In the wake of Blizzard banning Wai Chung “Blitzchung” Ng, a number of players have been looking to get refunds for Blizzard games in support of the Hong Kong based Hearthstone pro. Now, it seems that one platform holder is making it easy to do so, at least for one Blizzard game: Nintendo is apparently allowing Overwatch Switch refunds.
That Nintendo is apparently allowing refunds for preorders of the Overwatch Switch port was shared in a (now-deleted) tweet by a user going by the Twitter username Getvent. Another person, going by username StormYorha, then shared the tweet as part of a compilation of examples of how Nintendo is supposedly distancing itself from Blizzard and Overwatch following the latter’s banning of Blitzchung.
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For those who aren’t caught up with the story, Blizzard banned Blitzchung after he proclaimed “Liberate Hong Kong” during a post-game interview at a recent tournament. This has led to a massive backlash from players who are accusing Blizzard of pandering to China’s authoritarian government. While Blizzard has since shortened the ban on Blitzchung (as well as the casters involved), while also giving him back his prize money, many players are still in favor of boycotting the company.
If it’s true, refunds being allowed specifically for Overwatch on Switch represent a big thing as these aren’t usually allowed for digital preorders of Switch Eshop games. Getvent’s original tweet did mention that Nintendo support called the cancellation “a unique case.”
However, some aren’t convinced by this. Over on Reddit, aroloki1 pointed out that there seems to be an unwritten policy where Nintendo allows one refund per account with no questions asked. If this the case, then the “unique case” that Nintendo referred to may have been with regard to this specific policy, not anything influenced by current issues surrounding Blizzard. Additionally, the same redditor also pointed out that Nintendo’s own website still features banners for Overwatch.
Regardless of whether or not the refunds are being allowed because of the backlash, it does seem like Nintendo and Blizzard are playing it safe when it comes to Overwatch‘s release on the Switch. One of the pieces of “evidence” StormYorha put in their tweet was the recent cancellation of the launch event for the game in New York.
