The two companies are expected to announce on Wednesday that they have reached a new agreement for the distribution of Blizzard titles in China, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be named, confirming local media reports. However, it could take at least another month for Blizzard games to finally return to the domestic market after the new partnership is announced, the person added.
China approves Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal, bucking US, UK opposition
China approves Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal, bucking US, UK opposition
Chinese news portal Sina.com first reported on Tuesday that the pair will make their renewed partnership public on Wednesday, citing confirmation from NetEase. Lanjinger, another Chinese news publication, also confirmed the timeline and added that the local servers might be open to gamers this summer.
Neither NetEase nor Blizzard responded to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Blizzard said a week before the expiration that NetEase had rejected its proposal for a six-month extension. NetEase, which had been running World of Warcraft in China in 2009, described the offer as unfair.
In addition to the withdrawal of World of Warcraft last year, Blizzard also had to discontinue support for other popular titles in the country such as Overwatch, Hearthstone, StarCraft and Diablo III.
Blizzard responded with two countersuits in June, alleging intellectual property infringement and unfair competition, after the Chinese firm’s game Justice launched an initiative to woo World of Warcraft fans, according to a report by Chinese media Yicai.
The two companies later dropped all the lawsuits.
China’s strict video gaming regulations require that foreign titles only be published via local distributors to ensure they have proper licensing – a process that often involves sanitisation to appease censors. The National Press and Publication Administration on Monday published the second batch of approved imported games for 2024, bringing the total for the year to 46 titles.