Blizzard is blaming NetEase for its games going offline in China
It now seems inevitable that Blizzard's games in China will cease to function on January 23 when its current deal runs out, after NetEase turned down a proposed six month extension under the existing terms. Blizzard China said on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo (via Reuters(opens in new tab)) that it had contacted NetEase last week about the extension, but been turned down:
"It is a pity that NetEase is not willing to extend services of our game for another six months on the basis of existing terms as we look for a new partner," said the statement.
NetEase, a company that in its early days was built on the success of its licensed Blizzard games, has made no comment. The publisher's boss William Ding said last year "there were material differences on key terms" between the companies.
This has a wider context than just Blizzard and NetEase: All videogames require a Chinese publisher and government licenses to operate in the region, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has started paying increasingly close attention to the content of foreign titles. On top of that, in 2021 the CCP limited the amount of time children can spend playing games to one hour a day on Fridays, weekends and holidays. Which is not the ideal situation for a raiding party.
Whether Blizzard will be able to find another publishing partner in the region remains to be seen, and there's no sign yet of the promised solution for players' saves (though if the games aren't coming back, maybe that's a moot point). The publisher's games have always been hugely popular in China, and you'd think money would talk, but the unknowable element here is whether things simply fell apart with NetEase or if Blizzard is being squeezed-out of the Chinese market as part of a wider trend.
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Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-is-blaming-netease-for-its-games-going-offline-in-china-next-week/
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FrogPosted:
How can the CCP possibly monitor the amount of time and when kids play video games? That decision has to be down to the parents no?
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