Fortnite developer Epic Games said in a statement that it will not ban players or content creators for political speech. The message comes after Blizzard caught fire this week for banning a professional Hearthstone player for shouting a statement associated with Hong Kong protesters.
“Epic supports everyone’s right to express their views on politics and human rights. We wouldn’t ban or punish a Fortnite player or content creator for speaking on these topics,” an Epic Games spokesperson told The Verge.
Over the weekend, Blizzard banned Hearthstone player Ng “Blitzchung” Wai Chung from participating in tournaments after he voiced support for the protesters in Hong Kong. In a post-game interview on Sunday, Blitzchung said, “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age!” Now, he cannot participate in any tournaments for an entire year (effective October 5th), and Blizzard is withholding any prize money he would have received in the Grandmasters tournament over the weekend. Those forfeited winnings have been reported to total around $10,000.
In an interview with AFP, Blitzchung said, “I don’t regret saying that stuff. And even now, I don’t regret it at all.”
Blizzard responded to the criticism saying in a statement that it stands “by one’s right to express individual thoughts and opinions,” but Blitzchung violated a competition rule that prohibits players from doing anything that would bring “[them] into public disrepute,” offend “a portion or group of the public,” or damage Blizzard’s image.
Following Blizzard’s decision, the company’s own forums and subreddits dedicated to its games ballooned with messages from angry fans condemning the ban. The r/Blizzard subreddit went down for a few hours on Tuesday after the board was overrun with memes and posts calling for players to boycott Blizzard and its games like World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Hearthstone.
Senators on both sides of the aisle have also taken notice, tweeting out statements criticizing Blizzard’s move. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said, “Blizzard shows it is willing to humiliate itself to please the Chinese Communist Party.” He continued, “No American company should censor calls for freedom to make a quick buck.”
Comments
It’ll be interesting to see what Tencent have to add, there.
By Miniaturised Jim, the Tiny Ribald Scot on 10.09.19 8:14am
"We like money, Epic makes us money" said Tencent, a mega-conglomerate that likes making money.
I’m all for anti-Chinese government stances, but at the end of the day even though they have ties to the government Tencent doesn’t buy stakes in western companies to propagandize, they do it because it brings in cash. You know. Like other mega-conglomerates do.
By elmagio on 10.09.19 9:21am
Lol Tencent also owns 5% stake in Blizzard so they could make money in China without issues.
Epic is 48% owned by Tencent see what happens. China slowly censor everything. Pretty soon all American companies will be following Chinese rules in America. It is happening in video games, movies, NBA now, what’s next?!
Last South Park episode is right on the nose. Nothing wrong with making millions but where is your tegridy?
By ksyndicate on 10.09.19 9:59am
And you think Tencent made that call for Blizzard? With a 5% stake? You’re delusional if you think so, Blizzard made that decision because they believe it’s in their best interest.
If Epic is saying this now, it’s because they think it’s in their interest to take the opposite stance, and Tencent doesn’t care. You don’t make that statement without checking with your biggest stakeholder. They know it’s a matter of time until a similar event occurs in Fortnite, and they’ll censor it in China (obviously), but if Epic’s saying this I’m pretty sure they won’t backtrack then and ban the player.
Tencent has stakes in Reddit, in Spotify, … Yet they don’t give a shit about any anti-China content on there. Because they’re in it to make money.
It’s happening in the NBA? Adam Silver literally told them to piss off. And if a western movie studio or game publisher wants to please Chinese standards it’s their call, and they’re to blame. No one is forcing them, they’re choosing to for money. There’s plenty of stuff that is actually China’s doing that merits blame, let’s not put the spinelessness of corporations abroad on their back.
PS: There is plenty wrong with being a mega-conglomerate, Chinese, American or otherwise. Corporations have never had integrity, they have bottom lines.
By elmagio on 10.09.19 10:20am
It sets the precedent. If you want to do business in China you either have to jump through major hoops or partner with a Chinese "state" approved alternative of the Western company. Hence Tencents 5% ownership of Activision/Blizzard.
Tencent obviously didn’t tell Activision/Blizzard to ban this player and censor him. Though it set a precedent for Blizzard that they are not going to make any money in China if this trend keeps up… on top of this player being Taiwanese. I’m sure if a player got up and said Trump 2020 or Bernie 2020 or Putin 2030 nothing would happen.
Back to NBA. Exhibitions games got cancelled. NBA commission said they are not going to censor their representatives. Once the money dries up they will run back to China.
As for Epic. Sure they are saying that now. If something happens they will not stand by it or they will prevent this from happening in the public sphere.
How come you don’t hear about dissidents and protests out of mainland China often? Cause most of that is censored and prevented before it happened. It’s like Stalin era USSR Utopia just with modern technology
By ksyndicate on 10.09.19 10:39am
It’s the NBA we’re talking about here. Their last TV deal in the US went for $24 billion. I don’t think the money is drying up anytime soon.
By ceejw on 10.09.19 10:53am
It’s also merchandises sales, sponsorship and advertising.
How come even Apple who has more money than NBA bows down to China?
So sadly it’s a trend to have good PR. People are trying to eat all of the cake instead of the slices. They are trying to be apologetic with their wester audiences while also make peace with China eventually.
We are at the point it’s either one or the other.
By ksyndicate on 10.09.19 11:36am
One thing to note, there are over 400 million viewers of the NBA in China. That’s more than the entire population of the US. There will likely be a big burden financially for the NBA, through viewership deals and merchandise.
