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[–]midasmulligunn 257 points258 points  (7 children)

"We apologise. We love China," - James Harden of the Houston Rockets. Fucking embarrassment.

[–]Venom_is_an_ace 2306 points2307 points  (131 children)

Why uninstall Destiny 2? Activision no longer owns that game nor do they have the ability to touch it. Bungie owns it

[–]KOOLYWOOLY 1139 points1140 points  (72 children)

That and it’s also now on steam.

[–]PorkAmbassadorR7 2700X | 16GB G.Skill | 980Ti 1131 points1132 points  (52 children)

Looks like OP will have to download ~80GB again when they realise that Destiny 2 has nothing to do with Activision Blizzard any more lol

[–]a-aron625 327 points328 points  (24 children)

You had to download it again to play through steam so not a big deal

[–]tiradium 75 points76 points  (13 children)

Actually most of the assets will carry over. I was reading the discord of my clan and a few people just moved the Destiny folder. Steam scanned and they said about 56GB of content was matched and only the rest had to be downloaded again

[–]Something_SyckGTX 1080/i7 8700k/16 GB DDR4 33 points34 points  (9 children)

Yea I did that too. Apparently bungie said not to but that's always worked in the past for me

[–]MrCufa 11 points12 points  (5 children)

You're still probably re-downloading like 30gb of data which means you have about 30gb of hard drive space being wasted. So I think uninstalling and reinstalling from Steam is still better.

[–]Shaggy_Onei7 4790k @ 4.7ghz | EVGA 1080TI Black 8 points9 points  (4 children)

For those with a bit of free hard drive space and a capped internet this is the better option.

[–]LunarNinjax 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For the pre-load.

But for the final, unpacked version, a directory copy will work.

[–]PorkAmbassadorR7 2700X | 16GB G.Skill | 980Ti 115 points116 points  (3 children)

It would be if OP had just downloaded it on Steam like I have.

~New Destiny player

[–]a-aron625 28 points29 points  (2 children)

True but it sounded like he's been playing for a while

[–]gengar_king_of_bah 66 points67 points  (19 children)

Bungies largest sole investor is a Chinese gaming company now.

Edit- NetEase is the company..

[–]pkrolikoR5 2600, RX 470 66 points67 points  (9 children)

It's practically impossible to avoid any company with a poor human rights record these days. Large corporations have so many hands in smaller companies odds are they are associated in at least some way.

[–]DSWBeef 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yea I mean what are you gonna do? Not buy groceries? Clothes? Gas?

[–]Teeklin 14 points15 points  (6 children)

It's not that hard to avoid them per se. It just requires sacrifice and a lot of time looking into what you're buying/who you're giving money to and who owns them and who owns THEM.

It's a giant pain in the ass and we're all way too spoiled to give up so much that we enjoy and do that much research into being conscientious buyers, but it's certainly possible.

[–]kintastic1 11 points12 points  (5 children)

So... what you're saying is that it's pretty hard to avoid them, just not impossible.

[–]TheLinden 6 points7 points  (2 children)

For now they have minority stake so it's fine.

[–]gengar_king_of_bah 5 points6 points  (1 child)

It's a lot of money though.... I'm probably wrong but I thought I remember hearing like 80 million. I've started the f2p new light mode recently and really like it. It's just something to watch for, that investment is going to look for a return eventually hopefully it comes in the form of people wanting to pay for destiny content. I can say I'm very close to purchasing shadow keep because I've enjoyed so much so far

[–]EnigmaNL 7 points8 points  (3 children)

Or when they realize uninstalling a game they already bought and paid for isn't going to send any message. They already got your money, they couldn't care less about what you do with the game.

[–]aorimiku 9 points10 points  (1 child)

To anyone interested, you can transfer your progress from any platform to steam here: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/PCMove

It also allows consoles to move to PC.

[–]nwdogr 35 points36 points  (13 children)

Well, an official Dota 2 tournament in China was censored a couple months back, so it's not like Valve is exactly standing up to Chinese censorship either.

[–]SgtDoughnut 19 points20 points  (6 children)

I mean that was in china, you kninda have to follow the laws of the land you are in. Now after this there should never be a DOTA 2 championship in china again. But i doubt that will happen, cant pass up on all that sweet sweet Chinese money.

[–]MuchStache 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I don't know, the crowd was fucking shite. Loads of cheering when Chinese teams played, completely absent on the other games, especially the final.

I don't think the even left a good enough impression to grant China another TI anytime soon.

[–]BuggyVirus 16 points17 points  (3 children)

Maybe I’m wrong but I think Perfect World, the chinese partner hosting the tournament was moderating the chat, not Valve

[–]nwdogr 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They are Valve's official partner for the Chinese market and Valve did not say anything to the effect that Perfect World were wrong in doing so, nor did they choose a different partner. If Blitzchung had been suspended by a Chinese partner of Blizzard and Blizzard supported their decision, I'm not sure it would be much different than Blizzard suspending him themselves.

[–]tevert 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It's not on battle.net at all, the only button for it is to uninstall

[–]Bhu124 71 points72 points  (28 children)

I'm hooked on Destiny 2 (Very close to buying the SK Deluxe Package) and am gonna uninstall Overwatch first thing when I reach home. Blizzard deserves neither my money nor my time anymore, not even my disk space.

[–]TrustMeImSingle 41 points42 points  (15 children)

In June 2018, Bungie announced that Chinese video game conglomerate NetEase had invested $100 million into Bungie, in exchange for a minority stake in the company and a seat on the company's board of directors.


