China’s players will lose World of Warcraft as Blizzard shuts down most services there
American game developer Blizzard Entertainment said Thursday it would shut down most of its game services in mainland China after the current licensing deals with Chinese game company NetEase expired, sending NetEase shares plummeting.
Blizzard, which partnered with NetEase in 2008 to offer popular games like World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo in mainland China, said in a statement that the two companies had not reached an agreement to extend the agreements “which are consistent with Blizzard’s operating principles and commitments are the same for players and staff.”
The partnership is scheduled to expire in January next year. Blizzard said new sales will be “suspended in the coming days.”
NetEase shares plunged as much as 15% following the Hong Kong news.
In a statement, NetEase said the expiration of its licenses with Blizzard would have “no material impact” on the company’s financial results.
The company said revenue and earnings from Blizzard’s licensed games accounted for a “low single-digit percentage” of NetEase’s total revenue and revenue for the past year and the first three quarters of 2022.
“We have tried very hard and tried with the utmost sincerity to negotiate with Activision Blizzard so that we can continue our cooperation and serve the many dedicated gamers in China,” said William Ding, CEO of NetEase, in the statement. “However, there were significant disagreements on key terms and we could not agree.”
Blizzard Entertainment CEO Mike Ybarra said the company is looking at alternatives to bring the games back to Chinese players in the future.
“We are very grateful for the passion our Chinese community has shown over the nearly 20 years we have been bringing our games to China through NetEase and other partners,” said Ybarra.
The ban will affect World of Warcraft, the StarCraft series, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch and Diablo III.
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