Blizzard President J. Allen Brack.

Blizzard president apologizes and takes responsibility for Hearthstone free speech blunder

Blizzard president J. Allen Brack opened the BlizzCon 2019 fan fest with an apology about failing to take the right stand when a Hearthstone player protested China’s crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong a few weeks ago.

“We did not live up to the high standards that we setup for ourselves,” Brack said. “I am sorry and accept accountability.”

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.