announcement
US game company Blizzard Entertainment (hereinafter referred to as Blizzard) announced on November 17 that it will terminate its local partner agreement in China with NetEase.announced. As of January 23, 2023, local services such as “Overwatch” and “Diablo III” are expected to be suspended. In addition, “Diablo Immortal” will continue the service on the basis of a separate contract.
Blizzard’s official statement explained that the termination of this contract was triggered by “the existing licensing agreement will expire in January next year”, and it was not possible to renew the contract in line with the paddy company’s philosophy. In an official statement, NetEase said it was unable to reach an agreement on some terms with Blizzard despite lengthy negotiations, and expressed regret as to why the contract was terminated.
Blizzard has contracted NetEase to launch its titles in China and that contract is being terminated. This isn’t the first time Blizzard has closed a local deal with a Chinese game company. The relationship with NetEase began in 2008, but before that the company had partnership agreements with companies such as Okumi and Kujo City. However, NetEase is the company with the longest relationship with Blizzard. During the 14 years of cooperation with NetEase, Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft”, “StarCraft” and “Diablo” series have become popular games that everyone knows in China. Blizzard has great influence on e-sports gaining huge popularity in China.
On the other hand, NetEase has also become a top-notch game company in China after Tencent in the past 14 years. He has worked on titles such as Knives Out which is popular in Japan. In the second quarter of 2022, in terms of game company revenue, NetEase is the fifth largest company in the world, ahead of Activision Blizzard, the ninth.Earn。
The presence of this company’s games is so strong that there is no one in China who has not played games from the Blizzard series. Therefore, the termination of this contract is a big shock to Chinese players. For a long time, the official sale of console games was largely banned in China.China at that timeSo, there are many gamers who can only play on PC and have played Blizzard games exclusively. I also interviewed many Chinese game developers and most of them said that Blizzard influenced them in some way. Many people within NetEase, including management, are fans of Blizzard. For them, Blizzard is almost a cult object. I often hear people at NetEase say, “I believe in Blizzard.” Due to the strong influence of Blizzard’s work, the termination of the contract came as a shock to Chinese players.
In addition, NetEase and Blizzard have signed a partnershipat that timehad a “lovely” deal with Blizzard receiving 55% of its game revenue (previous partner Kujo City only gave Blizzard 20%). However, the termination of the contract between NetEase and Blizzard does not appear to be a big loss for both parties in terms of the company’s overall revenue. Activision Blizzard Recent (Q2 2022)Final report of accountsThe partnership will bring 3% of total revenue in 2021, according to the company. NetEase also said that “revenue from distributing Blizzard games in China is small.”informationis published in the balance sheet.
Blizzard said it was looking for ways to bring the game back to players in China. However, considering the recent situation in China, restarting the game service is almost impossible. Although China has a large gaming market, the government’s regulation of gaming is very strict. First, in order to release a game in China, you need to obtain a license (version number). Additionally, foreign-owned companies are legally prohibited from releasing games directly in China and must enter into a partnership with a local Chinese company.
Also, when a foreign gaming company changes partners, all operating licenses are terminated and must be re-applied from scratch. The aforementioned “version number” is one of them. However, the number of games for which editions are released is decreasing from year to year, and only 314 editions were released this year.not issued. There are quite a few game companies in China that went bankrupt because they couldn’t wait for the problem.
In addition, in China, the edition approval is divided into “domestic frame” and “foreign frame” (games developed by foreign developers), and it has already been more than 17 months since the release of the “foreign frame” game edition .unannounced. The end of Blizzard’s partnership with NetEase will make it harder for Chinese gamers to legally play Blizzard games they’ve known for 14 years. You could call it a loss of faith.
To some extent, Chinese players also predicted that this day would come. In the Chinese BBS game “NGA” that has become popular thanks to Blizzard’s games, posts with titles like “When will this game stop connecting to the server and go offline?” topic. And now the last days are really near. In addition, in the Chinese community “Taiposhi Yingchi”, which is mainly engaged in card games, there were people who experienced a roller coaster feeling when the termination of the contract was suddenly announced while they were overjoyed by the new announcement of “Hearthstone “.
For most players, losing a Blizzard match is just a “sad event”. But for those who make Blizzard games a profession, it’s a bolt from the blue. Not only e-sports players, but also those involved in live match commentary and e-sports commentary can find work overnight.lose. In April this year, China banned live streaming of unlicensed games in China. From now on, Chinese players will simply disappear from the Overwatch and Hearthstone esports scene.
Becoming a gamer in China means preparing yourself for the possibility of suddenly losing the game you love and never being able to play it again. And when such a day comes, we can only accept it calmly. However, it doesn’t appear to be limited to games.
Which game will end next? Or will gaming platforms like Steam suddenly stop working in China? In any case, it is unpredictable.
