why we went with Tencent. All the western tech companies all had shitty alterior motives for wanting to buy us. Amazon wants to use you to get more prime subscribers. Microsoft wants you to develop games as exclusives for their platforms. Etc etc. You talk to other companies western tech buys and its stories about how they come in and meddle. Only Tencent wants to buy you so that you can keep doing the thing you are doing without screwing around with your company. They have a very good reputation for this and it’s deserved.
- tal8d 6y ago
  The Allen Brack letter wasn't that long ago, have we already forgotten our prizings? I wonder how that fiasco would have gone down if it was a 10% stake, instead of 5%. It would be pretty hard to top getting an American CEO to claim Chinese copy as his own in a publicity crisis management letter... addressing a Chinese censorship publicity crisis.
  - joaomacp 6y ago
    To be clear for people that don't know: in October 2019 a Hearthstone (Blizzard game) player protested for Hong Kong while in a tournament stream, by putting on a mask (ironic right?) and shouting "Liberate Hong Kong". Blizzard proceeded to ban the player, take away his prizemoney and also fire the live stream casters. Following community criticism, they gave back the prizemoney to the player and reduced his ban to 6 months. Also, they said "the specific views expressed by blitzchung were NOT a factor in the decision we made". But in the official Blizzard Weibo account, they had mentioned they applied the ban to "protect China's national dignity". Good videos about this: https://youtu.be/uXEP02K3g5M https://youtu.be/uXEP02K3g5M https://youtu.be/oBpcAEMd7tc https://youtu.be/oBpcAEMd7tc
    - bzb6 6y ago
      Play stupid games...
      - tal8d 6y ago
        A phrase made meaningless by its universal applicability. Blizzard management was upset about their inability to control everyone associated with them? Play stupid games... Don't appreciate someone pointing out the fact that "Play stupid games" is mouth noise? Play stupid games...
- SPBS 6y ago
  That is good to know, Chinese games have a bad rap for being microtransaction heavy/P2W and I had assumed that Tencent would push the games under its wing to follow the same direction.
- k__ 6y ago
  "Amazon wants to use you to get more prime subscribers" Doesn't seem shitty to me.
  - onethought 6y ago
    I’m sure most game developers are constantly thinking: how can I get Amazon more prime subscribers? /s
gabaix 6y ago
They may look for unregulated markets. They focus on highly addictive games, and the games are restricted for the kids in China.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

by snoshy 6y ago

Negitivefrags 6y ago

As a founder of one of the companies on that list, I can at least say why we went with Tencent. All the western tech companies all had shitty alterior motives for wanting to buy us. Amazon wants to use you to get more prime subscribers. Microsoft wants you to develop games as exclusives for their platforms. Etc etc. You talk to other companies western tech buys and its stories about how they come in and meddle. Only Tencent wants to buy you so that you can keep doing the thing you are doing without screwing around with your company. They have a very good reputation for this and it’s deserved.

tal8d 6y ago
The Allen Brack letter wasn't that long ago, have we already forgotten our prizings? I wonder how that fiasco would have gone down if it was a 10% stake, instead of 5%. It would be pretty hard to top getting an American CEO to claim Chinese copy as his own in a publicity crisis management letter... addressing a Chinese censorship publicity crisis.
- joaomacp 6y ago
  To be clear for people that don't know: in October 2019 a Hearthstone (Blizzard game) player protested for Hong Kong while in a tournament stream, by putting on a mask (ironic right?) and shouting "Liberate Hong Kong". Blizzard proceeded to ban the player, take away his prizemoney and also fire the live stream casters. Following community criticism, they gave back the prizemoney to the player and reduced his ban to 6 months. Also, they said "the specific views expressed by blitzchung were NOT a factor in the decision we made". But in the official Blizzard Weibo account, they had mentioned they applied the ban to "protect China's national dignity". Good videos about this: https://youtu.be/uXEP02K3g5M https://youtu.be/uXEP02K3g5M https://youtu.be/oBpcAEMd7tc https://youtu.be/oBpcAEMd7tc
  - bzb6 6y ago
    Play stupid games...
    - tal8d 6y ago
      A phrase made meaningless by its universal applicability. Blizzard management was upset about their inability to control everyone associated with them? Play stupid games... Don't appreciate someone pointing out the fact that "Play stupid games" is mouth noise? Play stupid games...
SPBS 6y ago
That is good to know, Chinese games have a bad rap for being microtransaction heavy/P2W and I had assumed that Tencent would push the games under its wing to follow the same direction.
k__ 6y ago
"Amazon wants to use you to get more prime subscribers" Doesn't seem shitty to me.
- onethought 6y ago
  I’m sure most game developers are constantly thinking: how can I get Amazon more prime subscribers? /s

gabaix 6y ago

They may look for unregulated markets. They focus on highly addictive games, and the games are restricted for the kids in China.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]