[Techweb] on December 27, after more than 20% last Friday, NetEase opened up 1393% at HK$139.
On the news side, there are rumors that NetEase will re-cooperate with Blizzard, and Blizzard's national server is expected to return.
In this regard, NetEase has not publicly responded. Blizzard China responded to **, "There is no information or update to share at this time." ”
According to Sina Technology, Blizzard may finally choose to re-cooperate with NetEase after negotiating with a number of domestic game manufacturers. A person familiar with the matter said that he was "very convinced" of the news, but "it should be talking about it at present, but it has not completely negotiated (conditions)".
According to public information, since the agreement was reached in 2008, NetEase and Blizzard have cooperated for 14 years, and games such as "World of Warcraft" and "Hearthstone" have accumulated a group of loyal players in China.
On November 16, 2022, Blizzard Entertainment issued a statement saying that due to the expiration of the existing licensing agreement with NetEase on January 23, 2023, most of Blizzard's game services in Chinese mainland, including "World of Warcraft", "Hearthstone", "Overwatch" and so on.
Subsequently, NetEase issued a statement in response, saying that after long negotiations, it was still unable to reach an agreement with Activision Blizzard on some key terms of the cooperation. It is a pity that Activision Blizzard announced the end of cooperation today, and NetEase will continue to serve players until the last minute.
As for the reason for the termination of the cooperation, Blizzard Entertainment stated in the statement that it was because the two parties did not reach a renewal agreement that was in line with Blizzard's operating principles and commitments to players and employees, and these agreements will expire in January 2023.
According to foreign media reports, in the renewal negotiations between Blizzard and NetEase, Blizzard once proposed a one-time payment of $500 million for NetEase to renew the contract. It is also reported that Blizzard requires partners to be responsible for developing Blizzard mobile games and publishing them globally, but they can only enjoy the Chinese division and need to pay a huge deposit as a guarantee, otherwise they will be "punished".
The above rumors have not been officially confirmed by Blizzard. On January 17, 2023, Blizzard's national server was suspended, and NetEase and Blizzard terminated their partnership.
After the cooperation between the two sides stopped, Blizzard was revealed to have negotiated with a number of game manufacturers about the return of the national server, and the scandal objects included Perfect World, Tencent Games, Nine Cities, etc., but as of now, a year has passed, and the cooperation object has not been finalized.
Now, rumors of a partnership between Blizzard and NetEase have resurfaced. The industry believes that Blizzard's choice to cooperate with NetEase again is still based on China's huge game market.
However, it is worth noting that in a Weibo poll, 44% of players said that they "do not want to return to the Blizzard national server", citing "fear of another accident".
Some netizens said, "Spending money and time to go back, and getting divorced, who would dare to go back if the money and energy are wasted", "The data is retained in consideration of whether to return, the data is gone, and the return is really powerless". Some netizens also said, "Definitely back".
What do you think about this?