It looks like it’s a dark day for Blizzard Entertainment fans in China, as NetEase has announced that it has not reached an agreement with Blizzard to extend the license covering Blizzard games. With this non-renewal, this means that NetEase is suspending game services in China for World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft 3: Reforged, StarCraft franchise, Heroes of the Storm, Diablo III, and Overwatch effective January 23, 2023.
In the press release sent out, NetEase states that they are suspending new sales of the titles affected in the coming days, and Chinese players will be receiving new details on how this will work soon. Interestingly enough, upcoming releases for World of Warcraft: Dragonfight, Hearthstone: March of the Lich King, and Season 2 of Overwatch 2 will “proceed later this year.” As for Diablo Immortal, NetEase says that it is covered by a separate long-term agreement and will continue as planned when it comes to co-development and publishing.
Check out the statement in full sent to media by NetEase per William Ding, CEO of NetEase:
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,”
Perhaps an agreement can be reached at some point or maybe another company can publish these games in China? Whatever the case is, let’s hope it gets sorted out at some point.