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[Zomba13]

Nobody went 'internet detective'; the trailer literally says that donation will be made on purchases in the US with some exceptions in the small print. How the hell can anybody see that and conclude 'Well, obviously all profits will go to the family'?

I'm super confused about how people are saying it was "internet detectives" faults and this all got taken out of context.

I mean, the official advert made mention that only purchases in the United States would have the money donated, then it was tweeted confirming that when people asked. It's not "internet detective" to read what is in an advert then tweet at the guys that put out the advert for clarification and it isn't on the general public that they were given incorrect information and then had confirmation on that incorrect information.

It was in no way obvious all proceeds would go to the family. I mean, usually when you do something like this it is, but when you then add small print say "actually, only if you buy it in these places will we give money" then of course it casts doubt on the whole thing. Especially when you then double down and say "yeah, we're only donating on purchases made in the US".

It's WB's fault for not actually checking the shit they give out.

This man gets it. Internet outrage culture at it's finest.

You do know it didn't go down like that at all right?

 

[Anung]

Damn some people are going hard on re-writing the narrative around this one. WB fucked up from the onset and this clarification was very much needed and probably should have been the first thing out of the PR companies mouths.

 

[Armaros]

Apparently to people defending WB still.

WB advertising in a trailer AND on the steam page, "sales only from X US states qualify for the donation' = WB saying "we are going to donate all sales to the family"

Somehow. Maybe in a different universe where ONLY and ALL mean the same thing.

 

[DOWN]

Yeah I read the OP, the one where WB backtracked their fuckery. The original PR said:



https://kotaku.com/shadow-of-war-producer-memorialized-in-dlc-1798703505

Common sense means not accepting everything at face value and questioning the truth instead of letting corporations get away with whatever they want.

That doesn’t say what you’re claiming it says. And they clearly explain why they worded the line you are quoting the way they did.

 

[Fbh]

This man gets it. Internet outrage culture at it's finest.

Except no one came up with a conspiracy theory. It states in the trailer that only the money made from sales in the US would be donated. There as also direct confirmation from oficial sources that that was the case

But sure. Let's keep defending our Noble corporate overlords

 

[Werd]

I read the part of this announcement where they said they were going to donate all the money anyway (obviously) and explained why they couldn't specifically say that. Did you?

So people were supposed to use information posted today (if taken at face value) in their discussion of the topic a month ago?

 

[Gren]

When dealing with such a sensitive matter, it only behooves them to be as clear and transparent as possible. I can't believe whoever was in charge of communicating this handled it so poorly.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

So people were supposed to use information posted today (if taken at face value) in their discussion of the topic a month ago?

No, but I think that information was obvious, and they should definitely be reading it before replying to this thread about it, which most people clearly aren't.

 

[Armaros]

No, but I think that information was obvious, and they should definitely be reading it before replying to this thread about it, which most people clearly aren't.

So the trailer and steam page directly from WB, stating completely different things from what they are saying now, dont matter?

 

[Asd202]

Good.

 

[Freshmaker]

Shout out to the internet who, instead of using some basic common sense, got angry about literally giving to charity.

Instead of a spotty "DLC that kinda went to the family, but not we dunno we didn't plan it out that well etc", the company donated money directly to the family and the virtual memorial to the man in question was made accessible to all purchasers of the game for no cost.

Clearly the internet fucked up.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

So the trailer and steam page directly from WB, stating completely different things from what they are saying now, dont matter?

The OP clearly explains why that was, so no, they don't matter to the discussion now (unless you think WB is lying now, but that isn't a position I can really contend with). They mattered last week, but as I've stated, I think the information in the OP was fairly obvious if you have any faith in humanity or common sense at all. Apparently, a few people disagree.

Instead of a spotty "DLC that kinda went to the family, but not we dunno we didn't plan it out that well etc", the company donated money directly to the family and the virtual memorial to the man in question was made accessible to all purchasers of the game for no cost.

Clearly the internet fucked up.

