Blizzard has taken to social media to announce that their catalogue of games will be returning to mainland China after almost 18 months of being unavailable.
Negotiations broke down between Blizzard and then-distributor NetEase Inc back in January 2023, which saw Blizzard’s game servers go offline for customers in the region – impacting titles like Overwatch, Diablo and World of Warcraft.
Our legendary worlds are for all to share & that includes our passionate Chinese community.
— Blizzard Entertainment (@Blizzard_Ent) April 10, 2024
We are pleased to announce a new agreement with NetEase to bring Blizzard games back to mainland China. Thank you for your patience & support.
🔗 https://t.co/zE5XkmE84K pic.twitter.com/W4kxz1XcPF
The new deal is still being finalised, but an open celebration has been shared both by Blizzard itself and Phil Spencer on Microsoft’s part, simply stating that the partnership is going ahead and the games are set to return.
The initial partnership essentially imploded, with a huge falling out occurring between both parties – and the dirty laundry being hung out for all to see. NetEase president Simon Zhu even went as far as to casually drop that the negotiation broke down because of one specific “jerk” at Activision Blizzard.
Now, William Ding, CEO and director at NetEase is quoted:
Celebrating our collaborations, we are thrilled to embark on the next chapter, built on trust and mutual respect, to serve our users in this unique community that we’ve built together.
So, water under the bridge I guess?
That, or the “Jerk” that caused all the problems is no longer with Activision Blizzard – quite plausible when you think about how many have left the company in recent months.
Either way, Chinese players are pleased to see these games coming back to the Chinese market – considering the massive player bases that lamented them leaving. Now to hope something this odd never happens again.
Were you surprised by all the Blizzard titles departing China? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
