According to reports, from December 20, Activision Blizzard (hereinafter referred to as "Blizzard") under the "World of Warcraft" community has been re-launched in the "NetEase God."。At the same time, the community has also begun to update new content including the Battle of the Geocentres and Warcraft Exploration.。There is speculation that the "World of Warcraft" national service version may be able to come back。

Massive "Break Up"

Blizzard and NetEase "break up" has been more than a year。

In November 2022, Blizzard suddenly issued a statement saying that with the expiration of its existing license agreement with NetEase, all World of Warcraft, Warcraft III: Remake, StarCraft series, Hearthstone, Storm Hero, Overwatch and Diablo III national service games will cease operations from 0: 00 on January 24, 2023.。

A stone stirs up a thousand waves。At a time when public opinion is fermenting, NetEase has come out urgently to respond that it has been doing its best to negotiate with Blizzard in the hope of advancing the renewal.。But after lengthy negotiations, it was still unable to agree on some key terms of cooperation with Blizzard.。

According to online sources, Blizzard in the renewal agreement "lion's mouth," some of the terms so that NetEase can not accept, such as Blizzard asked to share the proportion from 20% to 50%; Blizzard asked NetEase to assist in the development of other IP mobile games and asked NetEase to pay a huge deposit as a guarantee, but NetEase can only enjoy the revenue share of China and so on.。Industry insiders said that NetEase refused to accept the renewal agreement is completely understandable, because Blizzard is really "raising prices too hard."。

As a result, online public opinion is also one-sided, have stood on the side of NetEase。Even the coffee shop downstairs in NetEase's office building has launched a "Blizzard Green Tea" drink, alluding to Blizzard's behavior.。The drink also attracted many NetEase internal employees to "place orders with passion."。

But regardless of public opinion, there is no new agreement, and the end of the "break-up" between the two sides is set.。At 0: 00 on January 24, 2023, Blizzard China's 25-year-old "Battlenet" server was officially shut down, and many classic games such as World of Warcraft were shut down.。

Why does Blizzard have no one to pick up the plate？

Many of Blizzard's games are classic games with many users and large volumes.。This also means that Blizzard's national service agents can only find the head of the game companies to take over。

According to reports, after Blizzard and NetEase "broke up," they contacted a number of large enterprises with game business.。Tencent, B station, byte beat and so on have been passed will "pick up" Blizzard, but all can not get the official confirmation, and finally all come to nothing.。

And the reason for the "no one to pick up the disk" phenomenon, the cost is a very important reason.。

If other companies want to take over these Blizzard game operations, they need to invest in human and financial resources to rebuild the server, but also need to buy game rights and so on, these are a certain cost.。

What's more, in the case of slowing macroeconomic growth this year, many companies have shouted "cost reduction and efficiency."。Station B's gaming business saw a year-on-year decline in the third quarter of this year, down nearly 30 percent。In addition, B Station's Guangzhou R & D studio Xinyuan Interactive also announced its dissolution some time ago.。The byte beat aspect, on the other hand, is a direct cut of the entire gaming business.。

At a time when many companies are preparing to shrink costs, it is not surprising that Blizzard, a "heavy burden," is "unattended."。

In addition, Blizzard's offer to NetEase to renew its contract is difficult for other companies to accept.。

The reason why Blizzard opened its mouth to NetEase's "lion" is mainly related to its overall performance decline.。For the entire fiscal year 2022, Blizzard revenue was $7.5 billion, down 14.5%, net profit of $1.5 billion, down 4.3% year-on-year.9%。In the first half of 2023, Blizzard's quarters were 23.8 and 22.$100 million, net profit of 7.4 and 5.900 million dollars。Revenue and net profit were better than last year.。However, revenue and net profit declined in the third quarter from the same period.。Third Quarter Revenue 17.$8.2 billion, compared to 20.$7 billion, profit of 4.$3.5 billion, down 32%。And judging by the results released so far, Blizzard is a quarter worse than a quarter。

In the case of this year's overall performance development momentum, even if Blizzard to find other companies to talk about cooperation, it is estimated that it will not "make concessions" too much.。And even NetEase, which has been working with NetEase for many years, will not accept the terms of the contract, presumably other companies will not agree.。

Blizzard and Netease will release the past？

A few months after Blizzard's partnership with NetEase broke down, NetEase was accused of taking Blizzard to court.。In April this year, people familiar with the matter revealed that NetEase filed a lawsuit against Blizzard in Shanghai for violating a series of license agreements, demanding that Blizzard refund 300 million in arrears.。The payment reportedly includes refunds related to discontinued games such as World of Warcraft that NetEase has paid in full, prepayments for inventory of unsold game items, and prepayments for several undeveloped games。

In addition, NetEase also proposed that "World of Warcraft" and other national service agent game-related agreements, there are a number of biased Blizzard unilateral rights and interests of unequal provisions, the legality and enforceability of the relevant provisions there is a huge dispute.。

However, the above-mentioned lawsuit did not find relevant information in the Shanghai Higher People's Court.。

It may be that it wasn't very nice before, but this time both sides want to keep a low profile.。Blizzard and NetEase are both tight-lipped about the widely rumored "compound" rumors.。

Blizzard China said in an interview with the media, "Thank you for your attention, we currently have no information or updates to share.。NetEase said that in response to online media rumors that NetEase and Blizzard may re-cooperate, the company will not respond.。

It is understood that NetEase previously responsible for the operation of the Blizzard national service team has been disbanded this year, a short period of time for the Blizzard reorganization team is not likely。

Even if the two sides "hand in hand" again, it will take time to rebuild the national service operations team and test the servers and related systems.。It is estimated that the reopening of the Blizzard game national service will take at least another six months.。