White House has been making some bizarre decisions lately. In the recent news, President Trump has signed an executive order that will ban any transactions to WeChat, a Chinese messaging application. The order took place on 6th August and will prohibit any trade starting in 45 days. Taking a detailed ook oat this order, we find out that it may have severe effects on the gaming industry as well.
What’s causing trouble for gamers is a particular part of this Executive Order is in which the White House defines WeChat’s ownership and their relation to the gaming industry.
The order states that “any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd (a.k.a. Téngxùn Kònggǔ Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī), Shenzhen, China, or any subsidiary of that entity, as identified by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) under section 1(c) of this order”.
Taking a detailed look at Tencent’s assets, we find out that Call of Duty: Mobile is developed and distributed as a result of a partnership between Activision and Tencent. TIMI Studios developed this extremely popular mobile title, and that is also a subsidiary of Tencent based in LA.
Tencent also has a 5% investment stake in Activision Blizzard. Their Investments also lie in Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, and they are the complete owners of Riot Games, the makers of LoL and Valorant.
Therefore because of this order, we will see an impact on the partnership between Activision and Tencent that may result in problems for Call of Duty: Mobile players.
Tencent is also the sole owner and developer of PUBG for all major platforms, and this band will have some effect that as well when financial problems arise for the company. We also heard about a call of Duty: Online exclusively fro China, which might go on hold after this fiasco.
The game developers have yet to comment on this issue. Activision has not issued any statement regarding the matter. Tencent is also mysteriously quiet and has not published any comment on these recent events. However, this is not the end of the world for gamers, as we recently heard from a White House executive.
The white house official offered clarity to the matter and said that this order only applies to WeChat and will not affect any other Tencent applications. Hence there will not be any effect on gaming companies due to this executive order. Sam Dean, a reporter from the LA Times, reported this news in his tweet a few hours ago, which you can see below.
https://twitter.com/SamAugustDean/status/1291576813685108736
While there isn’t any solid decision for trump government, this is good news for gaming enthusiasts for now. In conclusion, there will not be any ban on games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, League of Legends, or Valorant anytime soon.