About a dozen Blizzard titles will no longer be available in China, the world’s most important video game market. The event, which will result in the loss of millions of playersis the product of unsuccessful negotiations between the creators of ‘World of Warcraft’ and the local company NetEase.
Strict government regulations and the Chinese payment system indirectly force game developers to use local partners to distribute their titles. This is precisely what Blizzard has done for more than 14 years with NetEase, but the relationship between the two has reached a point of no return.
Blizzard, about to lose presence in the Chinese market
According to Reutersafter months of negotiations, the US and Chinese companies have not reached an agreement to extend your collaboration. And the relationship between the two seems to have eroded in recent times. Blizzard, for example, rated on Weibo NetEase’s negative attitude as a “pity”.
The Asian company, for its part, responded through a lengthy statement in which he justifies his decision. In the text, published in Chinese, he says that Blizzard’s proposal was to extend the collaboration for six months, but made it clear that it could negotiate potential deals with other partners for the future.
NetEase claims that such an offer is “commercially illogical” and, furthermore, fires several darts at its partner accusing him of “lack of reciprocity” and “injustice”. However, it is unknown what specifically was the key point that sparked the conflict, although Bloomberg suggests that the intellectual property of the games may have been part of the trigger.
With the end of this partnership, and until it finds a new partner, Blizzard loses most of its presence in the huge Chinese market. Specifically, on January 23rd ‘World of Warcraft’, ‘Hearthstone’, ‘Overwatch 2’, ‘Diablo 3’, ‘Warcraft 3’, ‘StarCraft 2’ and ‘Heroes of the Storm’ will no longer be available on the country. ‘Immortal Devil’ will continue to operate thanks to a special long-term agreement.
The video game industry in the Asian country, according to Newzoomoved more than 45,800 million dollars during 2021, something more than the 45,000 million dollars of the American or the 20,000 million of the Japanese.
It should be noted that the importance of this market is not only measured in income. It is also done in the number of users. China has 742 million gamersa notably higher value than the 191 million in the United States or the 78 million in Japan.
Images: Blizzard
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