After a year-long absence, Call of Duty developer Blizzard Entertainment has returned to the Chinese gaming market. This return is made possible through a renewed partnership with one of China’s leading game publishers, NetEase.
As reported by 36Kr, Blizzard’s operations in China will take approximately six months to begin as they will be working with NetEase to rebuild domestic teams and conduct server tests. This marks a significant development following their split from NetEase last year, which led to the closure of Chinese servers for Blizzard’s gaming platform.
After attempting to establish new deals with multiple companies to gain access to the Chinese market, including Perfect World, Alibaba Group, ByteDance, and Tencent, Activision Blizzard has finally reconciled with NetEase after a year of unsuccessful attempts.
This return has sparked hope among players who witnessed their tumultuous parting, and it will see the comeback of popular Blizzard titles such as World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch, the StarCraft series, Diablo III, and Heroes of the Storm in mainland China.
Not long after the announcement, news of Blizzard’s return to China claimed the top spot on Weibo’s trending topics chart. However, neither NetEase nor Blizzard has provided a clear statement on the matter at this time.
Blizzard’s decision to suspend its game services in China back in November 2022 due to licensing agreement expiration with NetEase is now overshadowed by this significant shift in their relationship. This change is believed to be a direct result of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and the departure of CEO Bobby Kotick in late 2023, making the resolution of the conflict with NetEase a priority for the new management.