Ignoring you still misunderstanding how the DLC plan was going to work, it will be less money than they would have got in the first place (almost certainly WB would have also given a sizable donation of their own as part of the campaign). It will dissuade them and others from doing things like this in the future. It will have caused untold mental stress to the family and friends of the guy it was all meant to be for.

But woo, free DLC, hooray.

 

[CloudWolf]

This is likely due to laws surrounding stuff like this. Players playing in Maryland can't receive prizes playing on Magic: The Gathering online, for example. 50 states leads to weird things happening.

Yes, but that doesn't explain why purchases made outside the US weren't mentioned at all. When you specifically put in the small print 'Donations will be made on purchases in one of the 50 states of the US', you're implying pretty hard that none of the purchases outside of the US will actually go to the family.

The OP clearly explains why that was, so no, they don't matter to the discussion now (unless you think WB is lying now, but that isn't a position I can really contend with). They mattered last week, but as I've stated, I think the information in the OP was fairly obvious if you have any faith in humanity or common sense at all. Apparently, a few people disagree.

I call bullshit on that reason though, they sent out press releases to international websites, promoted the DLC hard on social media and put the trailer worldwide viewable on YouTube. That aren't things you do when you're intention is to 'only promote the donation in the US'.

 

[Savitar]

They confused people and made it sound like not all the money was going towards the family so they deserved the heat (the game deserves it for the rest of the microtransactions definitely). It would have been nice if they did do things like this from the start really.

 

[horkrux]

Except no one came up with a conspiracy theory. It states in the trailer that only the money made from sales in the US would be donated. There as also direct confirmation from oficial sources that that was the case

But sure. Let's keep defending our Noble corporate overlords

Our decision not to promote the donation outside the U.S. (even though we intended to donate the money) caused many to question where funds from other territories were going. Answering that direct question itself could have triggered compliance obligations or put us in violation of cause marketing laws in some of the 241 territories in which the content was available.

I mean.. what were they supposed to say? Provided there would have been some trouble, I'm no legal expert, let alone for 241 countries.

 

[Armaros]

The OP clearly explains why that was, so no, they don't matter to the discussion now (unless you think WB is lying now, but that isn't a position I can really contend with). They mattered last week, but as I've stated, I think the information in the OP was fairly obvious if you have any faith in humanity or common sense at all. Apparently, a few people disagree.

No? Because how come literally every other version of charity drives haven't run into these PR issues? Where people are wondering if there money is actually going to charity? Its JUST poor misunderstood WB. Boo Hoo. Poor Giant Corporation with poor PR.

 

[BronsonLee]

Yes, but that doesn't explain why purchases made outside the US weren't mentioned at all. When you specifically put in the small print 'Donations will be made on purchases in one of the 50 states of the US', you're implying pretty hard that none of the purchases outside of the US will actually go to the family.

Not really, it's probably a US-cut trailer (and they're more concerned about US tax laws) so they didn't really think about the rest of the world

Good that they fixed it though.

Edit: n/m horkrux's post explains it

 

[Zomba13]

The OP clearly explains why that was, so no, they don't matter to the discussion now (unless you think WB is lying now, but that isn't a position I can really contend with). They mattered last week, but as I've stated, I think the information in the OP was fairly obvious if you have any faith in humanity or common sense at all. Apparently, a few people disagree.

Except your first comment was

Shout out to the internet who, instead of using some basic common sense, got angry about literally giving to charity.

And then when people explained to you what the internet got angry over you just said "yeah well they were stupid because obviously you don't listen to the big company and their advert and instead have blind faith in them!".

People have pointed out to you time and again how it wasn't obvious that all proceeds from every sale all over the world would go to the family but all you say is "yeah but it was obvious tho".

 

[Terrell]

Wait... so the outcome is that they originally planned to sell the DLC and donate ALL the proceeds to his family but the internet was outraged and came up some conspiracy theory that got so popular that the company is now scrapping the idea of using sales to fund the donation.

People do realize that sales probably would have been bigger than whatever they'll donate now and could have been a potentially multi-month/year income stream for the family. And now that is eradicated... and people feel that's a good thing.

