blizzard Blizzard games go dark in China as millions of Chinese lose access to ‘World of Warcraft’ and other hit games

[BiG StroOnZ]

Summary

January 23 has now come and that means Blizzard games including: World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Diablo 3, and Overwatch (2) have been shut down in China. The shutdown shouldn't come as a surprise, as it was first announced in November 2022 when Blizzard and Chinese publisher NetEase were unable to reach a renewal agreement. The company’s services in China were suspended at midnight local time on Tuesday, marking the end of an era.

 

 

Quotes

Quote

NetEase has been publishing Blizzard's games in China for 14 years, a partnership that NetEase CEO William Ding said fell apart over "material differences on key terms".

 

Millions of players in China have lost access to the iconic “World of Warcraft” franchise and other popular video games, as Blizzard Entertainment’s servers in the country went offline.

 

In a statement last Tuesday, Blizzard said it had reached out to NetEase to seek “their help in exploring a six-month extension to the current agreement.” The US company said it had appealed to NetEase to let fans continue playing uninterrupted, “based on our personal feelings as gamers, and the frustration expressed to us by Chinese players.” “Unfortunately, after renewed discussions last week, NetEase did not accept our proposal for an extension,” Blizzard said.

 

A number of Blizzard fans in China shared their upset about the shutdown on Twitter and Chinese social media site Weibo.

 

The good news for gamers in China is that the situation may not be permanent. Blizzard has previously said that it's looking for a "new partner" to handle its games in China—all videogames in China are required by law to have a Chinese publisher—and a Blizzard China representative told The Guardian that the shutdown is not "the end," but just a "temporary unhappy suspension."

 

Before NetEase, World of Warcraft in China was published by The9. The changeover to NetEase came amidst increased scrutiny of the game from Chinese authorities, which ultimately led to numerous changes and an extended closed beta test period that effectively closed the game for a few months. Interestingly, The9 is rumored to be in talks with Microsoft about picking up Blizzard's Chinese publishing rights again—presumably on the expectation that Microsoft will be able to complete its planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard. 

 

Blizzard said in December that “World of Warcraft” fans would be able to back up their playing history and ensure all progress was saved as it wound down its agreement and looked for a new partner.

 

 

My thoughts

This is a really unfavorable scenario, as I know WoW and other Blizzard games are really popular with people all over the world. I also know that the Chinese gaming demographic is one of the largest, reaching 664 million in 2022. Millions of Chinese gamers are affected by this and who knows how long it will be before they gain access to their Blizzard games again. It's good to know that Blizzard is trying to figure out a solution and is already communicating with a prior Chinese publisher. Additionally, it's also good to hear that players are able to back up their history and saved progress while awaiting for another publisher. In the mean time, it will suck for Chinese gamers to have to be overly-patient while an agreement is reached between Blizzard and another publisher. Sadly, they will have to find another game to play in the mean time.

 

Sources

https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-games-go-dark-in-china-with-no-return-in-sight-this-is-so-tragic-says-former-hearthstone-director/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/tech/blizzard-games-china-shutdown-intl-hnk

[Fendrick]

Oh well.

[DonGirses]

34 minutes ago, BiG StroOnZ said:

[...] Additionally, it's also good to hear that players are able to back up their history and saved progress while awaiting for another publisher. [...]

Ok, then it's not as bad as I thought.

[Skipple]

42 minutes ago, BiG StroOnZ said:

all videogames in China are required by law to have a Chinese publisher

Therein lies the issue. Nothing of value is lost. Sucks for the players, but perhaps they should direct their anger at those causing the issue.

 

Can you imagine if any other developed country did this? Oh, no more Genshin Impact for you, Timmy. miHoYo isn't good enough friends with the US Government...

[xAcid9]

Just die already Blizzard. 

 

 

[Eaglerino]

7 hours ago, Skipple said:

Therein lies the issue. Nothing of value is lost. Sucks for the players, but perhaps they should direct their anger at those causing the issue.

 

Can you imagine if any other developed country did this? Oh, no more Genshin Impact for you, Timmy. miHoYo isn't good enough friends with the US Government...

that wouldn't be a bad thing either

Blizzard's just going to sign another deal with another chinese company

[Mark Kaine]

7 hours ago, xAcid9 said:

Just die already Blizzard. 

Microsoft is working hard on it...

[ewitte]

3 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Microsoft is working hard on it...

Can't do worse than Activision just there are a certain subset of players that are religious about the game and never give up on it.

