Millions of Chinese gamers have lost access to World of Warcraft after a heated dispute between US title owner Activision Blizzard and NetEase, its longtime local partner in the world’s largest gaming market. Supporters of the popular game lamented the loss on social media, with one posting an image of a failed connection message with crying emojis.
“It really hurts my heart,” wrote one. “It hurts, it hurts too much” another.
The 14-year partnership had brought significant benefits and helped both sides NetEase Become China’s second largest game distributor after Tencent Holdings and Giving blizzard a way into a huge Asian market. But the two companies broke off talks late last year over a new licensing agreement to make Blizzard franchises similar Diablo, Warcraftand over watch available in China.
Bitterness escalated this month when Netease accused his longtime partner of being “rude and inappropriate.” Blizzard had offered to extend their license agreement for another six months while they work out new terms, but NetEase described the idea as “proposing a divorce while still engaged with the same partner”.
Financial aspects aside, key sticking points in the dispute included intellectual property ownership and control over the data of millions of gamers across China, Bloomberg News previously reported. In its January statement, NetEase said it never attempted to control IP rights in its association with Blizzard, whose gaming assets it only used consensually.
Servers hosting Blizzard games were shut down at midnight on January 23 in China. The company has promised a lease World of Warcraft Players save their progress with a new service. NetEase warned that it could not guarantee the security of this service as it could pose a security risk.
Instead of taking sides in the corporate dispute, a mood of disappointment dominated among ex-players on social media.
“It is truly a sad day for World of Warcraft players and Blizzard Entertainment fans around the world,” one wrote online. “The sudden shutdown is a stark reminder of the ephemeral and has driven millions of gamers away.”
© 2023 Bloomberg LP
