Blizzard games will return to the Chinese mainland market, will players still buy it?
The return of the national server has been settled, allowing all Blizzard players to usher in "spring".
On April 10, Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft Games and NetEase jointly announced that Blizzard Entertainment's game titles, which are loved by millions of local players, will return to the Chinese mainland market from this summer under the updated game publishing agreement.
The updated game publishing agreement will cover all of the game's national games under the previous agreement: World of ® Warcraft, Hearthstone ®, and other franchises based on the respective game universes of Warcraft ®, Overwatch ®, Diablo ®, and StarCraft ®.
After 442 days, the news of Blizzard's return to the Chinese mainland market has excited countless players, and some players shouted: "My youth is back".
The picture comes from the Internet
The division and combination of the national server and Blizzard
The relationship between Blizzard and the national service has to start from 20 years ago.
Back on April 1, 2004, the exclusive distributorship of Blizzard's game "World of Warcraft" in China was City Nine (hereinafter referred to as "Nine Cities"). Since World of Warcraft was introduced to Chinese mainland, it has been loved by many players and is called a classic game by players: "the youth of a generation, the collective memory of a generation".
Relevant reports show that when the cooperation agreement between the two parties expired, Blizzard put forward harsh conditions, resulting in the failure of Jiucheng and Blizzard to renew the contract. In June 2009, Nine Cities officially bid farewell to World of Warcraft. At that time, major game manufacturers in China approached Blizzard for the opportunity to cooperate with Blizzard. It is reported that the manufacturers participating in the competition at that time included Tencent, Airnet, and Perfect World. NetEase was the latest to enter the game and won the agency rights of World of Warcraft in the Chinese mainland market in one fell swoop.
In fact, NetEase's partnership with Blizzard began in 2008. In August of that year, Blizzard granted NetEase the exclusive right to operate "StarCraft II", "Warcraft III" and the Battle.net platform in mainland China.
After 14 years of working together, the national server of Blizzard games represented by NetEase officially ceased operation on January 24, 2023. In the year since the breakup, there have been countless entanglements between the two parties, and their every move has attracted the attention of the industry and players. During this period, rumors about when Blizzard will return to the national server continued, which repeatedly tugged at the heartstrings of countless players.
On April 10, 2024, Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft Games and NetEase jointly announced that Blizzard Entertainment's game titles, which are loved by millions of local players, will gradually return to the Chinese mainland market starting this summer under the updated game publishing agreement.
The updated game publishing agreement will cover all of the game's national games under the previous agreement: World of ® Warcraft, Hearthstone ®, and other franchises based on the respective game universes of Warcraft ®, Overwatch ®, Diablo ®, and StarCraft ®.
This time, NetEase and Blizzard decided to "continue the frontier", so that players' expectations for the return of the national server will no longer be disappointed.
Johanna Faries, President of Blizzard Entertainment, said, "Our colleagues at Blizzard are excited to partner with NetEase once again to bring great gaming experiences to Chinese players. We are very grateful to the Chinese player community for the passion they have shown for Blizzard games over the years, and we will focus on bringing our gaming world back to players with exceptional quality and dedication." ”
"Celebrating our partnership, we are excited to embark on the next chapter based on trust and mutual respect to serve our users in this unique community we have built together," said Lei Ding, CEO and Director of NetEase. We remain steadfast in our commitment to delivering more exciting and creative entertainment experiences. We're excited to see how we can actively collaborate, encourage and strengthen collaboration, and bring joy to the wider community." ”
Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, said: "Blizzard and NetEase have done a fantastic job of renewing our commitment to our players. Blizzard's game world has been a part of the lives of local players for years. Bringing Blizzard's legendary game back to China and exploring how we can bring more new games to Xbox demonstrates our commitment to bringing more games to more players around the world." ”
Players sell sky-high "electronic urns"
When NetEase announced its breakup with Blizzard, 32-year-old Yu Yang (pseudonym) thought that he would not return to the national service before the age of 40.
"When I learned that the national server was about to be closed, first of all, I downloaded the 'urn' of my account according to the instructions given by NetEase, and then finished the transformation of the character that needed to be brushed in the remaining time, and on the day of the final shutdown, I found a place exclusive to each game character and waited for the server to close", Yu Yang told the "Consumer Reports" reporter that he officially contacted "World of Warcraft" when he was 14 years old, and before the curtain call of the national server, he gave the game character a final sense of ritual to bid farewell to his "youth".
It is reported that the "urn" is a new game progress archiving service for Warcraft, which can properly seal game progress, items and equipment, and good memories, so it is called "electronic urn" by many players.
As soon as the news of the return of the national server came out, whether the "urn" data could return normally became one of the most concerned issues for many players. The reporter of "Consumer Reports" learned through a second-hand platform that some players sold the urns of "World of Warcraft", and most of them were sold at more than tens of thousands of yuan, and some players even quoted 180,000 yuan.
The reporter noticed that the content of the "urn" priced at 180,000 yuan basically covers the games in Blizzard's family bucket, including some out-of-print and attractive collections, such as "7 versions of the mage tower artifact appearance", "5 versions of the gold challenge transformation appearance", "6 versions of the gold challenge weapon appearance", "5 versions of the out-of-print orange cloak", "6 versions of the out-of-print orange ring", etc.
While the above content is part of the out-of-print collection in the game, it is not enough for players who do not have a hobby of collecting to pay the hefty price for the urn. In addition, it is not yet known whether the "urn" can be used as proof of data recovery.
In response to whether the player's data has been completely retained, Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase Game Publishing Team have responded in the "Letter to BliConard Gamers in the National Service". The letter pointed out that it still takes a short time to make technical preparations for the launch of the server, such as rebuilding a new server room and restoring various types of data. The games will be played one after the other, and the first returning game will be reunited in the summer. When the server is enabled, the user's account data will be kept intact. Don't listen to rumors and engage in unprotected accounts or account data transactions.
Some players told the "Consumer Reports" reporter that the game data belongs to the data of a year ago, and although the data is restored, it cannot keep up with the latest version. At that time, whether the national server will keep up with the global version or have its own independent version is still a question that many players are concerned about.
So, does there be any impact on the data of players who have not set up an "electronic urn"? Can the data of players who stayed a year ago keep up with the new version? Do Blizzard and NetEase have a corresponding compensation mechanism or catch-up mechanism? The reporter of "Consumer Reports" sent an interview letter to NetEase Games and Blizzard to inquire, but as of press time, the other party has not received any reply.
As a veteran player of the "World of Warcraft" national server, Zhang Zheng (pseudonym) told the "Consumer Reports" reporter, "As an old player who has experienced the era of Nine Cities, I think it is a matter of course for businessmen to pursue profits. Zhang Zheng said that most of the players in World of Warcraft are older, but there are many players who play mage, "I go up every week to brush the transmogrification, brush the mount or go up to the game to watch the character jump by the space for an hour, and I can also get a sense of experience."
As a ten-year veteran player of "Hearthstone", he told reporters, "The playability of Hearthstone is still there, and old fans generally return." The return of the national server means that you don't have to go to the Asian server, and you don't need to use the accelerator so much."