Epic Games Responds to Blizzard Controversy
The wild story surrounding the suppression of Hong Kong protest supporters by Blizzard continues to build. The company attempted to crack down further on protests against their actions, resulting in a wave of people trying to delete their Blizzard accounts so large the authentication system for it crashed.
Now other developers have begun to come out taking a stance on the drama. Epic Games founder and majority shareholder Tim Sweeney responded on Twitter to concerns over how the company would react to users discussing the Hong Kong protests.
With fears that Chinese firm Tencent’s 40% share in Epic would force the company to suppress such discussion rising, Sweeney stated that “Epic supports the rights of Fortnite players and creators to speak about politics and human rights.”
When pressed on if that meant the company wouldn’t punish a creator like Tfue for saying “Free Hong Kong” on stream, Sweeney noted that the company would do nothing to him, as Epic takes a neutral stance on politics allowing criticism in both directions.
Analysis: A Smart Move by Epic and Sweeney
With Tencent’s 40% stake in Epic, you’d think the company would be a bit more afraid of upsetting them over the debacle, but all the cards are Sweeney’s hands.
Since he owns 51% of Epic, he has enough share power to dictate what the company does without needing to convince the other shareholders. He has support from developers at the studio, who also have shares in it will only make that majority further insurmountable by Tencent.
Furthermore, the company’s $2.4 billion profit last year came mostly from Fortnite players and game developers in western countries like the US, Canada, and the UK, not China like their competitors PUBG or any of Blizzard’s titles.
With the widespread practice of using their Unreal Engine by a large number of game studios and the cultural phenomenon that is Fornite, the company has no shortage of people looking to buy shares or invest in them. Tencent pulling the plug on its involvement with Epic would have little impact on the company’s finances.
Tencent also already gave the money to Epic when they bought the shares. Since they’d have to sell the shares to back-out, something Sweeney would likely have first go at, and all the odds are in Epic’s corner.
Tencent has yet to respond to the comments from Sweeney or on the stance of Epic Games where Hong Kong is concerned. We’ll update you as soon as one is released.
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