Blizzard Severs Ties With Chinese Gamers As NetEase Partnership Ends

The 14-year-old partnership between Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase is coming to an end, and it will cause several hit online titles to effectively become inaccessible to millions of gamers across China.

Activision-Blizzard did not go into detail on why they terminated the partnership. But the announcement came after the Chinese firm reportedly failed to meet the California-based company's "operating principles and commitments to players and employees," Reuters reports.

However, friction with Activision may be to blame for the failed relationship since NetEase president of global investment and partnership Simon Zhu mentioned in his LinkedIn account of behind-the-scenes happenings that involved how much damage one individual can inflict.

On the other hand, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra's statement held a completely different tone:

"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," he said, as per IGN.

Games such as "World of Warcraft," "Starcraft," "Overwatch," and "Hearthstone" will no longer be playable in China starting Jan. 24, 2023. Further sales are also set to be suspended in the coming days—this includes the impending release of "Diablo 4" scheduled for late next year.

Titles that are yet to be released this 2022, such as the "Dragonflight" expansion for "WoW" and the second season of "Overwatch 2" will still be available for purchase until the end of the licensing agreement next year. However, neither of the games will be playable after the agreement's expiration date, regardless of purchase.

Interestingly, the recently-released "Diablo Immortal" will remain online in the region for both mobile and PC since it is published under a different agreement between the two companies.

It is currently unknown if Blizzard will look for a new publisher for the region, and even less is known whether or not existing Chinese Battle.net accounts will be retained if a new company does agree to host the affected games again.

NetEase is one of China's biggest game providers and developers, second only to tech conglomerate Tencent in terms of size and profitability.