The end of this partnership, which had lasted since 2008 and was last extended in 2019, means that World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch, StarCraft II, Diablo III and Heroes of the Storm will no longer be available in China. from January 23, 2023.
“The two parties have not reached an agreement to renew this partnership in a manner consistent with Blizzard’s operating principles and commitments to players and employees“, explains Blizzard, which will however look for a new partner (hello, Tencent?) in the hope of finding the Chinese market, especially with the approach of titles like World of Warcraft: Dragonflight and Diablo IV.
“We are immensely grateful for the passion our Chinese community has shown throughout the nearly 20 years we have brought our games to China through NetEase and other partners. Their enthusiasm and creativity inspire us, and we are looking for alternatives to bring our games back to players in the future.“said Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard.
“We have put in a lot of effort and sincerely tried to negotiate with Activision Blizzard so that we can continue our collaboration and serve the many dedicated gamers in China. However, there were significant differences on key terms and we were unable to come to an agreement.“, laments for his part William Ding, founder and general manager of NetEase Games.
According to information from Bloomberg, the end of this alliance revolves around financial disagreements but also questions related to the control of the intellectual property and data of millions of players across China. The first signs of tension between Blizzard and NetEase Games surfaced last summer, when Bloomberg reported the cancellation of two mobile projects based on the World of Warcraft license. One of them had been in development for three years by a team of one hundred people. An announcement that looks bad when Phil Spencer keeps saying that mobile is the main reason for the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
China was estimated to represent just 3% of Activision Blizzard’s revenue in 2021, but this market remained important to the company’s growth prospects, especially for eSports. Opposite, NetEase Games minimizes the impact of this rupture on its future financial results, estimating that the contribution of Blizzard games represented less than 10% of its turnover and its profits in 2021 and in the first nine months of the year. year 2022. In China, where Blizzard licenses have been present for nearly 20 years, the announcement is however the effect of a bomb and has been read more than 100 million times on the Weibo social network. The Hong Kong stock exchange also sanctioned the title of NetEase Games with a fall of 15%, a first for more than a year.