Free DLC > helping people in trying times I guess. Let's you know where their heart really lies.

Unless you have the books or access to the business planning meetings at WBIE, you have no means to validate the bolded statements since WBIE's statements on the matter were quite absent in what donations outside of US and most states weren't being attributed were going to be like, and thus your entire argument falls apart.

When this was introduced, it wasn't clear that 30% of your $5 purchase of this DLC may be going to platform holders, so platform holders might have ended up essentially profiting from people with good intentions, which is not a good look when you're trying to be charitable. When this was introduced, why only $3.50 of that $5 purchase was donated wasn't made abundantly clear AT ALL. Nor was it clear what would happen to purchases outside the US. And Warner Bros. announcing this within weeks of their loot box disaster in the same game the DLC was featured in wasn't giving people a lot of confidence.

Saying that the charity would end up worse falls to WBIE in how they handle this. They could donate an amount that is predicated on number of software sales, and then you end up with the same continuous stream of income to the bereaved family, not simply capped by how many people end up buying the DLC, which would theoretically be more money than what would be awarded by DLC purchases alone, so long as we are assured that in this scenario or the DLC donations didn't have some sort of cut-off point where they stopped donating to the family. (which, guess what, THEY DID, so any of the DLC purchased after the end of 2019 went to WBIE)

You can't just say this is a worse situation without all the details and vilify people as less thoughtful or morally dubious simply because they were rightfully concerned with the method this was all handled.

 

[Diablohead]

It's nice and clear now what they plan to do, the old information about payments for dlc outside of americas and the platform holders taking 30% was a mess, they did the right thing making it free and donating part of the sales directly.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

Except your first comment was


And then when people explained to you what the internet got angry over you just said "yeah well they were stupid because obviously you don't listen to the big company and their advert and instead have blind faith in them!".

People have pointed out to you time and again how it wasn't obvious that all proceeds from every sale all over the world would go to the family but all you say is "yeah but it was obvious tho".

idk what to tell you, my first comment says this was obvious from the start based on common sense, and all my following comments say that it was obvious from the start based on common sense

No? Because how come literally every other version of charity drives haven't run into these PR issues? Where people are wondering if there money is actually going to charity? Its JUST poor misunderstood WB. Boo Hoo. Poor Giant Corporation with poor PR.

There are constant, endless arguments about how charities conduct themselves, where money goes, etc, about basically every medium-to-large charity or cause out there.

 

[Armaros]

Unless you have the books or access to the business planning meetings at WBIE, you have no means to validate the bolded statements, and thus your entire argument falls apart.

When this was introduced, it was already clear that 30% of your $5 purchase of this DLC was going to platform holders, so platform holders would have ended up essentially profiting from people with good intentions, which is not a good look when you're trying to be charitable. When this was introduced, where the money was being donated wasn't made clear. And Warner Bros. announcing this within weeks of their loot box disaster in the same game the DLC was featured in wasn't giving people a lot of confidence.

Saying that the charity would end falls to WBIE in how they handle this. They could donate an amount that is predicated on number of software sales, and then you end up with the same continuous stream of income to the bereaved family, not simply capped by how many people end up buying the DLC, which would theoretically be more money than what would be awarded by DLC purchases alone, so long as we are assured that in this scenario or the DLC donations didn't have some sort of cut-off point where they stopped donating to the family.

You can't just say this is a worse situation without all the details and vilify people who were rightfully concerned with the method this was all handled.

Also the ludicrous idea of a corporation trying to say 'we WERE going to do a very good thing, but since we marketing it terribly and didn't explain anything we are going to do less, so in your face"

 

[JigglesBunny]

This is definitely the way the situation should have been handled from the beginning. That said, let's not be quick to forget their original plan - that sort of handling of the situation should be remembered whenever you consider how you choose to support the company in the future.

Sorry you're embarrassed that you got angry about helping a grieving family. The money was clearly always going to go to them to anyone with a lick of sense.

Never knew the WB Interactive CEO had a GAF account.

