After a year of separation, Blizzard and NetEase "remarried".
On April 10, Blizzard China, Microsoft Games and NetEase Games announced that Blizzard will return to China with NetEase, and its games will return to the Chinese mainland market this summer. On the same day, the topic of "Blizzard's official announcement of its return" rushed to the top of the hot search on Weibo.
The New Yellow River reporter noticed that as of noon on April 11, 475,000 people had made an appointment for "World of Warcraft" in NetEase's game community. It is worth mentioning that with the acquisition of Blizzard by Microsoft at the end of 2023, in this official announcement, Microsoft Games and NetEase Games also reached an agreement to try to introduce NetEase's new games to Xbox consoles and other platforms. According to the analysis of industry insiders, this move will further strengthen Microsoft's layout in the game field, and also provide a new opportunity for the international development of NetEase Games.
On April 10, Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase Game Publishing Team mentioned in a letter to Blizzard gamers that the healing they experienced together would bring stronger trust. This official announcement also means that after 442 days of "service suspension", players in the national server finally have a "home" again. However, in the face of a fiercely competitive game market environment, how many players are willing to regain confidence in Blizzard games, and what will be the market feedback of Blizzard games in Chinese mainland, everything still needs to be tested.
Blizzard China, Microsoft Games and NetEase Games announced that Blizzard will return to China with NetEase Source: Blizzard China
Waiting for an official announcement
"How many people are like me, waking up early to wait for this official announcement?" On the morning of April 10, game blogger Alin started the live broadcast early, which was not his usual live broadcast time, but at this time, hundreds of people had poured into the live broadcast room.
"I'm in a bad mood right now, but I don't mind telling you that I really feel like crying right now. Alin revealed his heart in the live broadcast room, today is an important day for him. As a World of Warcraft game blogger, Arin has spent nearly half of his life from the "Azeroth Continent" (the World of Warcraft game area), and he has been waiting for this official announcement for a year.
At 9 o'clock, Blizzard China, Microsoft Games and NetEase Games officially announced that Blizzard and NetEase have officially decided to join forces, and Blizzard Entertainment's game works, which are loved by millions of local players, will return to the Chinese mainland market from this summer according to the updated game publishing agreement. 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.
Official announcement Source: Blizzard China
Alin's live broadcast room is boiling, and the entire game circle is also boiling. At the same time, topics such as "Blizzard's official announcement of its return" and "Blizzard's NetEase remarriage" rushed to the hot search on Weibo.
The New Yellow River reporter noticed that the NetEase Blizzard customer service team's official WeChat public account "Blizzard Game Service Center", which has been "suspended" for 517 days, posted 8 pieces of content in a row on April 10, involving official information, server version, account recovery, return benefits and other topics that players care about.
On April 10, the official team account of the "517-day stoppage" was updated again
"This wave of resurrection CDs is a bit long," one player joked on the official message board. The official background of the World of Warcraft game has also been changed to the words "National server confirmed return".
On the same day, Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase Game Publishing Team also released a letter to Blizzard Chinese gamers, titled "Work hard to heal, and then recover in excess". It is mentioned that when the server is opened, it will ensure that the player's account data is completely retained, and will also prepare for the return of the national server players to commemorate the benefits and operational activities, "the lack of national server players is too much exciting".
The official also opened reservations for some games for the first time. The reporter noticed that NetEase's game community NetEase Dashen has opened reservations for "World of Warcraft". As of noon on April 11, 475,000 people have made appointments for "World of Warcraft" on NetEase Dashen.
475,000 people made an appointment for "World of Warcraft" in NetEase
Suspension is like "parental divorce"
"Anyway, it felt like my parents were divorcing. Ah Cheng is a veteran World of Warcraft player, and he can only smile wryly when he recalls the time when the server was shut down.
After the shutdown of Blizzard's game national server, like many players, Ah Cheng was angry, disappointed, but helpless. For him, games are no longer games, but more like a social tool, or a place full of feelings. Unable to accept that his youth for many years was withdrawn like this, Ah Cheng, like many players, began to buy game accelerators, and for a game, he "wandered" on other platforms such as the United States and Asia. The same game operation interface, but with different communication languages, without the former partners, the game is not fun.
Blizzard and NetEase join hands with the "World of Warcraft" national server to confirm the return Source: Blizzard Game Service Center
"The rice is still the fragrance of the house. The national server was launched, Ah Cheng left a message in the guild's WeChat group, and the "comrades-in-arms" who had fought side by side also responded, and they were all paying attention to the re-cooperation between Blizzard and NetEase, looking forward to logging back into the game.
Back in late 2022, Blizzard and NetEase, which had been working together for 14 years, had a "turbulence".
On November 17, 2022, Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, announced that most of Blizzard's game services in Chinese mainland will be suspended due to the expiration of the existing licensing agreement with NetEase on January 23, 2023. The statement noted that the two parties did not reach a renewal agreement that is consistent with Blizzard's operating principles and commitments to players and employees, and these agreements are due to expire in January 2023.
