Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Nov. 17, Blizzard Entertainment issued a statement today that most of Blizzard game services on Chinese mainland will be suspended because the existing licensing agreement with NetEase expires on January 23, 2023.

NetEase CEO Ding Lei responded to Blizzard's decision on the third-quarter earnings call this evening. Ding Lei said that NetEase very much hopes to continue to represent Blizzard and has made a lot of efforts to this end. However, in the past period of time, the whole negotiation process was actually far more difficult than NetEase expected. Activision Blizzard's requirements are unacceptable for some key terms of cooperation that involve sustainable operations, the Chinese market and the core interests of players.

Ding Lei said: "We saw the news that Activision Blizzard announced the termination of the cooperation this morning. We feel very sorry and have to abide by this decision. For Chinese players, we will try our best to deal with the aftermath, serve the players to the last minute, and protect the consumer rights and information security of the players."

CTOnews.com learned that Blizzard Entertainment unilaterally announced today that its existing license agreement with NetEase will expire on January 23, 2023, and most of Blizzard's game services on Chinese mainland will be suspended, including World of Warcraft, hearthstone Legend, Watch Pioneer, StarCraft, Warcraft III: reset, Diablo III and Storm Hero.

NetEase officially released a letter to Blizzard gamers this evening. NetEase said that in view of everyone's concern about fee refunds, game data, virtual property, game rights and other related issues, we will try our best to negotiate with Activision Blizzard to maximize the protection of the interests of Chinese players.

NetEase's third-quarter results said that these agents from Blizzard's games, their contributions to NetEase's net income and net profit in the first nine months of 2021 and 2022 were in low single digits. The expiration of the authorization will not have a significant impact on NetEase's financial performance. The joint development and distribution of Diablo: immortality is covered by another long-term agreement.

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