After 443 days of discontinuation,
NetEase and Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft Games
On the 10th, they jointly announced that
Blizzard Entertainment
"World of Warcraft" and other game works,
will be in accordance with the updated game publishing agreement
Since the beginning of this summer
Successively returning to the Chinese mainland market.
This is the time since the two sides announced the termination of cooperation,
It's been almost a year and a half.
At 9 o'clock in the morning on April 10, 2024, Blizzard NetEase officially released information announcing the return of the national server.
On April 10, NetEase Games issued a document saying, "We are honored to join hands with Blizzard Entertainment again to bring Blizzard games back to China." Players, long waiting!"
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 ®.
In addition, Microsoft Games and NetEase have also reached an agreement to try to bring new NetEase games to Xbox and other platforms.
- Blizzard and NetEase's grudge
The dispute between the two companies began on November 17, 2022, when Blizzard and NetEase successively issued statements saying that after negotiations, the two parties did not reach an agreement on renewing the cooperation and would terminate the cooperation after the expiration of the agreement.
On the same day, NetEase also happened to release its financial report for the third quarter of 2022. NetEase disclosed in its financial report that the national server agency authorization of NetEase and Blizzard Entertainment will expire in January 2023 and will not be renewed.
Since 2008, NetEase has cooperated with Blizzard for 14 years.
As for the reason for the termination, NetEase responded on November 17, 2022, saying, "After a long negotiation, we are still unable to reach an agreement with Blizzard on some key cooperation terms related to sustainable operations, and the core interests of the market and players." ”
▲Screenshot of Blizzard's official website
Since then, the two sides have continued to "dispute".
On January 17, 2023, Blizzard officially announced that it would suspend the national server game service on January 23 in accordance with the service suspension announcement. The announcement also mentioned that Blizzard had contacted NetEase again to discuss a six-month extension based on the 2019 agreement, "Unfortunately, NetEase is unwilling to extend the game service for six months based on the existing terms of cooperation while we are looking for a new partner, so that everyone can continue to play during this time." ”
Late at night on the same day, in response to the news that "NetEase refused to extend Blizzard's service for six months", NetEase responded that it learned that Blizzard's negotiations with other companies during the same period were all based on a three-year contract period, and considering the unequal, unfair and other conditions attached to the cooperation, the two parties finally failed to reach an agreement on the extension of the service.
NetEase bluntly said in the statement that Blizzard's proposals, including sudden statements, are outrageous, inappropriate and not in line with business logic, and its excessive self-confidence does not consider where this kind of behavior of giving and taking, riding a donkey to find a horse, and divorce does not leave the body, which puts players and NetEase in place.
Subsequently, topics such as "Blizzard Green Tea" appeared on Weibo hot searches on the same day, causing heated discussions among netizens. Since then, some NetEase employees have posted pictures in the circle of friends that NetEase Cafe has launched a new product called "Blizzard Green Tea".
On the afternoon of January 23, 2023, NetEase released the announcement of "NetEase's Farewell Letter to Blizzard Chinese Server Players: Thank You for Being with You for 14 Years", officially announcing the suspension of Blizzard games. NetEase said that this suspension is not the end of the national server players, but just a helpless pause. Looking forward to the day when all Blizzard players return to the national server.
At the beginning of February 2023, NetEase issued an announcement on the refund of Blizzard games and opened the refund application channel, which was open for 24 hours, and the number of refunds exceeded 1.04 million.
▲ World of Warcraft players say goodbye
After the termination of the contract, the dispute between NetEase and Blizzard has been brought to court more than once.
At the end of April 2023, Shanghai NetEase sued Blizzard, arguing that it had violated a series of license agreements and demanded a refund of 300 million in arrears.
It is reported that the primary reason why NetEase sued Blizzard was because Blizzard refused to bear the refund obligation of national server players and refused to pay NetEase the prepaid commission fees related to the refund of the national server. People familiar with the matter said that after the national server of Blizzard games such as "World of Warcraft", "Hearthstone" and "Overwatch" was suspended on January 24, NetEase has fully paid the relevant refund applications of more than 1.12 million players.
In June 2023, Blizzard began to "fight back" and sue NetEase for infringement and unfair competition.
A person close to Blizzard said that the prosecution is related to the "NetEase Warcraft Veteran-themed uniform" launched by NetEase during the termination of the contract.
