Epic CEO says it won't ban Fortnite players for taking a stance on human rights

https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/1181946357759844352

by Aissen • 7 years ago

446 108 7 years ago

twitter.com

philliphaydon6• 7 years ago

Epic CEO says a lot of stuff he doesn’t mean or live up to.

randylahey• 7 years ago

Can you elaborate?

haunter• 7 years ago

"Microsoft wants to monopolise games development on PC. We must fight it" by Tim Sweeney in 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/04/microsoft...

3 years later ends up buying out indie games and puts them behind exclusivity on the Epic Store

On Linux gaming "The real enemy of Linux are these trolls who try to overrun social media channels to make claims in bad faith and attempt to harass developers into compliance. They’re scaring lots of good game developers away." https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/115052159963387494...

About dev cuts:

In January "This is the only practicable way to operate a 12% fee store in developing countries." https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/109102593910919987...

5 months later: “If Valve commits to a permanent 88% revenue share, we’ll stop making new exclusive deals” https://www.dsogaming.com/news/tim-sweeney-if-valve-commits-...

etc.

Tim Sweeney is an interesting person, like a weathervane

nickthegreek• 7 years ago

Even if that is true, they are at least on the record now with a position and I do feel like that is important. I would hope to see other game companies make these statements as well.

nvrspyx• 7 years ago

If EPIC backtracks on something their CEO said, it wouldn’t be the first time. Tim Sweeney consistently makes a fool of himself and his statements turn out to be completely false pretty often. I wouldn’t take anything he says either seriously or as an actual position of the company.

jplayer015• 7 years ago

Statements mean and accomplish nothing. I thought after decades of being fucked over and lied to by corporations, maybe the public would become a bit more suspicious of people like this, but I guess not.

duxup2• 7 years ago

There's a real risk for just saying something at this point. Thus lip-service like this is itself more than "just lip service".

werber• 7 years ago

I'm a total cynic, and do not care about video games or sports, but this does seem like he's taking on a legitimate financial risk in lieu of all the articles bubbling up about the situation

spathi_fwiffo• 7 years ago

Gaining some goodwill for the Epic Store.

Now Valve needs to take the same stance to get back to the status quo.

tapoxi• 7 years ago

They won't. Valve has a huge presence in China, Epic doesn't.

Konnstann• 7 years ago

Isn't 40% of Epic owned by Tencent?

Gonzih• 7 years ago

Is that the same company that recently was in the news due to brutal workloads and work hours?

sharkjacobs• 7 years ago

They're a videogame company, so probably.

goatinaboat3• 7 years ago

Yes but that is orthogonal to this

gbear6052• 7 years ago

Most videogame companies are like that. It is definitely horrible, but the company's attitude toward its employees' work hours is unrelated to its attitude toward China.

oarsinsync• 7 years ago

Unless you take the view that human rights are human rights are human rights, and are universal. Being shitty to the humans you pay while paying lip service to some of the humans that pay you is an interesting and, from some angles, contradictory position to hold.

iamaelephant• 7 years ago

Can you explain the relevance to the topic of discussion?

Sohcahtoa82• 7 years ago

What game company isn't requiring brutal workloads and hours? It's pretty par for the course for game developers. They're also underpaid compared to developers that aren't working in games.

loceng• 7 years ago

Tencent bought 40% of Epic Games at some point: what's different between Blizzard and Epic's relationship - is it, as the CEO said, he is the controlling shareholder?

As many gamers are saying however, him stating this, because Tencent will profit from their ownership of Epic - they will boycott Epic's games as well.

jsgo3• 7 years ago

I'd imagine the ones who are going to boycott Epic games have been doing so already over the launcher/store. I don't see this event adding more to the heap. Personally, I'm not one of these people, but I have refused to buy products for random reasons too so to each their own.

If anything, I'm kind of shocked he's jumping out ahead of an event happening to Epic Games of a player protesting on behalf of Hong Kong and stating what they will do, with Tencent being part of their funding. Either this is to push the "they don't control us" narrative re:Tencent. I don't know how big Fortnite is in China (seems PUBG is the big one there?) and they relatively recently bought the developer behind Rocket League I believe which similarly, don't know how big of a presence they have in China.

Kudos to him whatever the reasoning though. Being willing to draw the ire of a country that, population wise, eclipses your other larger markets because you disagree with their handling of a protest is gutsy on his part. Granted, they're basically printing money with Fortnite so I guess he doesn't have to care too much to keep the lights on, but still, he is not solely driven by capitalism as it would be easy to just stay quiet.