[Doobeedoo]

So Starcraft still works there? 

But yeah really lame how you need a publisher there to release a game.

[BiG StroOnZ]

22 hours ago, Skipple said:

Therein lies the issue. Nothing of value is lost. Sucks for the players, but perhaps they should direct their anger at those causing the issue.

 

Can you imagine if any other developed country did this? Oh, no more Genshin Impact for you, Timmy. miHoYo isn't good enough friends with the US Government...

 

Yeah, it's definitely a weird way of conducting business. However, it seems they are actively trying to find a new Chinese publisher, so at least in that regard this could be solved eventually. It seems Blizzard has been in active negotiations with other publishers too. Therefore, maybe it's not too long before they reach an agreement with a new publisher.

 

7 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

So Starcraft still works there? 

 

As far as I'm aware Starcraft 2 is also affected. From what I can find through research, all Blizzard games besides Diablo Immortal had their services shut down. Diablo Immortal runs on a separate agreement. 

[Doobeedoo]

22 minutes ago, BiG StroOnZ said:

Diablo Immortal runs on a separate agreement. 

Of course it does lul

[BiG StroOnZ]

4 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

Of course it does lul

 

Can't have a lapse in that microtransaction money! 

[williamcll]

Considering how poor the deal netease had with Blizzard I doubt whatever replacement would be any better.

[suicidalfranco]

And nothing of value was lost, no Chinese players can actually start looking for decent games.

Wouldn't it be amazing if the rest of the world had a similar law as China were you can't publish a game without the intermediary of a local entity?

Imagine the amount of Chinese junk that would be filtered out that way

[Mark Kaine]

Blizzard is a super weird company anyways,  they sell full priced "premium passes" for "free to play" games and even at a "discount" you need to buy 2 gift cards at 20 euro each so you can buy the *25 euro* "premium pass"... no wonder China doesn't like their bs and im left wondering how they even make money at all... oh hey they do sell "25.99 euros WOW cards" though... so fishy lol...

 

Didn't Microsoft just buy them? Thats actually a good thing considering what happens to companies Microsoft buys typically (rip)

 

At least the monetization should become more feasible...

[Gamer Schnitzel]

Honestly who cares?

Who plays WoW in 2023? Who? Can you guys write below if you still play 2023 and add your job title and salary + relationship status and age? Go?

 

Still waiting for someone to disprove that ONLY LOSERS play this dogshit game. They legit started Classic cause there are so many boomers still addicted with WoW missing the good ol' days when their lives were not depressing so now they are 30-40 year old men fantasizing how nice it was being a teen playing WoW all day.

Blizzard and WoW is the MAIN argument for anyone who says that demand and supply works BECAUSE IT DOES NOT. Demand and supply implies that we would always get the top products because customers will choose the best which companies will strive towards but Blizzard legit only releases GARBAGE and people buy it because theyre braindead and heavily groomed to buy all their junk. People literally buy store mounts ON RELEASE even if they do not use them.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Gamer Schnitzel said:

Who plays WoW in 2023? Who? Can you guys write below if you still play 2023 and add your job title and salary + relationship status and age? Go?

i never played WoW but lots of people do.

"In 2022 it's estimated World of Warcraft has around 4.6 million subscribers, according to Statista."

 

My insurance broker recently asked me if i play "WoW"... I said "no I play DOA5" she said she liked that too (*followed by a moment of awkward silence* obviously¹...)

 

How much does she make?  More than me for sure!  

 

 

¹not the first time this happened either,  WoW is *the* game for "im not actually a gamer" type of people and there are loads of them... 

 

[Lurick]

7 hours ago, Gamer Schnitzel said:

Honestly who cares?

Who plays WoW in 2023? Who? Can you guys write below if you still play 2023 and add your job title and salary + relationship status and age? Go?

 

Still waiting for someone to disprove that ONLY LOSERS play this dogshit game. They legit started Classic cause there are so many boomers still addicted with WoW missing the good ol' days when their lives were not depressing so now they are 30-40 year old men fantasizing how nice it was being a teen playing WoW all day.

Blizzard and WoW is the MAIN argument for anyone who says that demand and supply works BECAUSE IT DOES NOT. Demand and supply implies that we would always get the top products because customers will choose the best which companies will strive towards but Blizzard legit only releases GARBAGE and people buy it because theyre braindead and heavily groomed to buy all their junk. People literally buy store mounts ON RELEASE even if they do not use them.

Tell me you hate a game and you're butthurt people still enjoy it without saying you are