They are as much in china pockets as these other companies.

[–]Ptepix 56 points57 points  (7 children)

While true, Bungie has not yet made any moves like this one. If you were to boycott every game even remotely connected to China, I think you'd find yourself not playing many games. Personally I will continue to play Destiny until Bungie makes a move like this. If that happens, I will have no problem deleting my Bungie account as well.

[–]Dynamaxion 38 points39 points  (5 children)

You’d also find yourself not on reddit!

[–]LJ_is_best_J 29 points30 points  (4 children)

Reddit doesn't understand how much reddit is actually China lol

[–]Dynamaxion 22 points23 points  (0 children)

They would if it was convenient to boycott, but it’s not so nobody does. We just use Reddit to bash China even though it’s so irrelevant Reddit doesn’t even care enough to stop it.

You hear me Winnie? Fuck you. Yeah that’s right, look at me making a difference.

[–]JDgoesmarching 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I’m already seeing a lot of stupid whataboutism about this issue. As it stands, our economy is so entrenched in China that it’s impossible to not use something they make.

What you can do is punish companies who allow their Chinese investors to censor their employees. One step at a time.

[–]SwampOfDownvotes 3 points4 points  (1 child)

If you wanna not support china at all you basically can't buy any tech, need to make your own clothes, and only shop at local farmers markets. It's more about picking your battles against it becoming a bigger problem in a company.

[–]CouchPotatoDean 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Can’t use Reddit either.

[–]Cool_Like_dat 6 points7 points  (0 children)

A Chinese company having a seat and minority stake in board of directors means they are in Chinese pockets now?

[–]Shock4ndAwe 924 points925 points  (158 children)

Nothing will change until Blizzard feels the heat from the West. Can't stand what they're doing and you're playing WoW? Cancel the subscription.

If you don't, this only gets worse.

[–]TopMacaroon 308 points309 points  (23 children)

yeah well china is likely their biggest customer now so american's are 2nd class.

If a Diablo mobile game instead of Diablo 4 didn't spell it out, hopefully this clue sticks.

[–]hippymule 166 points167 points  (4 children)

Want to know what's beautiful about being a second priority consumer?

We can ditch them entirely, and support more home grown and domestically tailored entertainment.

Fuck censorship compromise in every facet.

[–]EveryRedditUser 33 points34 points  (2 children)

It may not be the biggest market they have, bit its still a huge market and one that's vital to them. If they get boycotted in the west it will still hurt.

[–]glowpipe 11 points12 points  (1 child)

Last year actiblizz had a annual revenue of 3.8 billion in America. Europe 2.6 billion and Asia a bit over 1 billion USD. i think you are a bit off


[–]Lotrfanatic8 51 points52 points  (7 children)

Holy shit, I didn’t make that connection until just now.

[–]TopMacaroon 126 points127 points  (6 children)

Now you know why Diablo fans in the US and Europe feel like victims of globalization. China has 1.4 billion people and selling 100 $1 skins in a phone game makes them more money than selling 1 $60 dollar game. The sad reality is that they probably sell 1000 skins to every $60 game. Now you understand why Diablo Mobile and 'Do you not have phones?' happened, they don't care about Diablo or you, they want that sweet chinese phone game mtx money.

[–]Excal2 41 points42 points  (0 children)

11/10 breakdown right here. The world is a frustrating place.

[–]thinkpadiusi5 6600k 3.5Ghz - 2x GTX 980s - ASUS Z170-Deluxe - 16GB 3600MHz 26 points27 points  (4 children)

Chinese spending in the mobile phone market amounts to 40% of the total spent on apps worldwide. source That amount is probably disproportionate to the number of actual cell phone users in china.

The sourc article indicates there are millions of Chinese people who don't even have cell phones and there are also some Chinese cities with very little cell phone usage, while other cities are essentially tier 0 cities with total usage.

Cell phone usage is very stratified, so thinking about it in terms of "1.4 billion people with cell phones" is inaccurate and misleading. The 1.4 billion population, at best, represents an ideal user base that will exist some time in the future, and it's definitely an enticing reason to invest in phone apps, but it's pointless to make a game that won't reach that population for another 5 or 10 years.

The article seems to indicate that cell phone users in china, like cell phone users in Europe and America, are at various stages of sophistication and it seams to vary from city to city. With the most "sophisticated" spending less on apps and more on microtransactions.

None of this contradicts your point, I'm just adding flavor.

[–]BobKurlan 7 points8 points  (2 children)

Those millions without phones will get phones in the next 5 years. China is modernizing at a rapid pace.

[–]FuzFuz 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If a Diablo mobile game instead of Diablo 4

I'm still mad.

Very, very mad.

[–]Administrative_Fact1 90 points91 points  (14 children)

Blizzard expects that. They rather drop the western market before they drop the chinese one.

[–]jdswhatwhat 143 points144 points  (4 children)

Fine fuck em. They can leave and enjoy the Chinese market. If they would rather sell out from being decent human beings and chase profits then good riddance. The company was basically a corpse of its former glory anyways.

[–]stupid_egg 24 points25 points  (3 children)

Then let them officially label themselves as such, a Chinese company. That way we can stand against the CCP and them at the same time without worrying about any of our future gaming incidents coming from them.

[–]readthefuckinsidebar[S] 126 points127 points  (13 children)

No I cancelled my wow subscription and swore off buying any more hearthstone expansions.

