On November 17, 2022, Blizzard China posted on Weibo that from 0:00 on January 24, 2023, all World of Warcraft, Warcraft III: Remake, StarCraft series, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch and Diablo III national server games will cease to operate. The joint development and distribution of Diablo Immortal is covered by a separate agreement between the two companies.
Subsequently, the "breakup" incident of NetEase and Blizzard continued to ferment. On January 17, 2023, Blizzard China issued a statement saying that it contacted NetEase again and sought assistance to explore extending the existing agreement based on NetEase's 2019 agreement to the established terms for six months, so that everyone can continue to play the game without interruption, and also allow Blizzard to continue to explore a reasonable and long-term development path in the national service area in the future.
However, NetEase did not accept its proposal to extend the existing game service agreement after negotiations. This matter also caused many netizens to discuss hotly, netizens said: "You yourself unilaterally terminated the contract with NetEase, and now ask NetEase to extend you for half a year, and the employees have left, why should they?" ”
Therefore, the negotiations between the two sides failed and the cooperation was not renewed. Activision Blizzard's licensing agreement to NetEase expires on January 23, 2023, based on contract restrictions, from 0:00 on January 24, 7 game national servers including Blizzard's "World of Warcraft", "Hearthstone", "Overwatch", "Diablo III", "StarCraft II", "Warcraft III: Remake" and "Heroes of the Storm") will be officially discontinued.
That is to say, today will be the last day of the operation of the above-mentioned game national server, and tonight will also usher in the largest suspension of the game in history.
Hot comments from netizens:
@HohenheimBJ: It's also a testament to history
@Ren-Ashdoll: Goodbye, my Diablo, goodbye, my Warcraft
@fishfish: Can this be refunded, although it is not expensive when you buy it, you can buy something else
@FanFan Afanfan: Goodbye Azeroth.
@_David_T: Goodbye youth