Diablo Immortal – China Ban: A single set could cost Blizzard hundreds of millions of dollars

On June 27, 2022By Garmin Philip

The mobile game Diablo Immortal was supposed to be released in China last week. But a critical post on “Social Media” apparently prevented that. A poster from the USA asked: “When will the bear finally resign?” – the Communist Party apparently didn’t find that funny at all. The statement could have far-reaching consequences for Blizzard in China. There is already talk of a “China ban” for Diablo Immortal.

This is the situation:

We show you the 6 classes of Diablo Immortal – in our tier list for Diablo Immortal you can see who is currently ahead:

Diablo Immortal: All 6 classes at a glance with gameplay

Why was the social media account banned? On May 22, a single post appeared on the social media account that said:

Why is the bear still not resigning?

A user on reddit explains that the statement quickly caused a political uproar because it was read as a call for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to resign.

It is said that Chinese internet people immediately leaned on this post to see what happened next.

Because it was clear to everyone: This was a highly sensitive point and the Internet censorship would react.

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Statement came from the USA – caused the account to be banned and deleted

Who made this statement? The statement probably comes from someone on the Diablo Immortal marketing team, as the poster explains on reddit.

Typically, postings on Weibo are made from Guangdong, China. The problematic statement should come from the USA.

Diablo Immortal is torn apart – but it is a financial success for Blizzard, especially in Germany

“Bear” and “resignation” are both taboo subjects in China

Why is the statement so problematic? In China, “The Bear” is associated with the head of state Xi Jinping. This is due to a meme suggesting that Xi Jingping looks like the cartoon bear “Winnie the Pooh”.

Expert Hunag Chunmeio Tapei for Radio Free Asia explains why Diablo Immortal’s wife account statement is considered highly problematic and why Xi Jinping is so dismissive of the bear comparison:

In China, the word “bear” is associated with values such as “incompetence, cowardice, inefficiency and frequent mistakes”.
“Resigning” is also an absolute taboo in China: It applies to every political leader, from local politicians to the top of the state. The topic is forbidden. It is known that Internet censorship is specifically looking for this keyword.

No official China ban, but marketing should be completely stopped

what should happen now? At the moment the post is deleted on Weibo and the Diablo Immortal social media account is suspended.

Officially, however, the release of Diablo Immortal is not banned, there is no official “China ban on Diablo Immortal.” Unofficially, something like that could definitely be in force.

The poster on reddit says: Marketing for Diablo Immortal has been completely stopped. There were now rumors saying that Blizzard’s partner NetEase should be severely punished for the statement. There is talk of not receiving any new licenses for 3 years. That also means: No WoW Dragonflight, no Diablo 4, no Overwatch 2 in China.

How serious the situation is can be seen from the fact that NetEase lost 10% of its market value on the stock exchange in the meantime.

We dealt with Diablo Immortal in a MeinMMO podcast:

Diablo Immortal will now always remain connected to the mail in China

Is Diablo Immortal still coming to China? An expert from Japan analyzes (via rfa): It is very unlikely that Diablo Immortal will still appear. Because if it came out now, it would always remind people of that one incident.

It is said: You have a very pessimistic view of the release of Diablo Immortal in China. It has a “very small chance” of being listed again. But in itself it was probably sentenced to death.

Twitch streamer Asmongold looks stunned at what’s going on in China: