Last June 20, when the launch was just a few days away, Diablo Immortal was indefinitely postponed to China, a market usually very receptive to free-to-play products for mobile. Blizzard has reassured Chinese users by telling them that it will be worth the wait, however, the facts are still controversial.
In the hours in which the postponement of the game was confirmed, network users did not miss the ban on the official Diablo profile from Weibo, one of the most popular social networks in China. The concomitance of the two events seems to suggest that they are connected and a Chinese Reddit user is convinced he knows why.
Apparently, one of the members of the Diablo marketing team would have posted a very sensitive message on the official page, which can be translated as: “When will the bear be removed from its place ?”. That of the bear seems to be a reference to the incumbent president Xi Jinping.
The release would not have been frowned upon by the local authorities, who would have immediately silenced the Weibo profile of Diablo Immortal, thus triggering the postponement of the free-to-play. There is more: according to some rumors, what happened would also have repercussions on Netease, the publisher of the game in China, which could be denied the possibility of publishing new titles in the next three years.
This could also affect the Chinese distribution of Blizzard’s upcoming games (including Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2) which at this point would be forced to find a partner other than Netease. We would like to clarify that none of this has been confirmed by those directly involved, therefore in the meantime, we invite you to take this information for what it is, that is, rumors and speculations.
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