Following yesterday’s events, in which Blizzard banned, citing a violation of competition rules, a Hearthstone player called Ng Wai Chung, otherwise known as “Blitzchung”, for repeating the slogan protest “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our times” during a post-game interview that was being broadcasted live, the stock value of Activision Blizzard has started to fall, as the company is under fire from the international gaming community.
As of 10th October, 16:20 PST, the Activision Blizzard‘s stock has fallen a mere 2.01%, which seems to be caused by the outrage sparked by the ban. This small fall comes after Blizzard had already lost over 35% in stock value since June 2018.
This stock drop is not the only reaction underway against Activision Blizzard, as many people on social media have started to ask for a boycott of the company’s games and IP, going as far as having a former developer of World of Warcraft, Mark Kern, to openly criticize Blizzard‘s decision.
But enough is enough. 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.
Gamers, rise up.
— Mark Kern (@Grummz) October 9, 2019
Along with this mild stock fall, some users have also been reportedly having issues deleting their Blizzard accounts.