[–]InvaderZed 40 points41 points  (9 children)

Blizard games are really all i have been playing for a while now so i am rather miffed that this has happened. After stewing on this a number of hours i have now unsubscribed and will need to find something else to do with my time.

[–]VenomB 22 points23 points  (5 children)

Destiny is free to play!

Tons of options are available. I mean, Blizz has what... 10 games?

[–]FrankSenate 15 points16 points  (4 children)

2 dead games, a shitty shooter that they will never balance, a wow expansion so bad most people would rather play a 15 year old game and 2 RTS games that are by this point pretty old, not missing out on much by boycotting them honestly

[–]Cynyr 3 points4 points  (3 children)

I don't really follow Blizzard games, so I can guess a couple of these, but what are the others? Warcraft = dead, Overwatch, WoW, Starcraft / SC2?

[–]WitchTheKitten 3 points4 points  (2 children)

I'm guessing they meant Heroes of the Storm as the other dead one, and Warcraft as the 2nd RTS. There's Hearthstone as well.

[–]delitomatoes 2 points3 points  (1 child)

HS is pretty dead, they lost like 80% of their top streamers to Auto Chess and MTG

[–]willywaka 26 points27 points  (6 children)

Blizzard cannot be forgiven for this either. If they issue some half-assed apology, not fucking good enough. Even if they drop the Chinese market completely and buyout their Chinese investors, too fucking late, not good enough. As long as I live and as long as I can avoid it, I will never again give any company money that seeks to censor free speech and erode western democracy and values.

Honestly I've never been this mad at a company like this before. Blizzard was an American company FFS. They sold us out, not just Americans, but all of us living in free and democratic societies. I was going to resub WoW to try out vanilla mode and get some nostalgia going, but not now, not ever.

Never forget, never forgive. Thanks for the memories Blizzard, but I'm done with you forever.

[–]TheObstruction 14 points15 points  (2 children)

I feel like rewarding companies for doing good is as important as punishing them for doing bad. If they make actual changes but don't see any market difference, why bother continuing with those changes?

[–]Mysteri0usMysteri0 114 points115 points  (59 children)

look at borderlands 3 "hurr I'm never getting that game, they fireed the claptrap voice actor and did other shit, and even went epic exclusive"

*x is playing borderlands 3*

"I-I dont support what they did, but its a fun game okay????"

[–]Sushiki 95 points96 points  (12 children)

I haven't touched a single epic game, just because you keep friends with low integrity doesn't mean everyone is like that lol

[–]Scraps23 27 points28 points  (3 children)

Not to mention the game launcher pushed notifications that pulled me out of my games for marketing ads. Absolute trash software lol

[–]TheObstruction 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Holy fuck, seriously? That's fucking inexcusable.

[–]Scraps23 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I quit the game I was playing and instantly uninstalled the launcher and games.

[–]reality_is_lame 2 points3 points  (0 children)

didn't need one, but thanks for another reason to stay away from EGS.

[–]Tetzhu 18 points19 points  (1 child)

A friendly reminder that epic games is 40% owned by tencent a horrible Chinese company if you need more compelling reasons to boycott epic.

[–]kaibasean 89 points90 points  (36 children)

Dude, it's worth giving up on gamers in general, we deserve everything we get.

I gave up around this time:


[–]Mysteri0usMysteri0 55 points56 points  (32 children)

haha yeah I was actually thinking of that picture when I wrote that. Every time its "This time we will certainly protest and OOOH LOOK AT THIS PREORDER OMG I WANT IT SO MUCH"

Gamers have no sense of control when it comes to buying shit I'm amazed they're able to afford food

[–]NargacugaRider 43 points44 points  (19 children)

I just play this game called “never buy a game for a year because it’ll be patched and discounted by then. also no early access, I don’t pay to beta test.” It works out super well. I have a couple exceptions (Monster Hunter games, Pokémon main series games) because they have never burned me.

By the time I play, games are patched up, on whatever platform I might want, and I know if they’re garbage or not. The last game I broke this code with was Destiny 2, because I got a preorder for free with my video card. Game was fairly fun but I bought the expansion pass and it was absolute garbage at the endgame. I didn’t like how they held off on any meaningful content and QoL patches until they could sell more full priced content, so I quit forever.

and yes there is a sub for patient gamers that is linked every time I say this, person-reading-this-who’s-foaming-at-the-mouth-to-make-a-subreddit-link, I get it

[–]VenomB 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm a little more floozy with my game money. I'll pre order games from stuidios that I want to put my faith in (CDPR, basically at this point), buy day one if the game has good reviews (and I've been watching it), and the rest I usually buy once the discounts start to hit.

So far, I've gotten off really well with it. Takes a lot of control when something happens, though. I didn't preorder Metro Exodus and wound up not being able to even play it since I won't support Epic. Funny enough, because of that, I won't pre order their next game either.

[–]Surcouf 18 points19 points  (1 child)



wipes foam

It's a nice sub for nice patient people. If you have enough self control to wait to play a game, you usually have enough self control to not get on flame wars in the comment. Come join the best gaming sub that doesn't talk about the last new shining thing.

[–]Psych-roxx 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Jeez clean yourself it's everywhere!

[–]Flaktrack 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have been doing this lately and it's great. The amount of shit I've dodged just by waiting it out... these days the biggest issues are things like bait & switch games where they drop MTX in a few months later or completely change the nature of the game.

