On February 1, the official Weibo of NetEase Blizzard Game Customer Service Team released the "NetEase Explanation on the Opening of Blizzard Game Product Operation Expiration and Refund", saying that from 11 o'clock on the 1st, a refund application channel will be opened for virtual currency or game services (hereinafter referred to as "refundable goods") that players have recharged but not consumed in "Blizzard Game Products", and the amount that meets the refund requirements will be refunded to the player's collection account within 15 working days after passing the review. The deadline to submit refund requests is June 30, 2023, and players who do not submit refund requests by the deadline will be deemed to have voluntarily forfeited the relevant benefits.
As of 5 p.m. on February 1, more than 700,000 people had applied.
In fact, as early as January 24, less than half an hour after Blizzard National Service officially terminated its operation, NetEase released the "NetEase Preliminary Explanation on Blizzard Game Product Refund Arrangement", launched an "all-cash, all-platform" refund plan with the highest unit price of Battle.net for cash payment, and supported refund applications on all platforms such as Battle.net, iOS (Apple mobile), and Android, and announced the specific scope and standards of Blizzard National Service's refundable products, refund channel opening hours and other matters.
As of 5 p.m. on February 1, more than 700,000 people had applied for refunds.
However, after solving the problem of token refunds, NetEase and Blizzard still face virtual property disputes caused by "deleting files". On January 30, the website of the China Consumers Association published an article "Top Ten Consumer Rights Protection Public Opinion Hotspots in 2022", directly naming the suspension of the national server, indicating that the rights and interests of players will be paid attention to and protected.
According to the China Consumer Association, in recent years, some improperly operated online games have "suspended and deleted files" caused virtual property disputes, resulting in consumer complaints that have repeatedly attracted public attention. In November 2022, the time when "NetEase and Blizzard stopped cooperating" also triggered public opinion over the rights and interests of Blizzard gamers such as World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. After players suspend the server, the virtual property of the game may be damaged, resulting in the infringement of consumer rights.
A few days before the suspension of the server, Blizzard China issued a statement saying that in order to give "World of Warcraft" national server players more peace of mind, in addition to the game data sealed by NetEase, Activision Blizzard will also launch a feature on January 18, allowing "World of Warcraft" national server players to download their game progress for future use until the server is suspended.
In response to this feature, NetEase said that it was responsible for the World of Warcraft game progress save function that Blizzard China mentioned in its statement on January 18. NetEase is obliged to remind all players that this function was unilaterally proposed and developed and launched by Activision Blizzard, and has not been tested and used by NetEase, and may have unknown security risks. Activision Blizzard shall be solely responsible for the loss of the player's virtual property or inability to play as a result of this feature. Blizzard China said that this feature is an additional supplement to NetEase's data sealing involving all World of Warcraft players, and mentioned that "NetEase is responsible for this part of the data." ”
According to the China Consumer Association, in October 2022, the Beijing Internet Court concluded a case of infringement of virtual property in online games, finding that mobile game operators were at fault and constituted infringement, and should compensate players for the loss of game props according to a certain percentage of the amount recharged by players.
Written by: Nandu reporter Ye Lu