As Blizzard and NetEase part ways Blizzard has announced that it is suspending game services in China.
Blizzard has officially announced it will be “suspending most Blizzard game services in Mainland China. This is due to the expiration of the current licensing agreement with NetEase.”
Live services will officially be terminated on the 23rd of January, 2023.
Since 2008, Blizzard has collaborated with the Chinese firm on the localization and administration of their games. The agreement ensured that the US-based publisher would not violate China’s stringent content regulations. The two companies had not renewed their agreement since 2019.
Blizzard made a statement saying:
“We will suspend new sales in the coming days and Chinese players will be receiving details of how this will work soon. Upcoming releases for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Hearthstone: March of the Lich King, and season 2 of Overwatch 2 will proceed later this year.”
Mike Ybarra went on to say:
“We’re immensely grateful for the passion our Chinese community has shown throughout the nearly 20 years we’ve been bringing 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.”
Blizzard did not provide any additional information, but according to Bloomberg, one of the issues was who owned the player data and other intellectual property.
William Ding the CEO of NetEase said in a statement:
“We have put in a great deal of effort and tried with our utmost sincerity to negotiate with Activision Blizzard so that we could continue our collaboration and serve the many dedicated players in China. However, there were material differences on key terms and we could not reach an agreement.
We hold high regard in our product and operational standards and abide by our commitments to Chinese players. We are honored to have had the privilege of serving our gamers over the past 14 years and have shared many precious moments with them during that time.
We will continue our promise to serve our players well until the last minute. We will make sure our players’ data and assets are well protected in all of our games.”
Blizzard hasn’t been forthcoming on how it will cease operations in China only stating that they will “ suspend new sales in the coming days and Chinese players will be receiving details of how this will work soon.”
Even though the looming 23rd of January 2023 cutoff deadline won’t give players much time to enjoy the releases, Blizzard did guarantee that it is “looking for alternatives to bring our games back to players in the future,” which means it does expect to return to China, eventually.