Chinese fans review bomb Total War after NetEase becomes publisher
Gamers fear censorship and access to Steam games after Creative Assembly partnered with NetEase for China release
Meet NetEase, China’s second-largest game publisher
To make their concerns known, fans took to Steam, the digital shop that’s sold most copies of the game, and review bombed several games in the franchise. Hundreds of new negative reviews appeared on the pages of a number of Total War games such as Three Kingdoms, Warhammer II and Rome II.
The anger isn’t just about possible censorship, though. Once China has official versions of the games for sale in the country, gamers are concerned they’ll no longer be able to buy the international versions through Steam. Creative Assembly told gamers there’s nothing to fear.
But gamers are suspicious because this has happened before. When Rocket League got an official release in China in partnership with Tencent, the popular multiplayer game was suddenly unavailable for purchase on Steam for Chinese users.
It makes sense that an official partner in China like Tencent or NetEase would prefer people purchase their version rather than one from overseas that doesn’t net them any revenue. So Creative Assembly’s assurances didn’t ease fears among Chinese gamers, who continue to review bomb the Total War games with sometimes vicious comments.
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It puts Creative Assembly in an interesting spot. They would presumably want to avoid repeating the mistake made with Rocket League’s Tencent release, but at the same time, continued sales on Steam undercuts their Chinese partner. And partnerships in China are important for sustainable revenue in the country.
As of right now, China treats Steam as a gray market, as games sold on the platform aren’t licensed to be sold in the country. And since Steam doesn’t officially operate in China, the government could decide to block it at any time, as it already does to sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
So Creative Assembly still has much to gain by having Total War games officially available. Review bombs mostly come from a very vocal minority, even though they can be startling in their conspicuousness.
Though the practice has become common, many Chinese gamers believe review bombing is going too far.
Someone else offered a reserved defense.
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