Good news for Blizzard game fans living in China. After the American giant did not renew the licensing agreements with its local partner NetEase in January, several of its titles became unavailable in the Asian country.
However, according to new information, Blizzard has reached a new agreement with NetEase that will allow Chinese players to access their game library again. Gaming rules in China are very strict.
In November 2022, Blizzard announced that its agreement with NetEase, which allowed it to publish games in mainland China since 2008, would expire on January 23, 2023, as both parties failed to reach an agreement to renew the license. Blizzard then stated that it could not reach a consistent agreement with its “operating principles and commitments to players and employees”.
Story of a breakup and a reunion
Attempts to extend the agreement for six months so that Blizzard could find a new publishing partner in China failed. The country’s strict gaming regulations require that foreign titles can only be published by local distributors to ensure compliance with licensing rules.
The companies accused each other after the breakdown of the negotiations and, in January, most of Blizzard’s games went offline in China. NetEase sued Blizzard for the refunds it had to pay to the affected players.
Blizzard responded with their own lawsuits, claiming property infringement and unfair competition regarding NetEase’s game Justice, designed to attract WoW fans.
However, it seems that the relationship between both companies has been restored following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, for a value of 69 billion dollars.
However, Chinese players will still have to wait some time to be able to play WoW, Diablo 4, and Overwatch 2 without using unofficial means, such as VPNs. The report states that, once the new agreement is signed, the games will take at least six months to be available again as companies rebuild their operations and test the servers.