MrGilbert• 7 years ago

Well... we also don't know what HAS happened already, behind closed doors. Maybe there has already been an "order" from Tencent regarding this case. And maybe Tim already stood up, but couldn't say anything - this would have been the right moment, so maybe he just used it.

icu• 7 years ago

Well imho "Blizzard" is Blizzard in name only, really it is Activision now. Again, imho, "Blizzard" is only interested in squeezing every last bit of profit it can and will stop at nothing to do so. To be fair, "Blizzard" probably isn't breaking any rules, but it isn't exactly acting with total integrity. A great example is the way "Blizzard" structures its business affairs in the EU so as to avoid paying taxes in the countries it makes revenue in. Bear in mind I say this with despair as a former Blizzard fanboy.

As for Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, he isn't without controversy but the guy is a billionaire and I'm willing to bet that in his mind, he sees Epic Games as an extension of himself. He must feel strongly enough to take such a public stance at the risk of angering his Chinese shareholders and future business in China.

kangnkodos2• 7 years ago

Why have the League of Legends announcers stopped saying the words "Hong Kong" in phrases such as the team "Honk Kong Attitude", and instead only say HKA?

Does Tencent control the broadcast/streaming?

kmfrk• 7 years ago

Tencent owns Riot Games who made LoL.

developer2• 7 years ago

To be specific, Riot Games sold the full 100% to Tencent. Tencent owns partial shares in a lot of companies; when it comes to Riot Games / League of Legends, that percentage is the full 100.

KaoruAoiShiho• 7 years ago

It's gotta be the casters trolling. "Hong Kong" as a phrase is regularly said on all Chinese media.

jdance3• 7 years ago

This is almost off topic, I dont think Epic CEO has much to do with this

sdinsn2• 7 years ago

Epic is owned ~45% by Tencent. So I doubt this is going to be true.

larkeith• 7 years ago

There are several tweets specifically on this in the twitter thread:

Tim Sweeney @TimSweeneyEpic 4h

Replying to @CherrishChoerry @calibrono and 3 others

Epic is a US company and I’m the controlling shareholder. Tencent is an approximately 40% shareholder, and there are many other shareholders including employees and investors.

Cherrish Choerry @CherrishChoerry 4h

Replying to @TimSweeneyEpic @calibrono and 3 others

40% is a big cut though. They’re already apparently pulling out of the NBA League. Can you honestly say if a similar event happened you wouldn’t have to, sever ties with said influential figure, i.e the NBA coach/Hearthstone Champ

Tim Sweeney @TimSweeneyEpic

Replying to @CherrishChoerry @calibrono and 3 others

Yes, absolutely. That will never happen on my watch as the founder, CEO, and controlling shareholder.

7:55 AM - 9 Oct 2019

sdinsn2• 7 years ago

Of course the CEO would deny that it's a problem. He isn't necessarily being honest.

jplayer015• 7 years ago

So we’re just blindly believing whatever CEOs say now? There are so many incentives for them to say whatever the public wants to hear that it doesn’t make sense to take any of it at face value.

magma17• 7 years ago

excusatio non petita accusatio manifesta.

franknine• 7 years ago

May I have "Taiwan" option instead of "Chinese Taipei" for signing up an Epic account? Even Blizzard is not doing this.

nailer2• 7 years ago

You should ask Tim on Twitter.

sb057• 7 years ago

FWIW, "Chinese Taipei" is a compromise term accepted by the RoC.

not_a_cop75• 7 years ago

"There are some that call me Tim."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTbrIo1p-So

AFascistWorld• 7 years ago

His company has virtually zero market share in China too.

trobertson• 7 years ago

His company is China's inroad to the Western games distribution industry. China is totally cool with Epic allowing anti-China statements as long as it brings the users into China arms.

jplayer015• 7 years ago

Talk is cheap when you’re not in a position where you have to prove you mean it. Just look at any number of comments here who seem to be praising Sweeney. I wish I was a CEO, seems to be an easy job when all you have to do is say the right words and people blindly eat it all up and believe you.

jeegsy• 7 years ago

Ah, it would seem that Epic has a nose for marketing opportunities especially today when "values" / "we are good folk" marketing is all the rage

jsmeaton• 7 years ago

Pretty unfair comment.

He was asked. He answered.

serf• 7 years ago

He answered the question by linking a Verge hit-piece against Blizzards' actions, citing Epic's opinion on the matter.

It might be an answer, but it's definitely motivated.

Epic CEO says it won't ban Fortnite players for taking a stance on human rights

Related Stories