> chief, chef, cape, capo, caput and head (French (twice), Latin via French, Italian, Latin, and Germanic, all from the same Indo-European word *ka(u)put "head")
It's definitely not no-win. They can completely exit the Chinese market. The company will still survive if they do so. Earlier in this thread it was pointed out China generates only 10% of their revenue.
Fire some people, make hongkong-protestor-Mei a skin [0], declare "we screwed up" in big letters, at that point the press this has generated for them would probably be a net win in the non-PRC market.
You’re correct that there’s a clear winning move, but you’re wrong about what that move is. Blizzard’s stock price hasn’t budged much since the scandal unfolded. Clearly the market doesn’t think there are going to be any long term repercussions from this. Every few week the gaming internet gets really mad about something or the (loot boxes, micro transactions, DRM, etc) and kicks up a huge fuss and then everyone immediately forgets about it and keeps buying games.
Why on earth would Blizzard feel
compelled to exit the Chinese market right now (which would definitely tank the stock price)?
I actually see it the other way around. This action to appease China is extremely cynical and they only reason they are emboldened to take it is because Blizzard have immense financial security.
Most normal corporations would be way too scared of exactly this kind of backlash to so brazenly crack down on behalf of a totalitarian state.
Have you seen Blizzard's official Weibo account apology to China? It seems like kowtowing still seems to be their plan to get into that sweet sweet mobile game market.
The NFL never took Colin's entire NFL earnings away from him on top of firing anyone commenting on the initial sitting. I'm pretty sure if they did this, there would be much more uproar than letting him do it and quietly not signing him onto any more teams.
It's a total no-win for them now.
(Queue morbid curiosity.)