Following a 14-year partnership, Blizzard and NetEase had a loud and controversial split in late 2022. The Chinese publisher operated Blizzard’s games in China as the licensed partner required by the government. The announcement came in November 2022, revealing to angry fans that popular games such as Overwatch 2, Diablo III, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm would not be available any longer starting on January 23, 2023 across mainland China.
Blizzard China lamented that NetEase refused a six-month extension. NetEase reacted much more vehemently. Employees famously tore down the World of Warcraft statue they had near the office. In a public statement, NetEase President of Global Investment and Partnership Simon Zhu said:
One day, when what has happened behind the scenes could be told, developers and gamers will have a whole new level of understanding of how much damage a jerk can make.
It is widely held that he referred to former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who wanted a better deal from another partner. NetEase was so embittered that they even sued Blizzard following the end of the partnership.
However, a new report from 36kr suggests that Blizzard will once again partner with NetEase to get its games back online in mainland China. It is possible that the acquisition by Microsoft and the related departure of Bobby Kotick, who formally leaves the company tomorrow after 32 years of tenure, have been instrumental in the new agreement. Chinese gamers may still have to wait some time, though, as the two companies will have to rebuild the whole infrastructure, including a national server operation team, test servers, and related systems.
As for the lawsuit, it is possible that Blizzard will request to drop it as part of the new agreement. We won’t know any more until the companies make it official, though.