[–]BlueDraconis 2 points3 points  (1 child)


I did this, and it resulted in me not buying an Activision game again.

I waited for Call of Duty: Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3, and they rarely got any decent sales. By the time they got discounted to $20-$30, games released in the same year as those two were already going for $5-$15, so I always bought those instead. The 2 CoD games are still in my wishlist after all these years.

[–]MrJinxyface 24 points25 points  (8 children)


It's almost like the people protesting and the people pre ordering are a different group of people or something.

Who would have thought.

[–]Stickman95 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Gamers have no sense of control when it comes to buying shit

Thats the biggest problem with gamers. One of the few industries where you can make money with releasing broken shit with a famous name or a cg trailer

[–]Mysteri0usMysteri0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't understand how or why they buy these games anyway, I'm reluctant to buy an overwhelmingly positive game on steam because I might get bored of it

[–]CaptainMaclagman 21 points22 points  (4 children)

I shrug off the "epic is spying on their users". However I decided to uninstall the launcher and give up the game I enjoy because this is where I draw the line, to show I stand against Tencent meddling so much in the industry.

[–]Mysteri0usMysteri0 24 points25 points  (1 child)

I just think its shitty marketing to rely on blocking a game from other stores, and also because the launcher runs like shit

[–]NargacugaRider 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I didn’t want to install that launcher anyway, but wasn’t adamantly against it because whatever.... until I read that the only way I could use it is by whitelisting all their tracking on my PiHole. Fuck no. Now I’m adamantly against it.

[–]lalzylolzy 6 points7 points  (6 children)

Even if the entire west decides to say: "Screw this, I'll never buy another activision game", the China money trumps all of that, by a lot. Ideally both markets is best, but if they have to choose China market, vs west market, China is the more profitable bet.

With that said, the only real solution is to accept Activision Blizzard isn't your friend, and move on. Companies exist to make money, that is their one and only goal. Keeping you happy is only in the context of making money, if making you not happy earns them more money, they'll do that. So essentially: Find other games to play and ignore the company\pretend it doesn't exist. It gets easier with time. I don't even know what the last Assassins Creed is.

[–]CrabJuice83 419 points420 points  (38 children)

I also uninstalled Destiny 2 which pains me because I was having such a good time playing.

You know, you could just transfer your progress to Steam and keep playing there. Acti-Blizz won't see a dime if you buy the expansion either, as the studio that made the game isn't part of AB anymore.

[–]TheWordOfTyleri5 - 9600k | EVGA RTX 2080 Ti 229 points230 points  (3 children)

You can't even play it on the Blizzard launcher anymore, not sure what OP is talking about. Unless they didn't know Bungie and Activision split?

[–]andyphill 47 points48 points  (2 children)

Yeah it was taken off of the launcher the first of October

[–]TicklishRocketJohn Romero's Bitch 20 points21 points  (0 children)

The play Button was also replaced with an uninstall button haha.

[–]Brownt0wn_ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Like 7 days ago? I’m gonna give this guy a pass on not knowing that one.

[–]readthefuckinsidebar[S] 94 points95 points  (18 children)

I honestly didn't know that, thanks for bringing it to my attention. It's a really fun game.

[–]AL2009man 52 points53 points  (4 children)

It was announced all the way back in January 10th, 2019. I'm surprised that you missed that.

[–]Joseph_Best_JoJo 22 points23 points  (2 children)

By the way OP is talking about this it seems like they've not played the game in ages and are just talking about D2 since it's the most relevant Activision game at the moment (well not Activision anymore but with them not paying attention it's what they'd assume)

[–]tinkyXIII 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Just head to bungie.net to do the transfer and you're golden. See you on the moon!

[–]baconator81 19 points20 points  (14 children)

Buddy.. if you think Valve which runs The International in Shanghai this year would have done any different.. You are wrong.. They just haven't given the players an opportunity to speak about this. Valve pretty much needs China more than Blizzard does thanks to the popularity of Dota2.

[–]TSP-FriendlyFire 20 points21 points  (7 children)

And I hope people shit on Valve... if they do something like this. Until that happens, they're definitely the better choice.

[–]XecutionerNJ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

When Valve does anything like this I'll swear off them also. Blizzard did it this time and I'm boycotting them now.

No "Whataboutism", we just have to stand up to oppression when it occurs. No excuses, no relenting.

[–]inofbi 327 points328 points  (12 children)

Hey China - Fuck you

[–]Saerain 122 points123 points  (5 children)

China is asshoe.

[–]Rayth69 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Why Charlie hate?

[–]PM_ME_CARL_WINSLOW 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Because Xi is a bastard man!

[–]WestsideStorybro 30 points31 points  (2 children)

Social infraction detected. You have 1 point left on your Social License. All air travel and online access has been suspended. Please report to your local Detention Center Reeducation camp.

[–]siledas 2 points3 points  (1 child)

You have 1 point left on your Social License.

...Finger's gonna kill me...

[–]bobisdacool1 230 points231 points  (42 children)

If you love yourself some economic warfare, you have a few options:

- Boycott Blizzard games (Pros: Legal. Cons: You can't play your favorite Blizzard games.)

- Pirate Blizzard games (Pros: You actually destroy Blizzard's revenue stream while still playing their games. Cons: Illegal, frowned upon.)

- Spread damaging information about Blizzard games (Pros: Low-effort for high impact. Cons: Ineffective unless sustained.)

