After a year, NetEase and Blizzard are holding hands again? On December 25th, it was reported that Blizzard had been in talks with several domestic game manufacturers regarding the return of the Chinese server in the past period of time, and ultimately chose to cooperate with NetEase again.
Regarding the above news, all media reporters consulted NetEase, but by the deadline, NetEase had not responded. According to industry media reports, after the cooperation is confirmed, NetEase and Blizzard need to rebuild the national server operation team and test servers and related systems. Players are looking forward to the game being re launched, which may take six months or more.
In January of this year, NetEase and Blizzard officially broke up. On November 17, 2022, NetEase released a letter to Blizzard gamers, in which it stated that due to the expiration of Activision Blizzard's authorization agreement with NetEase on January 23, 2023, and due to contractual limitations, starting from 0:00 on January 24, Blizzard will suspend the game services operated by Shanghai Netease Network Technology Development Co., Ltd. in Chinese Mainland (including World of Warcraft, Hearthstone Legend, Watchman, Diablo III, StarCraft II, Warcraft III: Reproducing, and Windstorm Heroes), and the services of Diablo: Immortal will not be affected.
Meanwhile, NetEase mentioned in the letter, "After a long period of negotiations, we are still unable to reach an agreement with Blizzard on some key cooperation terms related to sustainable operations, the Chinese market, and players' core interests."
It is understood that in the past year, there have been occasional rumors in the market about Tencent and other game manufacturers cooperating with Blizzard's "National Service", but there has been no follow-up. Industry insiders believe that if the above news is confirmed, it would be a good thing for NetEase, Blizzard, and players. In 2008, NetEase and Blizzard collaborated for the first time.