2024-09-29 05:42:24
Most Blizzard games stopped working in China earlier this year
A new agreement with NetEase will allow the American company to return to the Asian giant
Earlier this year it emerged that Blizzard would stop publishing most of its games in China. The news did not go unnoticed since the American firm It had been operating for more than a decade in the country led by Xi Jinping, which, by the way, is the largest video game market in the world by number of users.
The reason behind that unexpected movement was none other than the fall of the agreement with NetEase, Blizzard’s historic partner in China. The Asian giant’s strict regulations indirectly force foreign developers to have a local distributor to obtain an operating license.
Blizzard, one step away from returning to China
This scenario seems to have changed substantially in recent months, mainly after Microsoft’s purchase of Blizzard along with Activision. Now, according to Gizmochina, the creators of ‘World of Warcraft‘have reached a new agreement with NetEase to restore their catalog in China.
Once all the paperwork for the deal is finalized, NetEase will have to put the necessary teams in place to make Blizzard franchises available to millions of Chinese users. Adjusting the servers, among other tasks, will take at least six months, according to the aforementioned medium.
Now, getting to this point has not been an easy task. Initially, Blizzard tried to find another local partner to continue operating within Chinaa task that was impossible for him to complete. Meanwhile, the relationship with NetEase had deteriorated to such an extent that a new agreement was considered unlikely.
After months of negotiations to try to save the initial agreement, NetEase described Blizzard’s conditions as “commercially illogical” and did not hesitate to accuse it of “lack of reciprocity” and “injustice.” All of this was followed by a lawsuit for $45 million to compensate for refunds to players.