Showing 12 of 18 posts with this tag
Blizzard China released a letter from Nathan Lyons-Smith, General Manager of Hearthstone’s production team, to all of the game’s players in China on December 23, saying that it is currently negotiating with some potential new distribution partners.
Activision Blizzard, led by CEO Bobby Kotick, reportedly put forward stricter conditions in contract renewal negotiations with the Chinese firm NetEase, including requiring it to pay the cooperation income of the next two years to Blizzard in advance once it completes the contract renewal.
After NetEase's 2022 financial report was released, there was a more eye-catching change than its revenue and profit indicators: the number of daily active users (DAU) of its casual party mobile game "Eggy Party" has exceeded 30 million, garnering the highest DAUs in NetEase's game history.
On July 17th, the suspension of operation for the Chinese servers of 7 Blizzard games, including World of Warcraft, has reached 175 days, approaching half a year. Mike Ybarra, President of Blizzard, was also asked about the situation regarding the Chinese servers during a live stream on July 15th.
US-based video game developer Blizzard on January 20 released competition rules for this year's Hearthstone tournament, showing that players in mainland China will not be able to participate.
There are reports that NetEase will officially announce the return of Blizzard games to China in late March or early April.
A game license agreement between Blizzard and NetEase will expire on January 23, and Blizzard has decided not to renew it. Blizzard China latest announcement invited widespread criticism from Chinese web users.
After Blizzard's games agencies via NetEase in China rolled up their services at the end of January, NetEase announced on February 1 that it would open a refund application channel for players who had recharged but not used some of their virtual currency or unexpired game services.
NetEase responded by not commenting on the online rumors about a potential re-collaboration with Blizzard. And Blizzard stated that there is currently no information or updates to share.
Blizzard Entertainment, a leading game developer and publisher based in California, announced on November 16 that it will be suspending most game services in mainland China due to the expiration of current licensing agreements with China's NetEase.
A subsidiary of Chinese internet company NetEase recently filed a lawsuit against Blizzard Entertainment for violating a series of licensing agreements in Shanghai, demanding the latter to return 300 million yuan ($43.5 million) in arrears.
Blizzard China released a letter from John High, General Manager of World of Warcraft's production team, to all of the game's players in China at midday on December 13, saying that it is currently negotiating with some new potential distribution partners.