AFTER pulling its games out of China in 2023, game developer Blizzard will be bringing everything back later this year.
The new deal will reportedly see Chinese players regaining access to all Blizzard games from the previous agreement with China’s second-biggest gaming company NetEase, particularly the popular ones such as Diablo and World of Warcraft.
Separately, Blizzard’s owner Microsoft has entered into a deal with NetEase to bring the latter’s games to Xbox and other platforms.
“Thanks to the incredible work done by Blizzard and NetEase to renew our commitment to players, we will soon welcome back millions of community members in China to our Blizzard universes. This is exciting for everyone at Xbox, Blizzard and for players everywhere,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer posted on X.
In November 2022, Blizzard China and NetEase failed to renegotiate an extension to their 14-year licensing relationship, bringing an end to the distribution partnership.
This led to a public fallout, which included a huge Blizzard statue being destroyed by NetEase and live-streamed on social media.