 

[mas8705]

No, but I think that information was obvious, and they should definitely be reading it before replying to this thread about it, which most people clearly aren't.

How obvious?

 

[Armaros]

idk what to tell you, my first comment says this was obvious from the start based on common sense, and all my following comments say that it was obvious from the start based on common sense



There are constant, endless arguments about how charities conduct themselves, where money goes, etc, about basically every medium-to-large charity or cause out there.

Again, no one is confused if the money goes to the actually charity in question, the normal question is what do they do about it. People who question about the Red Cross are not questioning whether or not the people donation to them actually are giving Red Cross money instead of another group,but what Red Cross is doing with the money.

the question was if the money would even get given to the charity in question.

For someone spending so much effort to defend WB in this thread, you oddly spent zero time in all of the other threads regarding this subject on GAF. But somehow this was obvious to you from the start when other people had question.

 

[Freshmaker]

Ignoring you still misunderstanding how the DLC plan was going to work,

WB's current explanation doens't match up with their public statements up to now, so I'm not misunderstanding anything. This is like MS making up family share plan after they already killed their always online Xbox One plans.

it will be less money than they would have got in the first place (almost certainly WB would have also given a sizable donation of their own as part of the campaign). It will dissuade them and others from doing things like this in the future. It will have caused untold mental stress to the family and friends of the guy it was all meant to be for.

But woo, free DLC, hooray.

Well if you feel that hard up about it, donate directly to the family in the OP's provided link. Set up a weekly donation or something.

Which I'm sure you've already done. Because this is so important to you.

 

[JaggedSac]

Hopefully the family gets as much money now as they would have before.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

WB's current explanation doens't match up with their public statements up to now, so I'm not misunderstanding anything. This is like MS making up family share plan after they already killed their always online Xbox One plans.

Well if you feel that hard up about it, donate directly to the family in the OP's provided link. Set up a weekly donation or something.

Which I'm sure you've already done. Because this is so important to you.

Fine, you think they're lying, not a lot I can say to that.

Yeah, I gave them $50. Thanks for reminding me to do so.

 

[Protome]

"Clarifies" is a weird way to write "Does a U-turn on"

 

[Mooreberg]

How obvious?

Totally obvious!

 

[atr0cious]

Fine, you think they're lying, not a lot I can say to that.

Yeah, I gave them $50. Thanks for reminding me.

Even the company recognizes they were in the wrong, who are you even arguing with?

 

[Terrell]

Fine, you think they're lying, not a lot I can say to that.

Yeah, I gave them $50. Thanks for reminding me to do so.

Not ever once specifying what will happen to donations in the territory that wasn't specified in all their PR until they revoked the DLC is lying?

Wow.

 

[Steroyd]

It may have taken... Holy shit, a whole month goddamn, better late than never.

idk what to tell you, my first comment says this was obvious from the start based on common sense, and all my following comments say that it was obvious from the start based on common sense



There are constant, endless arguments about how charities conduct themselves, where money goes, etc, about basically every medium-to-large charity or cause out there.

No it wasn't, in the actual promotion it laid out that 30% of the $5 wasn't going to Charity that isn't all by any other definition of the word, and then there was the in certain US states which was small text, and when asking WB directly only re-affirmed that it was for specific states in the US, even if it was intended for certain US states they still sold the thing WORLDWIDE.

It was never obvious, you needed blind faith and a leap in logic to make 2+2=5.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

Not saying what will happen to donations in the territory that wasn't specified in all their PR until they revoked the DLC is lying?

Wow.

No, he thinks they're lying about the reason that they did that, and lying when they say that all the money was going to go to the family originally anyway. Clearly several people do. I do not, and believe it was fairly obvious that was what was going to happen, and that international charity law is why they couldn't say it outright. People disagree with me about that.

 

[Slayven]

I wonder how much they will get from a one time donation vs on going royalites?

 

[JaggedSac]

I wonder how much they will get from a one time donation vs on going royalites?

We will never know.

