At 9:00 a.m. on April 10, NetEase Games and Blizzard China respectively issued statements on their official microblog accounts, saying that the two sides would join hands again, and Blizzard's games would return to the Chinese Mainland market in the summer of 2024.

Shortly after both sides released their statements, the entry "Blizzard officially announced its return" topped the hot search list.

The statement mentioned that after a year of continuous discussions, both parties are very pleased to reach an agreement to continue providing services to Chinese server players in the future, and solemnly reaffirm their commitment to providing excellent gaming experiences.

It is reported that the updated game publishing agreement will cover players in various national server games under the previous agreement: World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, as well as other series of games based on the respective game universes of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft.

"Based on their over fifteen year cooperation, Blizzard and NetEase are working hard to develop a return plan, and more details will be announced in the future."

In addition, both parties have reached an agreement to attempt to bring new NetEase games to Xbox and other platforms.

"Blizzard colleagues are very pleased to once again form a partnership with NetEase to bring excellent gaming experiences to Chinese players," said Johanna Faries, President of Blizzard Entertainment, for the reunion of the two sides. "We are very grateful to the Chinese player community for their enthusiasm for Blizzard games over the years. We will focus on bringing our gaming world back to players with excellent quality and dedication."

Ding Lei, CEO and Director of NetEase, said, "To celebrate our collaboration, we are delighted to start the next chapter of providing services to our users in this unique community we have built together, based on trust and mutual respect. We will continue to be steadfast in our commitment to providing more exciting and creative entertainment experiences. We are delighted to see both parties actively working together, encouraging and strengthening cooperation, and bringing the joy of gaming to the community at large."

Due to Blizzard being acquired by Microsoft in October last year, Microsoft has also made a statement regarding the re cooperation between Blizzard China and NetEase.

Microsoft Games CEO Phil Spencer said, "Blizzard and NetEase have done a great job in fulfilling our commitment to players. Blizzard's gaming world has been a part of local players' lives for many years. Bringing Blizzard's legendary games back to China and exploring how to bring more new games to Xbox demonstrate our commitment to bringing more games to more players around the world."

The breakup between NetEase and Blizzard China has been over a year now.

In November 2022, Blizzard China suddenly issued a statement stating that with the expiration of its existing licensing agreement with NetEase, all World of Warcraft, Warcraft III: Reforged, StarCraft series, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, and Diablo III national server games will cease operation from 0:00 on January 24, 2023.

Subsequently, NetEase urgently responded, stating that it has been making every effort to negotiate with Blizzard and hopes to advance the renewal of the contract. But after long negotiations, it still cannot reach an agreement with Blizzard on some key terms of cooperation.

According to online reports, Blizzard China has made many demands in the renewal agreement, some of which are unacceptable to NetEase, such as Blizzard's request to increase the sharing ratio from 20% to 50%; Blizzard China requires NetEase to assist in the development of other IP mobile games and requires NetEase to pay a huge deposit as collateral, but NetEase can only enjoy revenue sharing in China and so on. Industry insiders say it is understandable that NetEase has refused to accept the renewal agreement, as Blizzard has been "raising prices too aggressively".

Both parties broke up as a result, and the relationship also reached a freezing point.

According to reports, after breaking up with NetEase, Blizzard China has had contact with several large companies with gaming businesses. Tencent, Bilibili, ByteDance, etc. have all reported that they will cooperate with Blizzard China, but they have not been officially confirmed, and they ended up with nothing.

On the one hand, Blizzard China needs to invest manpower and financial resources to rebuild servers, which is too costly. On the other hand, the renewal conditions proposed by Blizzard China to NetEase are also difficult for other companies to accept. So, where Blizzard China will go was once confusing.

Last December, some netizens discovered that Blizzard China's World of Warcraft community had been re launched in the "NetEase God". At the same time, the community has also begun to update new content, including geocentric warfare and Warcraft exploration. The outside world is speculating that the Chinese version of World of Warcraft may be back.

Subsequently, news of contact between Blizzard China and NetEase continued to spread, but both sides responded positively. Until today, the matter has officially settled.

In addition, after announcing its return, Blizzard China also released a letter to Blizzard game players on the Chinese server.

It is mentioned that a new agreement has been signed between NetEase and Blizzard China, but it still requires a considerable amount of time for technical preparation for server opening, such as rebuilding new server rooms and restoring various types of data.

Blizzard China also emphasized that when the server is turned on, it ensures that user account data is fully preserved. Please do not believe rumors and participate in unprotected account or account data transactions.