Blizzard has had a tough week, with the recent episode with Hearthstone pro player blitzchung. The entire thing caused an uproar because the company’s decision was perceived to be because of its business relations in China. It’s not the only one, as Apple has also been recently revealed to be making business decisions that appease China.
Sources to BuzzFeed News say that in the early days of Apple TV+‘s development, the company’s higher ups advised creators of some shows to “avoid portraying China in a poor light”. The instruction came from Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of internet software and services; and Morgan Wandell, the company’s head of international content development.
This decision isn’t really surprising, according to the report. Apple commonly goes out of its way to avoid getting into trouble with the Chinese government. This applies to TV shows as much as it does apps. For the latter, the company’s transparency report says that it received 56 removal requests for apps on the App Store. Of those, only two were challenged, which resulted in 517 apps getting removed from the App Store.
There’s no denying that China is a huge market for the entertainment industry. This is especially true for Apple, as its iPhones not only sell well there, but are also made there to be sold worldwide.
(Source: BuzzFeed News, Apple)
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