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Players Made Tencent Retract Decision and Continue to Operate Their Beloved Game

By Johnson Ge
Mar. 30, 2022 updated 05:22

Mar 30th, the official Weibo of the game Fashion Cloudy posted an announcement saying they will suspend the procedure of ceasing game operation. The game service operation will be kept on, the player’s account data will not be deleted. Players of Fashion Cloudy were sharing the announcement on social media and celebrating their victory.

A screenshot of Fashion Cloudy’s suspension ceasing procedure announcement.A screenshot of Fashion Cloudy’s suspension ceasing procedure announcement.

Fashion Cloudy is a dating game with costume design as its core gameplay. The game was developed by Seasun and published by Tencent.

On Feb 20th, the same Weibo account announced the game service will be shut down on April 28th and the player data on the server will be permanently deleted. The players of Fashion Cloudy were offered a compensation program in which they may choose one of three other Tencent games and acquire an in-game gift box of it.

That was an unexpected announcement for many players. On Dec 29th, 2021, the game just released a long-term microtransaction event: for each month the players will get costumes as rewards if they meet the in-game microtransaction goal. Players considered it as a sign that the game will keep operating for a decent period and they were happy to purchase more costumes.

A screenshot of Fashion Cloudy’s last event announcement which says the event will be available on the first day of each month.A screenshot of Fashion Cloudy’s last event announcement which says the event will be available on the first day of each month.

After the announcement, those players felt being betrayed or deceived. Everything they spent in the game will be gone permanently. They also believed the game operation team was trying to rip those players off before they ceased operation. And the compensation program was nothing else but trying to lure them into other Tencent games.

A screenshot from a Weibo with long writing about how the players were treated unfairly by Tencent and SeasunA screenshot from a Weibo with long writing about how the players were treated unfairly by Tencent and Seasun

Those players soon gathered on social media and posted their rage against Tencent and Seasun. At the same time, they sent formal complaints to government agencies like China Consumers Association (CCA). The CCA official Weibo account posted on Mar 18th saying they had received a large number of complaints about Fashion Cloudy and they would pay attention to it.

On Mar 30th, CCA official Weibo posted that the ceasing procedure of Fashion Cloudy had been suspended after their intervention. Many players treated it as a victory for the protection of their rights. Some were concerned if the ceasing procedure will resume sometime later this year since the word they used was “suspended” instead of “terminated”.