Business is business. And sometimes, users become victims.
World of Warcraft and other popular games have turned dark and inaccessible by gamers in China, and its publisher, Activision Blizzard, has blamed it on NetEase that declined its offer to extend its publishing deal in China.
Blizzard China published a statement to Weibo, claiming it contacted Chinese publisher NetEase with an offer to extend their deal by six months. This should allow gamers in the country to continue playing the likes of Overwatch 2, Hearthstone, Warcraft III: Reforgedthe StarCraft series, Diablo III, and Heroes of the Storm.
The thing is, NetEase declined the offer.
As a result of this, Blizzard had to discontinue some of its most popular game titles on January 23.
The shutdown isn't a surprise.
It all began back in November 2022, when Blizzard and NetEase were unable to reach a renewal agreement on their partnership.
In November, NetEase president of global investments and partnerships, Simon Zhu, said "developers and gamers will have a whole new level understanding of how much damage a jerk can make." And when the full story comes to light, Blizzard was seen placing the blamed squarely on the shoulders of NetEase.
Blizzard tried, but it failed.
While both parties are pointing fingers at each other, the fact is that the shutdowns are a very big deal.
First, there is a massive audience for Blizzard games in China: there are an estimated three million WoW players in China, and in 2019, Chinese Hearthstone pro Liooon (Li Xiaomeng) became the first woman to win the Hearthstone Grandmasters Global Finals.
And second, there isn't any way for players to regain access, even when they use VPNs.
This is because Blizzard games' accounts are tied to the region in which they were created. And because China has its own unique edition of World of Warcraft, any money spent on cosmetics or downloadable content is effectively gone.
In other words, this literally marks a new era: NetEase has been publishing Blizzard's games in China for 14 years, a partnership that NetEase CEO William Ding said fell apart over "material differences on key terms."
Responding to Blizzard, NetEase said that the U.S. company’s proposal "outrageous, inappropriate, and not in line with business logic."
It's worth noting though, that Diablo: Immortal, which has been Blizzard's controversial mobile game, is published under a separate agreement and is therefore unaffected at the moment.
Following this, many Blizzard fans in China started sharing their upset feelings on Twitter and Chinese social media site Weibo.
"It's the end," and that "the two companies have taken players hostage."
"It was not just a game. It was also the memories of a whole generation."
Fortunately, the situation may not be permanent.
In China, video games are required by law to have a Chinese publisher. And Blizzard China worked with NetEase to bring its games. But with the deal between the two are over, Blizzard said that it's looking for a "new partner" to handle its games in China.
A Blizzard China representative said that the shutdown is not "the end," but just a "temporary unhappy suspension."
"It is a pity that NetEase is not willing to extend services of our game for another six months on the basis of existing terms as we look for a new partner," Blizzard said.
This was somehow confirmed by NetEase, who also said that Blizzard had already “started the work of finding new partners” in China.