- Spread damaging misinformation about Blizzard games (Pros: Damage is done by the time people realize info was false. Cons: Illegal, undermines your message when caught.)


- Create a MASSIVE backlog of personal info requests to take advantage of the power of GDPR compliance (Pros: Legal and extremely time/resource consuming for Blizzard. Cons: EU citizens only, also Blizzard has currently blocked such requests so you'll have to take the extra step to complain to your country's privacy authorities.)

[–]Dynamaxion 90 points91 points  (8 children)

undermines your message when caught.

Nah not in modern times. You simply spam even more misinformation to keep people from talking about how your last accusation was false. Certain news networks and media outlets have been doing this for decades at a time.

[–]tnthrowawaysadface 42 points43 points  (0 children)

This guy reddits

[–]ihahp 39 points40 points  (18 children)

Am I living in crazy word? Why are we talking about boycotting american games and NOT boycotting products, clothes, and services made in China? Is it because god-damn Walmart's prices are so low I can't help but get me some Chinese dishware, or a Chinese phone case, or a Chinese USB breakout box? It is just too easy to blame a company that makes a game you don't play anyway, while it's just too inconvenient to strip Chinese-made products out of our lives whenever possible?

Why is everyone talking about Activation but NO ONE Is talking about actually boycotting China? (we can do both, you know) Why haven't we been talking about it this whole time, during the HK Protests?

[–]crownjewel82 33 points34 points  (2 children)

So people have tried that. They found it to be really hard to figure out which products had Chinese manufacturing because often its just component parts. You can still slap a made in America label on something that was manufactured in the US with Chinese parts. (As an example)

If someone can do the leg work of figuring out the sourcing and give people alternatives that are guaranteed China free, that would go a long way to boosting a boycott.

[–]skyturnedred 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I'm now wondering if putting "China free" stickers on products would be racist.

[–]RaoulRumblr 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's the bigger move, I think for many who are going to be very defensive of Blizzard this is a start even though Im more on board with what you are saying

[–]Lowblockify 2 points3 points  (4 children)

Hasn't it always been pushed by piracy advocates that piracy doesn't affect developer's profits? Every time the subject comes up there's a dozen people dog piling with the "actually it doesn't do anything to developers since we weren't going to buy it anyway" bit, why has that changed now?

[–]rytioArchLinux with Win10 in a VM 81 points82 points  (5 children)

When you ask for/okay with a little bit of censorship, don't be surprised when they eventually censor something you care about.

[–]JohnnyBGaming 28 points29 points  (2 children)


[–]Redditaspropaganda 143 points144 points  (16 children)

i get why blizzard censored his interview.

but wtf is with the firing of casters, and subsequent revocation of his prize earnings. that was too much and unnecessary.

[–]PM_ME_HUGE_CRITSWASD4LYFE 157 points158 points  (4 children)

It's a warning to anyone else thinking about speaking up.

[–]TONKAHANAH 46 points47 points  (3 children)

which sounds like a very good reason for EVERYONE to speak up

[–]BULL3TP4RK 27 points28 points  (3 children)

Iirc people have reported that the casters knew what the dude was going to say before he said it.

[–]GrizNectar 32 points33 points  (2 children)

They told him that just the 8 words are fine and then ducked under the desk while he said it, they definitely knew before hand. Still shitty but yea

[–]DukeDaniel 18 points19 points  (0 children)

He was wearing a Hong Kong protestor style getup it was obvious what he was about to say.

[–]andquester 2 points3 points  (0 children)

OIC, this is the piece of information I was missing. Thanks.

[–]lazycrypt 15 points16 points  (3 children)

Because they would rather appease a totalitarian dictatorship than risk losing a cent of profit.

[–]Dynamaxion 10 points11 points  (1 child)

As would all of us, which is why China still has us by the balls.

We could have boycotted China this whole time, as a society, but we still flock to Walmart to buy Chinese shit because paying 20, 40, 60% more to have it made in the free world isn’t worth it to us.

[–]Sushiki 49 points50 points  (3 children)

I personally will not support blizzard anymore, I can't get others to do so but I'll just say this, one day it could be you, every time we let this shit happen it becomes easier and easier for it to happen in the future.

[–]ronnie_s 186 points187 points  (51 children)

The biggest market in the world right now for Hearthstone is China. Blizzard's options are to either dump that entire market, not just for HS, but all current games, and all future games OR support a tournament winner and their political views

In principle they should support the tournament winner and principles. The economic reality is that it's going to hurt their revenues by losing China, significantly

If they are going to stick with China, then gamers are going to have to lose them business equal to China's market share - essentially millions of gamers are going to have to boycott Blizzard, and if gaming history has taught us anything, us gamers rarely (successfully) boycott games, and these things often blow over in a month.

The grim reality

[–]the_web_dev 111 points112 points  (11 children)

Except Blizzard didn’t even push back, they took immediate zero tolerance actions. It’s one thing to bend to financial pressure, it’s another thing entirely to get on both knees and finish...

[–]raydialseeker 41 points42 points  (0 children)

China exerts pressure and bans random shit super easily.

[–]BloodprinceOZ 23 points24 points  (0 children)

getting on both knees and finishing is the only way to satisfy winnie the pooh and his honey spewing asshole

[–]ronnie_s 28 points29 points  (3 children)

Yeah I agree, but China seems to have this insane zero tolerance policy (as fucked up as that is). The Houston Rockets immediately pulled back and kissed ass, but despite that China is still taking reciprocal actions

We don't know what exactly went on behind the scenes, but it's possible that if Blizzard stalled in any way, that China would have fully pulled the plug.

