Diablo Immortal has made plenty of headlines since its launch for all of the wrong reasons, but in no relation to these criticisms, the game appears to be facing difficulties securing its launch in China.
According to a post on Reddit, the game’s launch has been delayed in China following a post from the Diablo Immortal Weibo account which allegedly compared Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the children’s cartoon character Winnie the Pooh.
The post states that someone using the Diablo account questions, “When would the bear fall off the seat?” which, according to the poster, is directed at Chairman Xi.
The June 26 post continues to suggest that marketing for the handheld game has now been completely shut down in China, with further action rumored to be taken against NetEase. Bloomberg reached out to NetEase regarding this post for a report, however, the company declined to comment at time of publication.
Right now there has been no official statement on Immortal’s alleged ban in China. Days prior to Diablo Immortal’s scheduled arrival in China the game’s official Weibo account was blocked from posting for “violating relevant laws and regulations.”
Furthermore, NetEase released a statement at that time confirming that the release had been delayed, stating that this time will be used to work on optimizing the game to function better on more devices.
The game was initially set for a Chinese release on June 23.
Dot Esports has been unable to confirm the authenticity of the alleged post as it is not currently on the Weibo account, however, can confirm that the account has been banned.
While it may not yet be available in China, Diablo Immortal is celebrating its launch as the most successful in Diablo franchise history, despite the backlash.