It will be interesting to see if Silver keeps his word here.
By aliasunknown on 10.09.19 12:52pm
That’s not how the Chinese government works. They will probably order Tencent to change their stance whether anyone in the company actually wanted to. It probably wouldn’t happen unless an actual incident like this happens to Fortnite.
By backwithan808 on 10.09.19 10:07am
The Chinese government censors stuff within their borders. When a western company decides to censor themselves to be able to make bank in China, it’s their choice, no one is forcing them to.
This statement by Epic will be held against them if they ban a player for speaking out, and they’re not dumb enough to not check with their biggest stakeholder before taking that stance. A stance they didn’t need to take, as silence would have been sufficient until a similar event occurs to them. When (not if, because it’s a matter of time) a Fortnite player speaks out against China, China will "just" do everything in its power to make sure no one on the mainland hears about it.
By elmagio on 10.09.19 10:24am
They are saying that because they sound exactly like the Chinese government. Providing good face in public and having a facade of being good natured to the public.
It’s either the player will be censored prior or Epic will say they have no association with that player or they hoping it will happen much later that the whole thing will blow over. It’s not the first time Epic rolled back on their promises.
Cause I’m sure their major stakeholder Tencent wants their operation to make money in China so it will do anything in their power to prevent anything like that from happening.
It’s just allows them a good PR in public in midst of all the angry nerds rage quitting WoW for a couple of days. Also Blizzard knows they will be back.
By ksyndicate on 10.09.19 10:44am
Blizzard has basically made the stance that if they can keep the Chinese market, if the rest of the world be damned so be it because there are more players in China which means more money. If they want to sacrifice goodwill for money, they’re within their right to do so. One could joke that mobile gaming is bigger in China and we all saw how the new Diablo mobile game played out at last year’s Blizzcon against a US audience.
I really don’t see Epic trying to walk this one back. Human rights? They basically threw down the gauntlet to China preemptively. You don’t get to call China out on human rights and then get to walk it back later.
Fortnite basically prints money for them though so they probably don’t care too much about China as a necessity. They’re not PUBG.
By whlr on 10.09.19 2:32pm
You do make a good chinese shill, sadly there’s more to it than just ‘their choice’ when the choice is a heavy handed one caused by dictatorships. It’s no wonder every single sponsor of the NBA pulled out over one small thing and several (simple companies) were touting political bullcrap like speaking about weakening the mainland as if they’d been spoon fed the info by Xi Jinping himself before he ordered more violent crackdowns on minorities.
Unfortunately China is jsut a very sad and gruelling place where they’ve got no right to freedom of expression or you’re in the bad books of the corrupt life-time ruler.
By Llost on 10.09.19 3:41pm
Chinese shill? The fuck? Did you even read what I said?
I’m telling you that when western companies bow down to Chinese censorship it’s their choice. They are not governed by the corrupt government of China and are not subjected to said censorship through any authoritarian means. They choose to abide by those rules because they want cash, so they are to blame for their decisions.
That does not detract from what China does impose on its citizens and local companies, but those are two separate situations.
By elmagio on 10.10.19 4:52am
It’s really not their choice when the power dynamic is heavily in China’s favor. If your boss asked you what you truly thought of him and you hated him, you probably wouldn’t say it because you know you could lose your job or suffer other consequences.
Same goes for China. It’s not the company’s choice. I suppose you think that the Chinese people actually voted for their current leader in a fair manner?
By backwithan808 on 10.23.19 9:25pm
The Chinese government punished the NBA for something one of their employees said outside of China. They’re exporting censorship through their market clout.
By Casin on 10.09.19 6:18pm
Tencent cut all ties with the NBA just because a team GM tweeted in support of Hong Kong. They supposedly had a 5 year digital streaming rights worth $1.5 billion.
No way they’ll allow Epic to allow players to speak out about Hong Kong.
By emceephi on 10.09.19 3:43pm
Lmao, Hearthstone should be banned on US soil. China or the free world, your pick Blizzard. Too bad it won’t happen, since the US is a free country.
By 2003aaa on 10.09.19 8:15am
This comment makes no sense.
By Ghost650 on 10.09.19 10:27am
Take a hard look at yourself and the games you play and tell me that these other titles aren’t influenced somehow by the Communist Party. The movies you watch, the very smartphone you use, the clothes on your back.
By gommerthus on 10.09.19 12:09pm
"No American company should censor calls for freedom to make a quick buck." – Blizzard disagrees
By HufflepuffBR on 10.09.19 8:21am
Well this is interesting. Let’s see if Epic Games will buck under Tencents pressure if high profile Fortnite streamers start showing support for HK.
By OpssYourBad on 10.09.19 8:29am
If Epic wants to make any kind of $$$ in China they will buck under pressure. So this is a very dire situation. They are just saying this for quick PR.
I will give this thread couple of hours and it be flooded with China supporters. Just like the Huawei threads.
By ksyndicate on 10.09.19 10:01am
I hope this becomes a trend, and that more companies use this as leverage to really drive a wedge between those companies that willingly bend over for a quick yuan, and those who support freedom of expression and the right to protest.
At the end of the day, yes companies are greedy by nature however I would rather support the companies with employees who realize that unless they support these very rights, they’re also going to get sold down the river themselves.
By MoonbucksTeas on 10.09.19 8:43am
Wont ban political speech unless Big Brother Tencent says otherwise ?
By Mithril on 10.09.19 10:09am