I absolutely do not support Blizzard's handling of the situation. However, I will note that as a publicly traded company, blizzard has a legal obligation to try to maximize shareholder value. I think it's pretty clear that's what they were trying to do here, by not pissing off China. The Chinese market is extremely important to that shareholder value.
If you really want to think it through, US law requires blizzard to do things that are best for the company. Chinese law has other requirements. Blizzard has to balance those things.
My position would be that blizzard should now maximize shareholder value by publicly stating that they do not support the brutal Chinese regime, and that they're willing to take those consequences. That'll help him out with most of the rest of the world, and maybe, at least in the short-term, how to make up for whatever revenue and profit they aren't able to generate in China going forward. Admittedly though, people in the west would forget about their courageous position, and it probably wouldn't be good for the long-term health of the company.
Ultimately, this is the position that company chose to put themselves in when they went after the Chinese money.
Last edited by VAMatt - on 12 October 2019
