On April 10, Beijing time, Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft Games and NetEase jointly announced that Blizzard Entertainment's game works will return to the Chinese mainland market from this summer according to the updated game publishing agreement.
The "World of Warcraft" national server and more will return
The updated game publishing agreement will cover all of the games under the previous agreement: World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and other franchises based on the respective game universes of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft. Building on the more than 15 years of cooperation, Blizzard and NetEase are working hard to develop plans for a return, with more details to be announced in the future.
Screenshot of Blizzard China's Weibo
In addition, Microsoft Games and NetEase have also reached an agreement to try to bring new NetEase games to Xbox and other platforms. 2
How do you retain players?
How to solve the game version number?
Looking back on history, 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. Since then, Blizzard and Tencent, Perfect World, Bilibili and other companies have had "scandals" holding hands, but there has been no follow-up.
Some analysts pointed out that after more than a year of "empty windows", how many players still pay is a problem. Some netizens said, "I received a call, and I must respond, as always." But some netizens said, "What did my previous account say?" "I stopped playing, I got out of the pit." ”
On the 10th, the official Weibo of World of Warcraft released a letter to Blizzard national server gamers, which mentioned that when the server is opened, it will ensure that the player's account data is kept intact.
There is also an opinion that if Blizzard changes partners, or needs to reapply for a game version number, this will undoubtedly increase the difficulty of returning. In fact, even if Blizzard and NetEase rebuild, it is still doubtful whether they will be able to continue the original game version.
Blizzard and NetEase game revenues are still increasing
Activision Blizzard's financial report for the second quarter of 2023 released in July 2023 showed that Activision Blizzard's net revenue for the second quarter of 2023 was $2.21 billion, an increase of 34% compared to $1.64 billion in the same period in 2022. Net profit was $587 million, an increase of 109.6% compared to $280 million in the same period in 2022.
Its revenue growth was primarily driven by the launch of Diablo 4 and the continued growth of the Call of Duty franchise.
NetEase's financial report shows that its net income in 2023 will be RMB 103.5 billion, compared with RMB 96.5 billion in 2022. Net revenue from games and related value-added services in 2023 will be RMB81.6 billion.
Source: China News Network
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