 

[Rokal]

Except no one came up with a conspiracy theory. It states in the trailer that only the money made from sales in the US would be donated. There as also direct confirmation from oficial sources that that was the case

WB/Monolith tried to do something nice for the family and to honor a dev team member in a way that actually allowed people who wanted to donate to contribute directly and receive something cool that celebrated the employee.

This is a pretty new idea for charity, at least through Steam/Xbox/PSN storefronts that take a cut, and it's clear that international charity/promotion law is complicated, which is why you always see a ton of fine print. WB is a massive company, which means they need to protect themselves against violating said charity laws.

The above was always obvious, even before today.

People chose to believe that there were bad intentions and that they were trying to profit off an employee's death, even knowing 1) the above 2) that WB paid to have this DLC created and 3) the only money being set aside lined up with first party platform cuts.

Now, the family will get a flat donation instead of something that scales from Shadow of War players, and we will probably never see anyone try to do a charity promotion like this again through Steam/Xbox/PSN.

This isn't a victory for the Forgey family or for charitable causes, this is a lesson to publishers that they are better off staying away from charity lest they get tangled up in international charity laws and raise the ire of gamers looking for the next thing to be outraged about.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

WB/Monolith tried to do something nice for the family and to honor a dev team member in a way that actually allowed people who wanted to donate to contribute directly and receive something cool that celebrated the employee.

This is a pretty new idea for charity, at least through Steam/Xbox/PSN storefronts that take a cut, and it's clear that international charity/promotion law is complicated, which is why you always see a ton of fine print. WB is a massive company, which means they need to protect themselves against violating said charity laws.

The above was always obvious, even before today.

People chose to believe that there were bad intentions and that they were trying to profit off an employee's death, even knowing 1) the above 2) that WB paid to have this DLC created and 3) the only money being set aside lined up with first party platform cuts.

Now, the family will get a flat donation instead of something that scales from Shadow of War players, and we will probably never see anyone try to do a charity promotion like this again through Steam/Xbox/PSN.

This isn't a victory for the Forgey family or for charitable causes, this is a lesson to publishers that they are better off staying away from charity lest they get tangled up in international charity laws and raise the ire of gamers looking for the next thing to be outraged about.

Well at least I'm not the only one.

 

[atr0cious]

WB/Monolith tried to do something nice for the family and to honor a dev team member in a way that actually allowed people who wanted to donate to contribute directly and receive something cool that celebrated the employee.

This is a pretty new idea for charity, at least through Steam/Xbox/PSN storefronts that take a cut, and it's clear that international charity/promotion law is complicated, which is why you always see a ton of fine print. WB is a massive company, which means they need to protect themselves against violating said charity laws.

The above was always obvious, even before today.

People chose to believe that there were bad intentions and that they were trying to profit off an employee's death, even knowing 1) the above 2) that WB paid to have this DLC created and 3) the only money being set aside lined up with first party platform cuts.

Now, the family will get a flat donation instead of something that scales from Shadow of War players, and we will probably never see anyone try to do a charity promotion like this again through Steam/Xbox/PSN.

This isn't a victory for the Forgey family or for charitable causes, this is a lesson to publishers that they are better off staying away from charity lest they get tangled up in international charity laws and raise the ire of gamers looking for the next thing to be outraged about.

You can't use this word in defining WB as some benefactor, with how terrible their practices actually are.

I can't even call these posters shills because they're not even selling the company, they're just large shitposts of nothings pretending to be above it all. Outrage culture resulted in good, get over it.

 

[Peroroncino]

I don't buy that they intended to donate it directly from the start, but ultimately I'm glad to see it's gonna happen.

 

[Ridley327]

WB/Monolith tried to do something nice for the family and to honor a dev team member in a way that actually allowed people who wanted to donate to contribute directly and receive something cool that celebrated the employee.

This is a pretty new idea for charity, at least through Steam/Xbox/PSN storefronts that take a cut, and it's clear that international charity/promotion law is complicated, which is why you always see a ton of fine print. WB is a massive company, which means they need to protect themselves against violating said charity laws.