Later, Ding Lei, chairman and CEO of NetEase, responded to the termination of cooperation with Blizzard Entertainment, saying: "We very much hope to continue to represent Blizzard games, and we have made a lot of efforts to achieve this, but the negotiation is far more difficult than expected." The key core terms, including long-term operation and player rights, were put forward by Blizzard, and these terms are also unacceptable to us. ”
At that time, it was reported that the strategy led by Bobby Caldecott, the former CEO of Blizzard, was already very extreme - giving priority to finding a new agent for the national service to "take over", and he could sign a short-term transition agreement with NetEase to "take over" and buy more time for the new agent negotiations. However, the strategy did not work.
On December 23, 2022, Blizzard China issued a statement: "We are currently in discussions with new potential publishing partners in some Chinese regions, and this process will continue until we find the right solution." ”
On January 17, 2023, Blizzard China issued another article, saying that in negotiations with NetEase, "NetEase is unwilling to extend the game service for six months based on the existing cooperation terms while we are looking for a new partner, so that everyone can continue to play during this period." Therefore, we will have to follow the announcement of NetEase to suspend the game service on January 23rd. ”
With the closure of Blizzard's national server-related game services, many players were forced to be "displaced". Fortunately, with this official announcement, the national server players can reunite again. On April 10th, the reporter consulted NetEase Games as a player, and the customer service staff said that the relevant agreement has been signed, but it still needs time to make technical preparations for the opening of the service, such as rebuilding the server room, recovering all kinds of data, etc., and it is expected that the first returning game will be reunited with everyone this summer.
Blizzard, NetEase official logo Source: Internet
"Fighting the world" can no longer rely on feelings
"For the current overseas tech giants, no one dares to really give up on the Chinese market. Blogger Xiao A learned finance and economics.
According to public data, the actual sales revenue of China's game market in 2023 will be 302.964 billion yuan, with 668 million user players. Previously, Blizzard insisted on withdrawing from the Chinese market, which was called an "unsolved case" in both the game industry and the business world. Although it is known as a super IP and has the reputation of "Blizzard's products must be high-quality", a number of game investors and game industry analysts said that the core players of Blizzard games have entered middle age and have not launched super popular IPs in the past year, so they have to think about dealing with the "mid-life crisis" in terms of the number of users.
It is true that World of Warcraft, which has defeated countless competitors along the way, is of epoch-making significance for online games. However, in today's game industry, with the continuous expansion of the mobile game market, a series of original games have come to the fore, players' game choices have been continuously enriched, and the games of various manufacturers are no longer "one dominant". In the face of such a pattern, if you only rely on feelings, it is indeed difficult to "fight the world".
In addition, a number of game analysts said that the changes in the relationship between Blizzard and NetEase also reflect the gradual change in the right to speak at the level of cooperation between overseas giants and Chinese manufacturers. In fact, for NetEase, the revenue contribution brought by the agency of Blizzard games today is not particularly large, and NetEase may be more interested in bringing its own games to the world with the help of Microsoft.
According to the 2022 Q3 financial report data released by Activision Blizzard, the revenue of Blizzard games represented by NetEase accounted for a total of 3% of its net revenue in 2021. However, considering that Blizzard only accounts for 19.69% of Activision Blizzard's total net revenue in 2021, according to calculations, in 2021, the revenue from NetEase may account for about 14.5% of Blizzard's net income. In contrast, NetEase's revenue from Blizzard games accounted for only 1.6% of its net revenue.
In NetEase's financial report for the same quarter of the same year, it was pointed out that the games represented by Blizzard contributed a low percentage of NetEase's net income and net profit in the first nine months of 2021 and 2022, and the expiration of the license will not have a significant impact on NetEase's business performance. The industry has come to the conclusion that original games are NetEase's core source of profits.
In recent years, with the popularity of original games such as Genshin Impact, the post-00s generation has gradually replaced the post-90s generation as the main force of game consumption, and the competitiveness of Chinese game companies in the international field is also rising. Taking the 2022 global game company revenue list as an example, Tencent ranks first among global game publishers with a revenue of $25 billion, NetEase ranks fourth with a revenue of $14 billion, and Activision Blizzard can only be "thrown behind" to seventh, with a revenue of $7.53 billion, which is only half of NetEase.
Foreign analyst MauroNL3 took stock of the revenue rankings of global game manufacturers in 2022
In 2023, NetEase's game business will also perform well, and Activision Blizzard, which is currently committed to the PC side, will also have to change its previous tough attitude, and the two sides will work together from planning to reality.
According to the "Daily Economic News", senior game industry analyst Zhang Shule said that in the future, NetEase will develop both domestic and overseas markets with Microsoft Games through possible Blizzard IP mobile game research and development, and may form a strategic alliance with Microsoft Games (formed) on multi-terminal interoperability (console, PC and mobile games) to jointly tackle technical problems and common global strategies.
Reporter: Li Zhen Editor: Sun Feifei Proofreader: Yang Hefang