Back in August, we reported that Blizzard would go offline in China after a failure to reach a license agreement with publisher NetEase. Due to the Chinese government's strict rules, any foreign media company must go through a state-approved intermediary in order to do business in the country. The two could not come to an agreement, leading to Blizzard shutting down all operations and services in China.

The disagreement was anything but professional, with both parties pointing fingers and taunting each other publicly. In the latest development in this story, NetEase is reportedly going to sue Blizzard for $43.5 million. The reason for doing so is for refunds for the games that have been discontinued (thanks, WowHead).

As reported by Chinese media outlet Sina Technology, "NetEase Network Technology Development Co., Ltd. recently filed a lawsuit in Shanghai against Blizzard Entertainment Co., Ltd. for violating a series of licensing agreements, demanding the refund of 300 million in arrears. This amount includes refunds for discontinued games such as "World of Warcraft" that NetEase has paid in full, prepayments for unsold game inventory, and prepaid deposits for several undeveloped games."

The whole situation is still ambiguous – NetEase has reportedly not filed the suit yet, meaning the two parties could possibly come to some sort of settlement. In fact, there's a chance the two could still even come to an agreement on the licensing, resuming Blizzard operations and services in China. However, that seems like a stretch, given that it has shut down offices in the country.

As mentioned, it wasn't the most amicable disagreement, with NetEase comparing it to a cheating partner proposing divorce. "Blizzard's proposal, including its statement today, is rude, inappropriate, and not in line with business logic. It never considered the interests of gamers and NetEase," said the company in a statement.

"It's as if they were riding a donkey while looking for a horse, proposing a divorce while still engaging with the same partner," as Blizzard offered to extend the deal by six months while it looked for another intermediary partner.

Netease dismantled the Warcraft Gorehowl statue in its park and set up a live stream. $NTES rejected Blizzard $ATVI's proposal about extending their 14-year partnership for six months to look for a new partner, saying that was non-reciprocal and unfair.https://t.co/Z35BaWer2B pic.twitter.com/lLUb3QsT4W

— CN Wire (@Sino_Market) January 18, 2023

But that wasn't all, the disagreement actually started to look like a public breakup, as NetEase tore down a World of Warcraft statue outside its HQ. What's more, the company live streamed the entire process on the Naraka Bladepoint channel.

"One day, when what has happened behind the scenes can be told, developers and gamers will have a whole new level understanding of how much damage a jerk can make," said NetEase head of partnerships Simon Zhu.

It seems Blizzard has a lot on its plate right now, especially with the number of employees it's been losing since the workplace abuse allegations. The management has apparently created a "crisis map" of all the games it can and cannot ship with its current staffing situation.

Posted: Apr 27, 2023 9:05 am
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/netease-reportedly-sues-blizzard-for-43-million/