The above was always obvious, even before today.

People chose to believe that there were bad intentions and that they were trying to profit off an employee's death, even knowing 1) the above 2) that WB paid to have this DLC created and 3) the only money being set aside lined up with first party platform cuts.

Now, the family will get a flat donation instead of something that scales from Shadow of War players, and we will probably never see anyone try to do a charity promotion like this again through Steam/Xbox/PSN.

This isn't a victory for the Forgey family or for charitable causes, this is a lesson to publishers that they are better off staying away from charity lest they get tangled up in international charity laws and raise the ire of gamers looking for the next thing to be outraged about.

If it was always obvious, why did they feel the need to clarify their intentions repeatedly with today's news? They even admitted to this matter not being clear in the first place, and of their own doing, no less.

 

[Terrell]

No, he thinks they're lying about the reason that they did that, and lying when they say that all the money was going to go to the family originally anyway. Clearly several people do. I do not, and believe it was fairly obvious that was what was going to happen, and that international charity law is why they couldn't say it outright. People disagree with me about that.

At no point was it ever said that they lied. What was said was that when this concern was brought up by multiple people on the internet, WB said absolutely nothing and chose to end the DLC and go another way with it entirely, only saying what their intentions were after the fact. You're completely mischaracterizing things being said by posters and it's my recommendation that you refrain from doing so.

And charity law doesn't excuse the fact that they said nothing, it merely highlights that this was the wrong way to go about it if the method meant that we had to outright assume things that were never on the record when we have no reason to assume anything.

WB/Monolith tried to do something nice for the family and to honor a dev team member in a way that actually allowed people who wanted to donate to contribute directly and receive something cool that celebrated the employee.

This is a pretty new idea for charity, at least through Steam/Xbox/PSN storefronts that take a cut, and it's clear that international charity/promotion law is complicated, which is why you always see a ton of fine print. WB is a massive company, which means they need to protect themselves against violating said charity laws.

The above was always obvious, even before today.

People chose to believe that there were bad intentions and that they were trying to profit off an employee's death, even knowing 1) the above 2) that WB paid to have this DLC created and 3) the only money being set aside lined up with first party platform cuts.

Now, the family will get a flat donation instead of something that scales from Shadow of War players, and we will probably never see anyone try to do a charity promotion like this again through Steam/Xbox/PSN.

This isn't a victory for the Forgey family or for charitable causes, this is a lesson to publishers that they are better off staying away from charity lest they get tangled up in international charity laws and raise the ire of gamers looking for the next thing to be outraged about.

So, to be clear:

Steam, Microsoft and Sony getting a cut of a purchase that is advertised as something being done for charity is a GOOD thing?

Doing this DLC route instead of committing to something like "$XX will be donated based on total purchase numbers for Shadow of War" and bypassing the charity rules of nearly all states/countries since it's an after-the-fact donation is somehow not an option?

It's time to admit that it was a really poor choice for providing donations, with too much ambiguity and red tape, and should have gone about doing this an easier way.

 

[Armaros]

WB/Monolith tried to do something nice for the family and to honor a dev team member in a way that actually allowed people who wanted to donate to contribute directly and receive something cool that celebrated the employee.

This is a pretty new idea for charity, at least through Steam/Xbox/PSN storefronts that take a cut, and it's clear that international charity/promotion law is complicated, which is why you always see a ton of fine print. WB is a massive company, which means they need to protect themselves against violating said charity laws.

The above was always obvious, even before today.

People chose to believe that there were bad intentions and that they were trying to profit off an employee's death, even knowing 1) the above 2) that WB paid to have this DLC created and 3) the only money being set aside lined up with first party platform cuts.

Now, the family will get a flat donation instead of something that scales from Shadow of War players, and we will probably never see anyone try to do a charity promotion like this again through Steam/Xbox/PSN.

This isn't a victory for the Forgey family or for charitable causes, this is a lesson to publishers that they are better off staying away from charity lest they get tangled up in international charity laws and raise the ire of gamers looking for the next thing to be outraged about.

