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Microsoft Finds Legal Path To Launch Minecraft In China (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Minecraft's PC and smartphone versions are finally coming to China. On Friday, Microsoft and Mojang announced the beginning of a "five-year exclusive partnership" with Chinese software publisher NetEase, Inc to roll the game out onto Chinese computer and smartphone marketplaces. Microsoft was able to publish the game on Xbox One consoles late last year, but those consoles have yet to penetrate the Chinese market to the extent that PCs and smartphones have, and the fact that even Microsoft had to license the game to someone else as opposed to launching it from its own Shanghai campus is a stern reminder of what roadblocks stand in the way of Western software developers. "The most challenging aspect of doing business in China by far is dealing with the government," former PopCap executive James Gwertzman said at the 2010 Game Developers Conference. Game publishers must acquire a combined six permits to launch a game in China, and most of those permits cannot be acquired by foreign-operated companies. Microsoft is presumably in the exact same regulatory boat, and its choice of partner is telling; NetEase already has a major Western-gaming reputation thanks to its partnership with megawatt game makers Blizzard. Gwertzman guessed that Minecraft will probably avoid such undue attention with its upcoming launch. "Minecraft is on the good side as it encourages teamwork and learning," he said. "I see Minecraft as the perfect example of a game that will receive public support [in China]." Meanwhile, American technology companies like Apple and Microsoft are undergoing security reviews in the communist country.
You are all blocky cows from sweden. Blocky cows say Mooooo! Moooo say the blocky cows. Moooo!
minecraft sucks, even doom2 has better graphics, and was also multiplayer (up to 4)
>> from 20 years ago
Heaven forbid you forgo a regressive market or *gasp* hold on to any shred of values as a large organization in the way and places you choose to do business.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
If only Huawei allowed to partner up with a US company to sell router/switch/LTE here in the US. Talk about government...
Somehow this sounds bad....
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Everybody knows triangles are better then cubes..
Judging by how involved the Chinese are in the Minecraft modding scene not only has Minecraft been launched in China it has been there for years. Don't believe me? Search Github for zh_CN Minecraft pull requests.
Somehow this sounds bad....
It's because China is using a protectionist practice.
China wants domestic companies selling things domestically(*). If an outside company has a product it wants to sell, it has to license it to a domestically-owned company inside China.
This forces at least some of the money to stay in China, paying Chinese people, and otherwise helping the local economy. It reduces the trade deficit somewhat and makes the Chinese economy stronger.
Compare and contrast to modern American economics, which holds that "free trade is best trade", all the money from the sale of foreign goods and products goes to the foreign entity. The money leaves the country and no Americans get paid.
(*) I was under the impression that the rule was that a Chinese company had to be at least 51% owned by Chinese in order to sell domestically, but that was years ago. I don't know if this is still the case.
yet again. I guess being able to hire cheap Chinese workers is more important to them than what is right.
Microsoft is bad, remember? The software is probably loaded up with vulnerabilities and nags to install Windows 10. Microsoft releasing new software is a bad thing. A very bad thing.
... in China they have porn cown, instead of Moooooo! Moooooo! they say 'flai lais, flai lais, flaaaiiiiiii laaaiiiiis!!!'
But seriously, porn are available all over China's internet
BULLSHIT !!
If Minecraft is open, how come there is no open-source alternative and/or some kind of 'fork branch' of the Minecraft platform?
How come Minecraft ends up owned by and locked up by Microsoft?
to craft the tool necessary to dig through that firewall.
It's because China is using a protectionist practice.
Western scholars figured out the problem with this practice hundreds of years ago. Problem is - it screws with your money supply something fierce. You end up having to radically manipulate your money supply, and you wind up with deflation and endless stimulus spending. Japan did the same thing in the 70's and 80's, and they've been paying for it over the last two decades (stagflation in the 90's-2000's, deflation since then.) China's turn is coming up soon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I'm happy to learn more about this, but I am a bit sceptical about your conclusions. (Not the least of which is the general religious undertone of economic schools of thought.)
Firstly, the US is mostly free trade, and yet we've had to do stimulus spending for the last six-or-seven years. I don't really see the difference on that dimension.
Secondly, although the US isn't in a deflation cycle, we *almost* are. Checking the monthly inflation rates shows negative inflation for several months of 2015, and fairly low inflation for the last couple of years. Despite massive stimulus spending, despite the government spending trillions more than revenue over the last decade, we're *still* not up to the generally-accepted-healthy value of inflation of 2.5%.
There's recent evidence that depression and deflation aren't empirically linked, so it's no longer clear to me that deflation is as bad as everyone makes it out to be.
And finally, your analysis may be correct but myopic in that it doesn't take into account other factors such as employment. The US could be in a good financial situation and also on the precipice of revolt. If enough people are unemployed and *can't* find a job, if enough people drop from middle-class to poor-class, then there would be a great deal of unrest.
We're 'kinda seeing that now. Productivity is up, overall profits are up, but for the vast majority of Americans wages have remained stagnant. All the profits go to the upper echelons, so it *seems* like we're doing fine financially when in reality a lot of people are miserable.
I'm not an economist, I'm only trying to figure out this stuff on my own. Some aspects of "current economic theory" don't seem to make sense.
Can you explain why unemployment (or more accurately, the labor force participation rate isn't a priority in your analysis?
Here is one paper that talks about deflation and depression, many others can be found in a google search.
Somehow this sounds bad....
It's because China is using a protectionist practice.
It is protectionism. It is also corruption. I have heard reps of big VC firms say outright that they have to use domestic partners in China because it is practically impossible to do business there without violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
All that stuff is made in China, how has it not penetrated the market?
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
Look man when you are talking weapons or monitoring technology or something like that then yes, there are some real arguments to be made for denying access. However things like entertainment? No, the opposite should apply actually. Something that helps tear barriers down is sharing culture.
just.. why
the chinese government passed laws stating that all source code was to be handed over to them
why would anyone do business there
Meanwhile, American technology companies like Apple and Microsoft are undergoing security reviews in the communist country.
#1 Microsoft is Global Mother Fucking Spyware.
#2 Apple.. there is no such thing as a trustworthy homosexual.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/05/20/third-cash-owned-5-us-companies/84640704/
Hell to pay.
that bribes were legal in China.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
"The most challenging aspect of doing business in China by far is dealing with the government,"
No, no, it's super easy to deal with the government in China:
1. Go out to drink with the first layer of officials; bring lavish gifts preferably cash or easily convertible to cash. Repeat step 1 x2
2: Go out to a dinner with the next level of officials; bring higher grade of lavish gifts preferably cash or easily convertible to cash. Repeat step 2 3-4x.
3: Go on a vacation trip with the highest level of officials; bring highest grade of lavish gifts preferably cash or easily convertible to cash. Repeat step 3 6-8x.
4: Modest profit!
Note that if step 4 lasts more than a year or does not include "modest", re-start from step 1.
Not all that different from the US: "buy local", "consumer protection regulations", etc. It's, of course, all for the "protection of the people".
Well, that's misleading.
I could sue you for looking at me funny. That doesn't mean anything. Being sued by someone with a chance of winning is a different matter. And the idea of a shareholder having a credible case for suing a board for not breaking the law is more than a bit far fetched. The reality is that credible lawsuits are most likely due to illegal practices that damage shareholder value, as with Volkswagen or where mismanagent is of epic proportions. You make it seem as if IBM will see a shareholder revolt if they have a free donuts day for their staff.