Activision Blizzard and Chinese service provider NetEase are ending their 14-year relationship after the two sides were unable to come to an agreement on terms going forward. According to Activision Blizzard’s press release on November 17th, January 23, 2023 will be the last day fans of popular Blizzard titles like Overwatch 2, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Diablo III, and Starcraft will have access to their games in China. NetEase stated in a separate statement that they will not renew the relationship in the future citing “material differences.”
The news comes just weeks before one of Blizzard’s largest titles releases its next expansion. World of Warcraft: DragonFlight is set to release on November 29th and pre-sales for the expansion have been on sale for about a year around the world, including China. In the same release, Blizzard stated they will be halting sales of their games in China “in the coming days,” but for fans that have already preordered, they will get approximately 8 weeks of play before their access will be lost.
Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard Entertainment, said in the statement that Blizzard has been grateful for the passion the Chinese community showed the developer for over 20 years. Ybarra would go on to thank NetEase for their partnership citing their enthusiasm and creativity. While there is no answer for the future of the Blizzard titles in China, Ybarra did suggest that they are looking for alternative means to bring the games back to China.
While Ybarra’s statement gave a glimpse of hope that Blizzard titles may come back to China in the future, the statement from NetEase gave the impression that if they do come back, it will not be with NetEase. CEO William Ding suggested NetEase put in a great deal of effort and tried sincerely to negotiate with Activision Blizzard to make sure players in China would not lose access to their games. Citing “ material differences on key terms,” Ding and NetEase were unable to reach an agreement. Ding promised to protect the players’ data and assets in the games before they go dark in 2023.
Simon Zhu, NetEase president of global investment and partnership, had strong words for the agreement coming to end. Through a post on his LinkedIn page, Zhu stated he felt heartbroken that he will no longer have access to his accounts and memories from the over “ ten thousand hours in the world of Azeroth, Starcraft and Overwatch” Zhu then stated that he hopes one day in the future, what happened behind the scenes in the negotiations will be told and hopes players will see ”how much damage a jerk can make.”
Fans of Diablo Immortal will still have access to the game in China as it is covered under a separate agreement and will not be affected at the moment.
Image from: Blizzard/NetEase
