2023-01-24 15:56:01

World of Warcraft is leaving

World of Warcraft is leaving

On January 23, NetEase released the announcement of "NetEase's Farewell Letter to Blizzard National Service Players: Thank You for 14 Years", officially announcing the suspension of Blizzard game service. A large number of players flocked to the social platform to express their reluctance to accompany the game for many years.

At 0:00 on January 24, 2023, all operations of the series products of World of Warcraft, Hearthstone Legend, Watchman, Diablo III, Warcraft III: Reproducing, Storm Hero and Starcraft in the Chinese Mainland market represented by Netease will officially end. Blizzard will close Battle. net login and all game servers, and close client downloads at the same time.

Netease: Thank you for being with us for 14 years. We will announce the refund arrangement

NetEase expects to officially announce the refund work arrangement for Blizzard game products after the service is stopped, reminding players to pay close attention to the official account of "Blizzard Game Service Center" and obtain relevant information on refund in a timely manner.

NetEase said, "For players and all staff of NetEase, the role, account, equipment and friend list of players are not just a series of codes, but everyone's own youth, passion and life." NetEase will do its best to serve Blizzard National Service players to the last moment.

NetEase reviewed its 14 years with the players in the farewell letter, and reiterated at the end of the farewell letter, "I hope this suspension is not the end of the national service players, but just a helpless suspension." NetEase said that it expects all Blizzard players to return to the national service one day. The following is the full text of the announcement:

World of Warcraft is leaving

It has publicly split

In November last year, the 14-year cooperation between NetEase and Blizzard suddenly changed, causing strong attention from players and the market.

At that time, Blizzard issued a statement saying that since the existing license agreement with NetEase will expire on January 23, 2023, most Blizzard game services in Chinese Mainland will be suspended. Both parties have not reached an agreement on the renewal of the agreement that conforms to Blizzard's operating principles and promises to players and employees. Subsequently, NetEase responded that after a long time of negotiation, it was still unable to reach an agreement with Activision Blizzard on some key terms of cooperation. It is very regrettable that Activision Blizzard announced to stop cooperation in advance, and it will have to accept this decision.

On January 17, Blizzard and NetEase had another "battle".

On the same day, Blizzard China's official microblog released a related statement saying that it contacted NetEase again and sought assistance to discuss the extension of the existing agreement based on the terms agreed by NetEase in 2019, but NetEase did not accept it.

A few hours later, NetEase issued a refutation statement to clarify the disputes caused by Blizzard China announcement, such as "NetEase refused to extend Blizzard service for six months" and "NetEase wanted IP control". Netease said that it was learned that the negotiations between Blizzard and other companies during the same period were all based on a three-year contract period. Considering the inequality, unfairness and other incidental conditions of cooperation, the two parties failed to reach an agreement on extending the service. He also believes that Blizzard "does not take into account in its overconfidence such behaviors as taking anything, riding a donkey to find a horse, and divorce, and where it will place players and NetEase."

According to NetEase's 2021 financial report, NetEase provided a number of mobile and end games (including Blizzard and Microsoft) authorized by third-party developers, which accounted for 7.5%, 9.1% and 9.5% of the total net income in 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively. Among them, the net income of Netease proxy games increased by 50.8% from 4.457 billion yuan in 2019 to 6.723 billion yuan in 2020, mainly due to Blizzard's authorized World of Warcraft and several proxy games.

Who will receive the tray?

Now, with the release of Netease's farewell letter, the "breakup" between the two parties may be settled. And who will be Blizzard's next agent in China is bound to become the focus of attention.

In retrospect, the cooperation between Netease and Blizzard lasted for 14 years.

In August 2008, Blizzard reached an agency agreement with NetEase, agreeing to exclusively authorize the latter to use StarCraft 2, Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne, Warcraft 3: Chaotic Ruling, and expansion packs, as well as the Blizzard game platform Battle. Net, for a period of three years. Since then, the two sides have renewed their contracts for many times, and have jointly created blockbuster products such as the mobile game Diablo: Immortal.

On November 16, 2022, Blizzard announced that it would not renew its contract with NetEase. Blizzard said it was looking for alternatives. For a while, Tencent, Perfect World, Miha Tour and other game giants have become the object of scandal. Blizzard China once said on December 13, 2022 that the company was negotiating with some potential distribution partners in the national service area on World of Warcraft, and it was expected that the transition and handover of the national service with the new partners would proceed smoothly.

Up to now, the receiving party of Blizzard National Service is not clear. (Source: interface news, China Securities News, daily economic news, public information; sorting: Sun Qi)] article_ adlist-->

Editor: Li Yunpeng