[Eco de la Semaine] Tencent targeted by China, complaint against PlayStation and record launch of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

Tencent in turn targeted by China

China has always imposed very strict obligations on foreign companies in order to trade with the country, especially in the field of technology (and video games). A few weeks ago, Epic Games (where Tencent owns 40% of the shares) ended up removing Fortnite from the Chinese stores after having had to constantly adapt since its launch to the demands of Beijing. Today it also affects the high-tech giant Tencent, and quite logically its gaming division, which will be subject to strict control put in place by the Chinese government.

Owner of the most popular games in the world (League of Legends, Clash of Clans, Arena of Valor, Honor of Kings, PUB …) and owning shares (or the studios themselves) among the biggest players in the industry (Epic Games, PlayStation, Activision-Blizzard, Supercell, Riot Games…), Tencent is everywhere and its biggest market is none other than its own country: China.

By virtue of its status, the firm (which is one of the 10 richest and most profitable companies in the world) was thus relatively protected from Beijing’s restrictions … until now! In fact, from now on, like any foreign player, the company will have to present all its new applications and updates in Beijing. it is then up to the government to validate or not the publication of the content.

At present, all updates to Tencent applications are blocked by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technologies for a week, the time to verify the legality of all applications of the group (social networks, games…). There is no doubt that this decision will have very serious consequences on the economic foundations of Tencent while the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hopes with these measures to strengthen its increasingly delicate position in the country.

After Ubisoft and Activision-Blizzard, Playstation is also the subject of a complaint for discrimination against women (on a smaller scale), according to a former employee of the firm

While Jim Ryan (Sony), Phil Spencer (Xbox) and Doug Bowser (Nintendo) have expressed their dissatisfaction with Activision-Blizzard, it is the turn of Sony (with its gaming division Playstation) to be the subject of a new complaint. On November 22, Emma Majo, a former Sony employee, filed a complaint against PlayStation.

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She accuses Sony’s gaming division of tolerating and cultivating a work environment that discriminates against women. The scale is therefore less compared to what happened within Ubisoft and Activision-Blizzard, although the former employee of the group claims to have been fired after filing an internal statement.

Emma Majo continues by accusing the pay gap between men and women and limiting professional opportunities. However, the speech held by Sony is quite different since the Japanese company indicates that Emma Majo would have been fired following the closure of her department. A speech that she immediately denied.

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Finally, the former employee asks the Court that the nature of the complaint be changed to become a collective complaint. It will therefore be a long time before having the final word on this story since if the situation described by Emma Majo may turn out to be real, it is also possible that she is acting only for her personal interests. At this stage of the investigation, neither of these two claims can yet be proven and much remains to be substantiated.

Record launch for Sparkling Diamond and Sparkling Pearl Pokémon

The remakes of Pokémon Sparkling Diamond and Sparkling Pearl were eagerly awaited by the community. At one month of Christmas, the game strings the sales records all over the world. The palm of gold returns as always to Japan where 1.4 million copies have found buyers in just three days. This is the second best launch of a Switch game behind … Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

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In England, France and Italy, the two games from Nintendo and the Pokémon Company also ranked first and second. The DUO Pack, on the other hand, does not obtain such good results (9th), except in France where it closely follows the “classic” versions of the game.

In short this week:

– In Japan, the Switch exceeded this week the total sales of the PS2 (the best-selling console in the world with 155 million copies sold) on the archipelago. With 21.9 million consoles sold, the PS2 is now the fifth best-selling console in Japan, behind the Switch therefore (22 million), the 3DS (24.6 million), the Game Boy (32.5 million) and the DS (33 million).

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– Epic Games offers itself the creators of Guitar Hero and Dance Central: Harmonix. The studio behind Fortnite declares that Harmonix will continue to work on its productions (including Rock Band 4) and that this takeover is an opportunity for them to develop musical journeys and gameplay for Fortnite, keystone of the Metaverse that wants to create Epic. Note also that the game will go to “Chapter 3” on December 4 at 10 pm (in France).

– Genshin Impact partners with Twitch to bring you in-game content. Indeed, by subscribing to a 2-month level 1 subscription on the following channels: AlexYukiii, Spuffi, Azano, MijunaTV, Aiola, Maniack_Live, Lhokar, Sephijin, ThorngarTV, ManaProd and Gotaga, you will have access to a glider and a few others rewards.

– The coming years promise to be rich in content. If the players will be from February (and even January) overwhelmed by the (very) many productions offered next year and in 2023, according to Geoff Keighley, it will be necessary to add a new one to the calendar. A news, and not the least since the organizer of the Game Awards announces a long list of announcements, some of which are awaited for a very long time.

– A few weeks ago, Netflix launched into video game streaming, without investing in it. The streaming service now offers a few titles on Android (and soon IOS) at no extra cost and announces that it has recruited Amir Rahimi. Appointed vice-president of game studios, Amir Rahimi has proven himself at Electronic Arts, Zynga and ForNext Games.