[–]ravenraven173 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think Blizzard know the Chinese well, they go ape shit over stuff like this. So it was purely a business decision to do it fast.

[–]LetsDiscourse 38 points39 points  (3 children)

I personally don't care if my actions lead to change or not, it's about me. I can't live with myself if I continue supporting them. Nothing will change, but at least I'll know I did the right thing.

[–]AlphaWhelp 10 points11 points  (0 children)

You know who is going to get hurt a lot worse?

The Hong Kong citizens.

[–]Bhu124 18 points19 points  (0 children)

And yet, it is worth trying. We regular people rarely get any opportunity to make a difference in such big issues beyond just casting our votes every few years, if there's even a chance that stopping playing a game is gonna make even a tiny amount of difference then it's worth trying imo.

The beautiful thing about games is that there a ton of them and you can always find a substitute, might not be exactly what you wanted but still good enough and a lot of times, a lot more than what you wanted.

[–]PlanetReno 31 points32 points  (7 children)

If blizzard wants to be a company that makes games for china, fuck em. Don't give them your money, let them suck China's dick and take the beatings. Don't be a part of the problem.

[–]raydialseeker 11 points12 points  (3 children)

They'd rather have more money. Losing a player,2 casters and a small boycott from the West isn't going to affect their revenues nearly as much. This is an easy decision for them to make given their ethical background. China runs a super tight ship when it comes to stuff like too.

[–]pariahjosiah 6 points7 points  (2 children)

I don't know. China will only play your games so long as they haven't copied it and made their own version yet. The West will be loyal customers if you do right by them. Losing this kind of goodwill might not hurt much in the short term, but it will definitely hurt in the long term.

Meanwhile, the Chinese money will only flow as long as they don't replace you, and well, I'm guessing the Chinese are hard at work replacing or buying up all the Western gaming companies.

[–]gameragodzilla 40 points41 points  (1 child)

I am cynical that most gamers will cause enough of a loss for Blizzard to matter, same as I’m cynical that the Hong Kong protests will succeed. China’s a brutal regime, speaking from experience.

But even if a gesture doesn’t make much difference, I’m not gonna support Blizzard ever again. At least I’ll feel good about myself.

[–]wafer_thin 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We get nowhere as a group until enough of our individual values have discipline tied to them. I am with you.

[–]HorrorScopeZ 60 points61 points  (19 children)

Adam Silver of the NBA has updated his stance and it couldn't be more correct. NBA has been caught in a major shitstorm...


China: "We're strongly dissatisfied and oppose Adam Silver's claim to support Morey's right to freedom of expression," CCTV said. "We believe that any remarks that challenge national sovereignty and social stability are not within the scope of freedom of speech."

China has now stopped all NBA Games from airing and are looking at all current deals. Their digital deal owned by TENCENT is worth 1.5 billion fwiw.

Who owns us? China or are we Americans with our own constitution and rights?

[–]FuckRedditCats 44 points45 points  (6 children)

I’ll do whatever it takes to preserve western ideologies. We have our problems but we certainly all enjoy our freedoms. Fuck China and fuck corporations bending over to them.

[–]gengar_king_of_bah 6 points7 points  (4 children)

Dude China is fine its communist authoritarian government that needs to be shut the fuck down everywhere. Hong Kong needs liberty but the world needs to stop the spread of this bullshit idealogy.

[–]JadeWishFish 5 points6 points  (3 children)

Agreed. I'm Chinese and it really hurts seeing people say "F China" like they're talking about every single person in and out of the country. It's the government that's the issue, not the masses.

[–]HorrorScopeZ 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Right on bro and I lean left even, this isn't a far right thing.

[–]SirGuelph 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Holy shit is that a real quote? Dissent is "not within the scope" of freedom of speech? What a joke.

[–]Dynamaxion 9 points10 points  (1 child)

I see you’re brand new to CCP political philosophy, if you were surprised at all. That’s been their position for at least 50 years.

[–]Dynamaxion 3 points4 points  (0 children)


But your entire government is literally the direct product of a violent revolution. Not sure how that could be your “belief” since if you had always had it, you’d still be licking Taiwanese boots.

But of course respect for authority and stability only became super important after you were the dictators. Convenient.

[–]Ironicalogical 49 points50 points  (14 children)

It just blows my mind how many companies support China in today's woke atmosphere. The Chinese government is one of the worst on the fucking planet, but our country (at least businesses) happily get down on both knees at their request.

[–]Dynamaxion 27 points28 points  (1 child)

Who do you think the businesses are selling stuff to?

Have you ever seen a single “woke” American actually pay twice as much to buy a fridge or some other shit from a free country with fair labor laws instead of China? I haven’t.

People are woke online but the public at large doesn’t put its money where its mouth is. We can’t just blame “the businesses.”

[–]TheObstruction 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Even if we wanted to, we can't because those things simpky don't exist anymore. The era of corporate greed means everyone gets parts from whoever is cheapest, and often that's China. So even if something is "Made in America", it often has plenty of foreign parts in it that you never know about.

[–]aloehartRyzen 3 1300x - R9 290 - 8GB DDR4 8 points9 points  (0 children)

That's because the people who care about companies being woke only care about what involves them. Nevermind half the woke stuff they do is only in Western countries. The gay characters in overwatch? Nothing about that in game because they aren't gay in China. Nobody cares about that though.

