4 ms·

I wonder if video games will be more free to tell complementary "anti-CCP" stories now that games are mostly banned in mainland China anyway so the CCP has less

I wonder if video games will be more free to tell complementary "anti-CCP" stories now that games are mostly banned in mainland China anyway so the CCP has less leverage?

HWR_14 5y ago
I doubt the CCP has less leverage. Tencent owns a chunk of a lot of gaming companies (not just Epic, but they've been aggressive at buying a percentage of a lot of midsized companies.) Heck, selling a chunk of your gaming company to a Chinese company as a condition to get access to the Chinese market has been a standard practice. For larger companies, gaming is a division of a much larger company that still has business son China or relies on partners who do. I'd like to imagine their influence will wane, but China has been excellent at getting long term influence with a lot of dollars and euros.
addicted 5y ago
How many of these video games companies are independent? Most have been, and are being, snapped up by other companies. Microsoft's XBox division may not be allowed to sell games in China, but Microsoft Corp is still making money there. And then what about the truly independent games that do tell anti-CCP stories. What if the CCP demands that Microsoft and Sony not allow those games on their platform globally if they want to remain in China. Suddenly even independence is no protection. The CCP has taken down Github because of it hosting a single repo the CCP did not like, so this is hardly a stretch of the imagination for an industry that is run on walled gardens.
- akoster 5y ago
  Like HRW_14’s comment [1] and yours it’s quite staggering all the investments China-based gaming companies own or own stakes in such as Tencent [2], let alone your GitHub example. What also concerns me is a similar relationship playing out in Hollywood with China-based corporates buying stakes in American film studios and movie theaters in the US [3]. Even before this large amount of Chinese money flowing into the industry, there was still a competition among studios to insure no content could accurately portray news in China such as the Uyghur Genocide or even portray China or a Chinese company as a villain [4]. Fortunately some filmmakers have fought back against calls to censor or change their films to appease the CCP or Chinese audiences [5] [6] but as you stated I imagine it would be near impossible for an indie filmmaker to distribute through a major studio or theater chain without making such changes without a lot of clout. Scary times for free expression or even reporting news and the truth about ongoing genocides accurately. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29984784 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29984784 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent#Foreign_gaming_investments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent#Foreign_gaming_investm... [3] https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/09/how-hollywood-sold-out-to-china/620021/ https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/09/how-holl... [4] https://pen.org/report/made-in-hollywood-censored-by-beijing/ https://pen.org/report/made-in-hollywood-censored-by-beijing... [5] https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/sony-tarantino-edit-hollywood-china-1202203105/ https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/sony-tarantino-edit-hollyw... [6] https://deadline.com/video/judd-apatow-hollywood-censorship-international-china-saudi-arabia/ https://deadline.com/video/judd-apatow-hollywood-censorship-...

I wonder if video games will be more free to tell complementary "anti-CCP" stories now that games are mostly banned in mainland China anyway so the CCP has less leverage?

HWR_14 5y ago

I doubt the CCP has less leverage. Tencent owns a chunk of a lot of gaming companies (not just Epic, but they've been aggressive at buying a percentage of a lot of midsized companies.) Heck, selling a chunk of your gaming company to a Chinese company as a condition to get access to the Chinese market has been a standard practice. For larger companies, gaming is a division of a much larger company that still has business son China or relies on partners who do. I'd like to imagine their influence will wane, but China has been excellent at getting long term influence with a lot of dollars and euros.

addicted 5y ago

How many of these video games companies are independent? Most have been, and are being, snapped up by other companies. Microsoft's XBox division may not be allowed to sell games in China, but Microsoft Corp is still making money there. And then what about the truly independent games that do tell anti-CCP stories. What if the CCP demands that Microsoft and Sony not allow those games on their platform globally if they want to remain in China. Suddenly even independence is no protection. The CCP has taken down Github because of it hosting a single repo the CCP did not like, so this is hardly a stretch of the imagination for an industry that is run on walled gardens.

akoster 5y ago
Like HRW_14’s comment [1] and yours it’s quite staggering all the investments China-based gaming companies own or own stakes in such as Tencent [2], let alone your GitHub example. What also concerns me is a similar relationship playing out in Hollywood with China-based corporates buying stakes in American film studios and movie theaters in the US [3]. Even before this large amount of Chinese money flowing into the industry, there was still a competition among studios to insure no content could accurately portray news in China such as the Uyghur Genocide or even portray China or a Chinese company as a villain [4]. Fortunately some filmmakers have fought back against calls to censor or change their films to appease the CCP or Chinese audiences [5] [6] but as you stated I imagine it would be near impossible for an indie filmmaker to distribute through a major studio or theater chain without making such changes without a lot of clout. Scary times for free expression or even reporting news and the truth about ongoing genocides accurately. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29984784 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29984784 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent#Foreign_gaming_investments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent#Foreign_gaming_investm... [3] https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/09/how-hollywood-sold-out-to-china/620021/ https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/09/how-holl... [4] https://pen.org/report/made-in-hollywood-censored-by-beijing/ https://pen.org/report/made-in-hollywood-censored-by-beijing... [5] https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/sony-tarantino-edit-hollywood-china-1202203105/ https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/sony-tarantino-edit-hollyw... [6] https://deadline.com/video/judd-apatow-hollywood-censorship-international-china-saudi-arabia/ https://deadline.com/video/judd-apatow-hollywood-censorship-...