author: Bart Swiatek
Corruption and Collapse of Values - ex-Blizzard Employee on Chinese Influence
Mark Kern, former Team Lead at Blizzard Entertainment, responded on Twitter to the high-profile Hong Kong protest scandal. In his opinion, the company is acting against its own values. The developer also quotes several stories that illustrate the extent of influence and methods of Chinese companies in the gaming industry.
It wasn't a good week for Blizzard Entertainment. As you know, the studio decided to ban Hearthstone player for supporting the protesters in Hong Kong, causing a huge scandal. The controversy around the matter continues, and Mark Kern, a former Blizzard Team Lead, who comes from China and has often had the opportunity to work with Chinese companies, added his two cents.
The Dangerous Charm of Chinese Money
"I have watched China slowly take over as the dominant investing force in gaming and movies over the years. It’s a shame US companies never believed as strongly as China and Asia in investing in games, but this allowed China to have unprecedented influence over our media," writes the developer.
According to the dev, this is a very dangerous situation, because Chinese corporations are not fully independent entities.
"Chinese game companies have grown huge not just because of market size, but because the government subsidizes them. They get free land, free offices, and huge infusions of cash. This cash was and is used to do expand and buy up stakes in US gaming companies." argues Mark Kern.
The developer also notes that Chinese gaming companies do not always use fair - or even legal - methods to expand their sphere of influence. The former Team Lead at Blizzard Entertainment has experienced this on his own and has seen it many times in the industry.
"I’ve seen firsthand the corruption of Chinese gaming companies, and I was removed from a company I founded (after Blizzard) for refusing to take a 2 million dollar kickback bribe to take an investment from China. This is the first time I’ve ever spoken pubically about it. I’ve also seen how American company reps in China have been offered similar bribes to get licenses for large AAA titles. Not everyone refused like I did. Chinese companies tried to ruin my career with planted press stories. Money is often paid for favorable press in China and some of that money flows here to the US as well," he continues.
A Threat to Western Civilization?
Mark Kern is of the opinion that the influence of Chinese corporations is a threat to American values (i.e. de facto the entire Western civilization).
"But now we are in a situation where unlimited Communist money dictates our American values. We censor our games for China, we censor our movies for China. Now, game companies are silencing voices for freedom and democracy. China is dictating that the world be authoritarian," he concludes, adding that he was convinced that Blizzard, of all the industry giants, would be the last to give in to Chinese demands.
For his part, Mark Kern decided to oppose this state of affairs, so he made a public statement - although he knows that it may prevent his new game from reaching the Chinese market. As a protest, the developer does not intend to accept any exclusivity agreement from Epic Games (40% of Tim Sweeney's shares belong to the Chinese company Tencent - the same which also invested in Blizzard Entertainment).
"It’s one thing to keep politics out of games, which I am still a proponent of doing. It’s another to unfairly and harshly punish voices that speak out against corruption, against abuses of human rights, and freedom. (...) I stand with Hong Kong, and I oppose Blizzard’s obvious and laughably transparent fear of China. It’s time for Blizzard to grow the spine it used to have, and to do what’s right for gamers once again," calls the creator.