[–]StrongM13 13 points14 points  (3 children)

Stay woke in mom's basement. The real world is a dangerous place.

[–]LFDT 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Personally, I've called it quits after Blizzcon 2018 disaster and have been vocal about their demise ever since. Guess everyone has their own breaking point... Well, those still supporting them are welcome to join the boycott, now is as good a time as any.

[–]TheRandomGuy75 63 points64 points  (6 children)

We need to separate the Western and Chinese markets entirely.

They cannot overlap without conflicting issues. Just wall China off from everything in the West, and from the rest of Southeast Asia. You'd be doing everyone a favor.

That being said, it's sad to see big companies in gaming as well as sports and entertainment censor criticism of China as it pertains to Hong Kong and the oppression currently taking place. Activion-Blizzard should rightfully feel the burn from this. I hope they lose business from it. Either let the web be free or GTFO out of western markets.

[–]Kissaki0 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I don’t think separation is a good idea.

This is a very healthy and important response. If it were a China only company there would be no publicity around this. This is a way to shine the light on China, it’s policies, and what we think of that.

And even with them closing off as much as they can, not through separation but through connection can stuff like ideas and alternatives seep into China. By seeing how it works elsewhere, that it can work differently, you are more likely to question the status quo.

Sure it would be easier for us to not see any of it. But I’d rather see the Chinese as fellow citizens of Earth where human rights matter just as much as anywhere else than a closed off system I nothing about.

This is not easy and harmony, but it is important.

Blizzard deserves all the hate it gets, and it raises some important questions towards both the people running Blizzard (in the west) and politics whether they can do anything here, and where they stand.

If you want to draw some historic parallels, the German east west division is a good example. The east tried to cut off a lot, but western stuff still seeped in, and showed eastern citizens that there is desirable stuff on the other side. And that their system is not the only way it could be.

Or Cuba would be an example, which never had such a successful transformation, but still had a lot of western media seep in/be smuggled in. But I guess the geological distance played another big part in separating it off.

An example for separation would be North Korea.

[–]Lord_EmperorRyzen2600@4.0|16GB@3466|PulseRX5700@XT 6 points7 points  (1 child)


Build a wall, with a moat and alligators.

[–]Kinglink 4 points5 points  (0 children)

And make them pay for it!

[–]gengar_king_of_bah 28 points29 points  (0 children)

It's sad that had this player said almost ANYTHING political about ANYTHING else this would be a complete non issue. Had he said some pride shit or black lives matter or anything remotely associated with a more leftish smelling perspective nothing would be done even if China lost thier shit but since it's condemning a communist human rights violating authoritarian government Blizzard is gonna slap down firings no questions asked. No Western media is going to amplify this to the point it should because deamonizing authoritarian Communism doesn't get the kind of rage clicks that that say.... Idk freaking out that ow players are doing the "ok" hand sign and that's white supremacy so let's ban it (which actually fucking happened.... Cuz we live in hell)


[–]NullTie 15 points16 points  (7 children)

Ummm Destiny 2 isn’t on Blizzard any more. It’s on Steam.....

[–]calibronoi5-6600k @ 4.5, 16 GB DDR4, GTX 970 71 points72 points  (27 children)

I deleted my account, this was the last drop in the bucket (after banning chinese OW players for "winnie" and cowardly not releasing the "Tracer is gay" comic in Russia). I had hundreds and thousands of hours split between WoW, Hearthstone, Overwatch, StarCraft and Diablo (not Heroes though lel).

I encourage you to do the same.

Even if it doesn't make a difference, don't support a company that openly and directly supports a genocidal regime.

Don't be a part of it even if it means just a little.

If I ever start up a Blizzard game again, the main thought in my mind will be "this company supports the genocide of chinese uyghurs and the oppression of Hong Kong". That's enough for me to not play their games however great they might be. And they probably won't be that great anymore either.

Unless Blizzard reinstated everyone affected and publicly apologizes to their western audience. Which they probably won't do in a million years since chinese $$$ is more of a priority than the lives of uyghurs and the freedom of hongkongers.

Fuck Blizzard.

[–]DinosaurAlert 26 points27 points  (4 children)

cowardly not releasing the "Tracer is gay" comic in Russia

That was bad, but this is an order of magnitude worse. This is like if they banned an openly gay player because they didn't want to upset Russia.

[–]calibronoi5-6600k @ 4.5, 16 GB DDR4, GTX 970 2 points3 points  (0 children)

True, true.

[–]Ferromagneticfluid 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It is easy to take the moral high ground when it doesn't cost you anything.

[–]Noexit007 18 points19 points  (9 children)

Blizzard took /r/blizzard private because they did not want any discussion about the matter on the specific subreddit.

And just a heads up, it's not even just the company itself. The mods at /r/ClassicWoW and /r/WoW have been forcing all discussion into single sticky threads that are HEAVILY censored and are Perma banning folks left and right for any comments that could be seen to be overly criticizing Blizzard or China, as well as comments that reference what the mods are doing.

And the mods at /r/worldnews, for some strange reason, are removing ANY articles posted (even from legit sites like Business Insider) that reference the situation claiming its "not world news" even as the articles referencing the Rockets/NBA situation are left up. No satisfactory answer has been given as to why.

