Blizzard Entertainment has postponed a World of Warcraft 15th Anniversary that was scheduled to take place in Taiwan.
The announcement of the event's suspension was made via a Facebook post for the region as reported by Polygon. Here is a machine-translated excerpt from the Facebook post:
We would like to inform you that we have extended the 15th anniversary celebration party of the world of Warcraft, which was scheduled for October 18th (Fri) to 20th (Fri). . We know that many players are looking forward to this event as much as we do. We are considering different options and will announce new event dates in the future.
Hong Kong Memes Overwhelm World of Warcraft 15th Anniversary Postponement
Rather unsurprisingly, responses to Blizzard Entertainment's announcement that the World of Warcraft 15th Anniversary event in Taiwan would be postponed have been met with waves of pro-Hong Kong messages and memes.
Blizzard has not elected to comment on the reason for the postponement to Polygon. No new posts have been made on the Facebook page since this announcement.
The company has come under criticism in recent weeks for having banned a Hong Kong-based player from Hearthstone for 12 months and seized his prize money after he uttered a pro-Hong Kong statement in a post-match livestream. The penalty that was later reduced to 6 months and his winnings will eventually be paid out.
The situation continued to escalate, so much so that a number of employees from the company staged a walkout. Perhaps most surprisingly, a bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic Senators penned a letter to Activision Blizzard head Bobby Kotick, urging him to "decide whether to look beyond the bottom line and promote American values—like freedom of speech and thought—or to give in to Beijing's demands in order to preserve market access."
What do you think of the Taiwanese World of Warcraft 15th Anniversary event being postponed? Do you think this year's Blizzcon is going to be affected by protests? Let us know in the comments below!
