How bout dat Blizzard!? UPDATE: Blizzard responds with "China isn't involved please believe us!"

[Chazore]

Lonely_Dolphin said:

DarthMetalliCube said:

Interesting read for those interested in the China situation in relation to gaming (and Western corporation relationships as a whole):

https://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2019/10/12/email-china-is-weakening/

Sean Malstrom (basically the only games journalist ever to predict the Wii's success) seems to have a strong belief China is a paper tiger, on the verge of an economic implosion. Companies like Blizzard and the NBA are absolutely betting on the wrong horse. They're operating under the pretext that China is the future, when trends point to that being anything but the case. Even if there is potential growth there short term, you also have the risks associated with operating under a Communist dictatorship, which is shaky grounds for corporations as the government basically sets all the rules and can manipulate/change just about anything at will. They can completely ban a product or even force you to buy certain products.

Of course it's just one man's opinion but I've been following Malstrom for over a decade and he's an extremely savy person, especially when it comes to business analysis and cultural trends. He gets a scary amount of things right, even when they sound absurd to the average person.

I think if Blizzard is that convinced that China is the future like they claim to be even as they throw Hong Kong and Western gamers under the bus, I'd rather they just outright move to China and then they can adhere to all the restrictive Chinese censorship and Totalitarianism they want, since they've likely cut off a large portion of their Western market anyway. Just become a full blown Chinese corporation and be done with it. Would certainly be interesting to see where that takes them in a decade! XD

I've definitely bought into the hype over China becoming uber powerful, with these recent events only solidifying that idea. I really hope that's true about them heading towards collapse.

lolz, they want to have their cake and eat it too, to be able to make money everywhere. Business-wise it's probably better to stay American as China wouldn't allow them to continue openly supporting LGBT and diversity.

I really hope they do, because I do not want them reeling in more power, because that's just flat out bad for the rest of the world. Their way of life is basically a living hell.

Also, the idea that these corps are going to make an infinite amount of cash from China alone, are in for one hell of a wild ride, because China doesn't like doing business long-term. Why do you think they steal patents and muscle out global competition within their own country?. They'd rather semi-welcome you, steal your shit and boot you out like last night's whore. They don't care about doing business, they care about being the top dog and stealing what they think is theirs to take. 

(inb4 some defender of this bs tries to throw in other country history of stealing shit, because that disingenuous shit posting is most definitely going to rear it's head, from someone in this thread. Count on it).