Blizzard Cancels Overwatch Event
Activision Blizzard Inc., following the harsh reactions after it punished a tournament player for backing Hong Kong’s anti-Beijing protesters, canceled a New York launch event for an edition of its Overwatch game.
The event, scheduled for Wednesday at Nintendo Co.’s store in Rockefeller Center, was planned to support the release of Overwatch: Legendary Edition for the Nintendo Switch portable game machine. Nintendo tweeted Tuesday that Blizzard had canceled the promotion.
Blizzard has been struggling to contain a backlash after it punished the gamer Chung Ng Wai, known as Blitzchung. The player wore a gas mask and chanted a pro-Hong Kong slogan in a post-tournament interview, leading Blizzard to ban him from events for a year and strip him of $10,000 in prize money.
After an uproar from customers and U.S. lawmakers, who said Blizzard was kowtowing to China, the company reduced Blitzchung’s suspension to six months and restored his prize money.