If all of this was so obvious, why did WB take weeks to clarity any of this? While in the process during the marketing campaign, saying that the people asking questions were right about the fact that all donations DONT go to the family?

 

[Rokal]

If it was always obvious, why did they feel the need to clarify their intentions repeatedly with today's news? They even admitted to this matter not being clear in the first place, and of their own doing, no less.

It's in the OP. They said that confirming that 100% of the proceeds would go to the family would have put them in violation of the international charity laws that they were trying not to violate in the first place.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

At no point was it ever said that they lied. What was said was that when this concern was brought up by multiple people on the internet, WB said absolutely nothing and chose to end the DLC and go another way with it entirely, only saying what their intentions were after the fact. You're completely mischaracterizing things being said by posters and it's my recommendation that you refrain from doing so.

I don't understand. Either you believe that they were always going to give the money to charity and couldn't say it because of trying to skirt the associated costs (me), or you don't (others). If you don't, you think they're lying in today's statement. That isn't some opinion or something I can misconstrue, either you believe them or you don't.

 

[Skade]

This is a pretty new idea for charity, at least through Steam/Xbox/PSN storefronts that take a cut, and it's clear that international charity/promotion law is complicated, which is why you always see a ton of fine print. WB is a massive company, which means they need to protect themselves against violating said charity laws.

They could also have sold the DLC normally and just stated that WB would "donate to the family an equivalent value of what was made from the dlc sales" or something like this.

I'm no lawyer or anything but i think that could have done the trick and nobody would have bat an eye.

They chose to word it the way they did. This "debacle" is on them and only them.

 

[Ridley327]

It's in the OP. They said that confirming that 100% of the proceeds would go to the family would have put them in violation of the international charity laws that they were trying not to violate in the first place.

Yes, they confirmed that today. Why was that not clarified when the issue first came up?

I'm not one of the people that thinks there was something nefarious going behind the scenes the whole time, but they put themselves in this situation that required this degree of rectification. You can't blame that on the internet.

 

[hanspampel]

Shout out to the internet who, instead of using some basic common sense, got angry about literally giving to charity.

sad, but true

 

[Rokal]

Yes, they confirmed that today. Why was that not clarified when the issue first came up?

I'm guessing it was the same legal safety checks that got them into this situation in the first place with the fine print. Complicated international charity law and slow legal checks to make sure they aren't violating it.

They could also have sold the DLC normally and just stated that WB would "donate to the family an equivalent value of what was made from the dlc sales" or something like this.

I'm no lawyer or anything but i think that could have done the trick and nobody would have bat an eye.

They chose to word it the way they did. This "debacle" is on them and only them.

I honestly don't know if that would have been better, or violated the very same charity laws.

I am not an international charity law expert.

I was looking at what Blizzard does for their "sell DLC and donate proceeds" promotions. They have one running right now:

https://us.battle.net/shop/en/product/world-of-warcraft-pet-shadow

But there are a couple major differences. Blizzard owns their own storefront, so they can say that 100% of the proceeds will go to charity because they get 100% of the proceeds. With Steam/Xbox/PSN, 30% of the proceeds go to the platform owners. Maybe that's the difference that caused them to need to go into fine detail.

 

[Fbh]

I mean.. what were they supposed to say? Provided there would have been some trouble, I'm no legal expert, let alone for 241 countries.

What you are posting is just WB explaining why they couldn't say anything else at the time. An explanation I have no way of corroborating and so I just have to take their word for it.

Now, I'm not saying they are lying. I assume they are telling the truth.
I'm just saying that people online didn't go "internet detective" and come up with "stupid conspiracy theories", they just reacted to the oficial information being provided to them.

Some people posting here might have a better understanding of the law or might just be smarter than the rest of us, and were 100% sure that despite every oficial source literally saying that only the money made from sales in the US would be donated, that information was actually not true and it was just a way to avoid legal trouble and the plan was always to donate all of earning.
Still doesn't mean that people were making up conspiracy theories or complaining over nothing