And don't even try and post anything on a subreddit that is China-related. Stuff gets banned INSTANTLY along with the poster.

[–]Leopard1907 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Two days later : buys another WoW subscription

Don't get me wrong but most users doesn't give a fuck about politics. Real politics and store wars etc

They buy same copy-paste games every year , they bitch about MTX plagued games every year then buy again

You expect a standing from these people?

[–]andlu4444 10 points11 points  (8 children)

Man this is bullshit, it even using the law as basis, but 'what blizzard defines as inappropriate'

[–]Nevzat666 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Uninstalled all blizzard products. Thanks for this post.

[–]Lepgoodman[🍰] 15 points16 points  (1 child)

So what you're saying is GAMERS RISE UP

[–]abacabbmk 23 points24 points  (38 children)

Blizzard (and other companies) dont need to stand up against anything if they dont want to.

Im pro freedom of speech, but unfortunately these situations are going to continue happening until critical mass of players/etc stop playing due to this.

[–]sugarfreekoalatea 60 points61 points  (15 children)

I like how censoring conservatives is met with “they’re private companies they can do what they want”. But now that everyone’s phone has told them China bad companies suddenly have to protect free speech?

[–]Dogbeast 34 points35 points  (1 child)

It's almost like rules for thee, but not for me...

[–]biodrones 8 points9 points  (0 children)

People were mocking the right wing position when it bit them in the ass. Nobody actually wants corporations to have the power to do what they want just because they've got money (except for those who have a lot of money).

For-profit corporations and oppressive governments are not all that different. Both seek to extract everything they can from populations, democracy be damned.

[–]illage2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It is my experience that when Hearthstone players make statements that are not in their own best interests they should simply be told to keep their minds on the game and leave matters of the state to the state.

We ban those players from tournaments, no one competes, and ban their twitter accounts and contain the spread of ill-informed political opinions. This my friends is how we keep the hearthstone players from sullying the reputation of Blizzard.

Yes I took that quote from the Chernobyl TV show and edited it.

[–]rakeyawn789 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Kowtowing cowards. I would boycott them, I just don't play any of their games.

[–]HazaChillzOut 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Destiny 2 is on Steam now anyway, so...

[–]PrimePCG 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Destiny 2 is free to play on steam now, I'll be removing every Blizzard product to make room on the drive for it...

[–]Gatorhater89 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hopefully everyone will be reminded that Call of Duty is one of their games too and will refund their preorders.

[–]BoomRockDopSopFree Heating 48 points49 points  (44 children)

I legitimately cannot support a company that supports fascism. I've uninstalled Battlenet, will not renew my WoW subscription even though I've loved every second of Classic WoW and will pursue alternatives to Blizzard's products.

Blizzard are welcome to support fascism as is their right but they will not see any money from me in the foreseeable future unless they rescind their support for fascism.

[–]teslatimes 13 points14 points  (3 children)

Every fucking movie has chinese element in it. Fuck china for destroying entertainment.

[–]VelociJupiter 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I know right? Remember back in the day when movies were pure with no Chinese elements, but only western product placements, and western artistic and moral values? It's sad that those days are long gone.

[–]thegreatvortigaunt 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Not being funny lad, but the last 80-ish years of entertainment has been basically crammed full of American propaganda instead. What you're feeling now is how the entire goddamn world has felt for decades.

People use the Transformers movies as an example of "the evil Chinese taking over!!!", but all that has happened is they've shifted from literal US military propaganda to literal pro-China propaganda.

[–]ATL_Dirtybird4Ever 6 points7 points  (0 children)


[–]Mr_Mekanikle 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I saw someone mention making memes using overwatch characters aimed at china, that's not a bad idea tbh.

[–]Farandr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Gotta play nice with the upcoming Diablo mobile game market.

They're not going to lose market over small things like human rights...

[–]i704105 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Please, we cant even stop pre-ordering or buying ridiculous micro transactions or season/battle passes

[–]CannotBeContained 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lmao dude install Destiny 2 again, Bungie jumped ship before the ActivisionBlizzard ship sinked, they own the game. ActivisionBlizzard doesn't have ANYTHING to do with the game

[–]dungeonHack 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So is anyone going to protest at BlizzCon?

[–]Death-Priest 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And now the Blizzard subreddit is closed and one requires an invite to enter.


[–]TomZeBomb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks Tencent. Fuck you.

[–]ryno_25 2 points3 points  (0 children)

how do we associate blizzard with Winnie the pooh?

[–]TunaSushiRoll 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I will delete my blizzard account and never touch their garbage games again.

[–]Firebelley 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Decoupling" is a term everyone should have in their minds when talking about China. The money isn't worth the power we give to an authoritarian regime.

[–]soup_specialist 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm surprised people even still care about Hearthstone since Blizzard ruined it like 5 years ago.

[–]martymcflown 7 points8 points  (4 children)

Nothing will be done. China can ban Activision Blizzard if they go pro-Hong Kong. It's a massive market for them, much bigger than a few angry western redditors boycotting their game.

[–]Jaywearspants 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Destiny 2 is not part of Acti/Bliz

[–]PM_pics_of_your_Love 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Gamers tolerate a lot of stuff that shouldn't be tolerated, from anti-consumer practices to this, including things that straight up make our gaming experiences miserable.

I wonder the reason for such behaviour. It can't be just laziness and apathy...

[–]HappierShibeAgressively OC'd 8700k/1080ti 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I uninstalled battle.net as soon as I heard.