Blizzard and NetEase fallout - how big is the impact?

[Pann]

I believe the idea is if he gets money front loaded before the acquisition it will show in quarter earnings and pays out into his own bonus. Last minute quick buck.

It will not, any earnings paid upfront will deferred over the period they earned.

[mbit2]

It will not, any earnings paid upfront will deferred over the period they earned.

Obviously its not gonna be "upfront payment" on paper. Call it licensing fee or whatever it legally needs to be to pass.
If you can get away with sexual harassment you can pay a lawyer do that much.

[slickyjohn]

The bigger concern is MS laying off 10k people, cost cutting measures etc that might mean they will pull out if the deal to buy Atvi . The lawsuit over the sale now this could mean a no go for it. If that happens I expect Blizzard stock to take a big hit.

with how horrible diablo 4 is looking, i honestly expect blizzard to go bankrupt in the next five years.
all their games are going downhill.

[MoanaLisa]

The impact is possibly significant (3% of nearly a billion in annual revenue is a lot of money) but at this point has been factored into future budget plans and forecasts.

[pinkz]

ATVI and Netease split was best thing that ever happened. now we will get back to WOW OG style art rather than bunny, kitty and pig mounts,

maybe Blizzard will suck our farhvegnugens and give us all spectral tiger mounts and higher i-level gear

[Mysterymask]

ATVI and Netease split was best thing that ever happened. now we will get back to WOW OG style art rather than bunny, kitty and pig mounts,

maybe Blizzard will suck our farhvegnugens and give us all spectral tiger mounts and higher i-level gear

Oh I can't wait till 5 months down the line when the collective community forgets about this and continues to blame wows fuck ups on China

[Swnem]

Honestly, no matter how you spin it, this is all on the chinese government. The fact they don't let non-chinese companies operate there is what created the problem in the first place.
It's a dictatorship. What did people expect? It was a risk to do business there and still is.

- - - Updated - - -

Everybody shilling for Blizzard in this thread should definitely read this article.

So Blizzard forces its employees to rank other employees so that they can get fired based on that. This company is an utter shitshow.

Here are some tweets from Brian Birmingham.

What sort of bs is that? The issue in china and that are completely different issues.
Also, that is Bobby Kottick and his cronies. Not "Blizzard". It's the parent company that manages Activision, Blizzard and King that is enforcing that policy.

[doodle90]

Seems like they both fucked their customers over though NetEase's conduct is hilariously unprofessional at this point. Sad for the players. I wonder if they really lose access to the market, will we stop getting Lunar Year mounts? I was looking forward to the Years of Dragon (next year), Snake (2025) and I guess Rooster if we made it there (2029, would love a giant chicken mount).

Also Tencent is releasing a WoW clone. Maybe the CCP just wants the space for their own game.

I would hope not as America alone has many people who celebrate lunar new year

[Swnem]

https://pandaily.com/blizzard-requir...e-sources-say/

story tldr from cn side: kotick wanted 2year payment ahead of time to prop up balance sheet for acquisition, netease said lol no. Then asked for 6months to find replacement for them and so they said gtfo.

Explains why they would be really mad and do the whole livestream trash blizz action.

Again Bobby -the trash- Kottick. Oh how he must be mad that the aquisition might not be happening. I really hope it doesn't.

If that is the case, it would smarter for Netease to direct grievances to Activision blizzard and not just Blizzard.

[Pann]

Obviously its not gonna be "upfront payment" on paper. Call it licensing fee or whatever it legally needs to be to pass.
If you can get away with sexual harassment you can pay a lawyer do that much.

That makes no sense. Income and expenses, no matter what they are, must be recognised in the accounting periods they relate to.

But even if we assume that what is written in the linked article is true and that ATVI want two years upfront to somehow prop up their balance sheet, what's the point? They are not struggling for cash flow, two years prepayment would be less than 10% of the cash or cash equivalents available to them and it is less than 1% of price agreed with MS.

Given that the ATVI/MS deal is currently being heavily scrutinised by regulators in numerous regions why would they take such a needless risk?

[prwraith]

I'd generally back the little guy over blizzard. As I lowkey hate blizzard the last few years.

But the way netease is handling this is pure childishness

[huth]

I think it is safe to assume that Blizzard and Netease wanted better terms if they were to renew their deal but asking for two years payment to prop up their balance sheet makes no sense as aside from the income being deferred over the period it is earned as per GAAP (Generally accepted accounting principles) ATVI are not hurting for cash (as of Q3 '22 they have over $7billion in cash and cash equivalents).

If ATVI did require two years payment in advance it is likely that, for whatever reason, they required that as security.

Yeah, this one only makes sense to people who have no clue how these things work.

- - - Updated - - -

Again Bobby -the trash- Kottick. Oh how he must be mad that the aquisition might not be happening. I really hope it doesn't.

If that is the case, it would smarter for Netease to direct grievances to Activision blizzard and not just Blizzard.

No, because the whole thing is complete bull and makes no financial sense. Bobby might be an ass, but he's not an idiot and he very much understands finance. This move would be completely nonsensical.

[Orange Joe]

What would the point of such a demand be? Nobody is going to agree to that, so at best, he gets nothing and worst case he loses business. There's no way he could come out of that looking better.

You will have to forgive me if I don't trust a twitter post from a random Chinese person.

[Relapses]

You will have to forgive me if I don't trust a twitter post from a random Chinese person.

It's doubly bad when you consider there are many, many Chinese people whose entire job description is to run propaganda for the CCP. It works, too, given some of the responses we've seen in this thread.

[Orange Joe]

It's doubly bad when you consider there are many, many Chinese people whose entire job description is to run propaganda for the CCP. It works, too, given some of the responses we've seen in this thread.

this thread just confirms to me that confirmation bias is very much a thing and if anything growing......

[Lolites]

So Blizzard forces its employees to rank other employees so that they can get fired based on that.

well they should ask forum goers to evaluate their employees, bcs according to forums everyone in blizz is completely incompetent idiot who should be fired... or at least that was the case until this happened and people found out some of them should get bad evaluation, then suddenly all became perfect and deserving of great evaluation... somehow

the policy is shit without a doubt, but the hypocrisy of fools on forum is laughable nad sad at the same time...

[huth]

this thread just confirms to me that confirmation bias is very much a thing and if anything growing......

It's real enough that the whole process of scientific research is designed to circumvent it. And it still crops up there.

I don't doubt Bobby is a greedy bastard, but this claim of wanting 2 years revenue upfront ist just way to absurd to be accepted without serious evidence.

[Pann]

It's real enough that the whole process of scientific research is designed to circumvent it. And it still crops up there.

I don't doubt Bobby is a greedy bastard, but this claim of wanting 2 years revenue upfront ist just way to absurd to be accepted without serious evidence.

It is quite normal that an asset holder will attempt to minimise their exposure to risk when entering into a contract by requiring deposit or prepayment therefore I think it is possible that Blizzard did want two years payment upfront.

[Alecazam]

So no more chinese new year 6 month sub mounts?

[Stickiler]

So no more chinese new year 6 month sub mounts?

Those mounts are nothing to do with China, and everything to do with "Hey look we can use a big holiday to push a promotion"