The query found that on December 9, 2022, NetEase Games "Against the Cold" released "A Long Letter to Reverse Water Cold and Warcraft Players" on the official website, announcing that the "NetEase Warcraft Veteran-themed Uniform" will be launched in January 2023.
But at the end of 2023, it was reported that Blizzard's national game server is expected to return, and it may eventually choose to cooperate with NetEase. "NetEase Blizzard Compound" once ranked first on Weibo's hot search that day. Netizens hotly discussed, "At the beginning, you wanted to separate, and if you separated, you will separate, and now you want to coax me back with true love." ”
In response to this rumor, neither side responded at the time.
However, according to previous reports, the trial of Shanghai NetEase Network Technology Development Co., Ltd. v. Blizzard Entertainment Co., Ltd., which was originally scheduled to be heard on January 18, 2024, has been cancelled, and the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court said that the reason for the cancellation of the trial was that the plaintiff withdrew the lawsuit.
At that time, it also caused many netizens to speculate that Blizzard and NetEase might "get back together".
As far as the financial reports of both parties are concerned, the impact of this "breakup" is not large.
On February 29, NetEase released its financial report for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. According to the financial report, NetEase's total revenue in 2023 will be 103.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%. Among them, NetEase's game business revenue reached 81.6 billion yuan, accounting for 78.8% of the total revenue, an increase of 9.4% over the previous year. Among them, the net revenue of NetEase's online games accounted for about 92.9% of this part of the revenue.
The Q2 2023 earnings report is the most recent earnings report before Activision Blizzard was acquired by Microsoft. For the quarter, Activision Blizzard's net revenue was $2.21 billion, up 34.8% from $1.64 billion in the year-ago quarter. Among them, Blizzard Entertainment, which terminated its cooperation with NetEase, will have a revenue of $1.058 billion in the second quarter of 2023, an increase of 1.64 times compared with $401 million in the same period last year.
- Blizzard and many companies have had "scandals"
On November 17, 2022, NetEase announced that the national server of games such as "World of Warcraft" will cease to operate, which means that the cooperation between NetEase and Activision Blizzard has come to an end temporarily.
▲ Hearthstone game cannot be logged in Source: Social media screenshot
Since then, Blizzard and Tencent, Perfect World, miHoYo, ByteDance, Bilibili and other companies have been rumored to hold hands "scandals", but there is no follow-up.
At that time, some analysts believed that NetEase was still the most likely company that Blizzard would choose to cooperate with, first of all, the two sides still had some cooperation, and it was still chaotic. It is understood that the two sides are currently cooperating with another mobile game, namely the "Diablo Immortal" mobile game.
Previously, "World of Warcraft", "Hearthstone", "Overwatch", "Diablo III", "StarCraft II", "Warcraft III: Remake" and "Heroes of the Storm" operated by Shanghai NetZhiyi Network Technology Development Co., Ltd. in Chinese mainland will terminate operations at 0:00 on January 24, 2023.
In addition, in October 2023, Microsoft officially announced that it had successfully acquired Activision Blizzard, and Microsoft may promote the return of Blizzard's national server to China.
At that time, some analysts believed that there would be no third party to take over Blizzard's agency authorization, "If you want to change the agent, you need to re-apply for the version number, and it is impossible to judge when the version number can be applied, and now Chinese games are relatively better to get the version number, so no one wants to sign this contract." ”
"In recent years, the independent research and development of domestic games and the competition in the market are still quite fierce. If Blizzard's games are stopped for too long, they may lose this part of the domestic players forever. A game anchor previously said.
On December 22, the National Press and Publication Administration issued a notice on publicly soliciting opinions on the "Measures for the Administration of Online Games (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)". The above-mentioned draft for comments provides that where there is a substantial change in the content of an online game that has already been approved for publication, or where the name of the game, the game publishing unit, or the main operating institution is changed, the online game publishing unit shall perform the relevant approval formalities in accordance with provisions.
According to industry analysts, this means that it is basically impossible for the new agent of the national server to obtain the Blizzard game version number through purchase, which also means that if it is not continued to be represented by NetEase, then it can only reapply for the version number, and the time may be extended for a long time.
Edit | Huo Ran
Synthesis | Zhongxin Jingwei, Yicai, Red Star News, The Paper, NetEase Games