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

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, by Jing Haoyu

Blizzard has been in its 25th year in China since the first Warcraft 2 CD was released by Ogilvy Electronics in 1997.

Activision Blizzard issued a statement at 10:00 Beijing time yesterday, announcing that Blizzard Entertainment's existing licensing agreement with NetEase will expire on January 23, 2023, when most of Blizzard game services in Chinese mainland will be suspended. After 25 years in China, Blizzard has reached a new turning point.

Activision Blizzard issued a statement from Ogilvy to Nine cities in July 1997, Blizzard officially appeared in front of Chinese players for the first time. At that time, Blizzard, which is still owned by Cendant of the United States, signed an agency operation agreement with Ogilvy Electronics in Wuhan, China. Over the next few months, Ogilvy, which is just a year old, sold 150000 copies of Warcraft 2.

In September of the same year, Blizzard's masterpiece Diablo also entered the Chinese market through Ogilvy. The Beijing branch of Ogilvy was immediately established, and in the following years, Ogilvy introduced more than a dozen Blizzard games and their expansion films, including "Warcraft", "StarCraft" and "Diablo". Became the spokesman of Blizzard games in the Chinese mainland area.

On July 1, 2003, the genuine game "StarCraft" sold by Ogilvy & Mather, "Warcraft 3: frozen Throne" was simultaneously listed globally in China. Chen Wangzhi, general manager of Ogilvy Beijing, said in a media interview that the simultaneous listing will also be a miracle in the future. The main reason for the successful simultaneous listing is that "Blizzard provides the original Chinese version, which provides great convenience for examination and approval." On its first day of sale, "Warcraft 3: the Frozen Throne" sold 40, 000 units.

At the same time, Blizzard Battle.net was also introduced into China. In late 1996, Blizzard launched the game platform with Diablo to help players connect with multiple players across Lans. Later, Blizzard adopted the key CD-Key technology, and players had to log in using the 13-bit code that came with the genuine game to connect to Battle.net and play multiplayer games. Ogilvy is the only genuine operator in the Chinese mainland region, and when Diablo 2 was released in 2000, Ogilvy also sent CD-Key to the disc.

The real version of Diablo II with CD-Key also foreshadowed later questions. In 2005, "Warcraft 3" broke out an one-yard multi-sale incident, and Ogilvy was accused of repeatedly selling used CD-Key to players, making extra profits and infringing on the rights and interests of genuine players. Ogilvy, which once owned most of Blizzard's game dealerships, encountered a serious crisis. After the incident, Blizzard and its parent company Viwandi punished Ogilvy and then suspended all cooperation with Ogilvy and later China Ogilvy, a new company set up after China Telecom acquired a 51% stake in Ogilvy.

In 2004, MMORPG World of Warcraft, which Blizzard had been brewing for many years, was launched. This time, Miracle's operator, City 9, won its exclusive agent operation rights in the Chinese mainland region. On April 1, the agreement between Nine cities and Vivendi was formally reached. After a year of preparation, in the early morning of April 26, 2005, the "World of Warcraft" national service opened a public test, and officially began commercial operation two months later. In the following four years, the number of Chinese players in World of Warcraft has been on the rise. World of Warcraft has become an iconic game in China's game market in the first decade of the 21st century.

In January 2007, World of Warcraft launched its first expansion, Burning Crusade, and set new sales records in North America and Europe. However, national service players have not waited for its news for a long time. After a series of changes, World of Warcraft: burning Crusade finally passed the review eight months later and met with players in the Chinese mainland area on September 6. The highest number of people online at the same time immediately exceeded 800000, an all-time high.

NetEase 14 April 2009, as an internal email from Nine cities was made public, the agency issue of World of Warcraft once again attracted the attention of players and the industry. Blizzard and NetEase officially announced on April 16 that they would cooperate to operate World of Warcraft in Chinese mainland. On May 31, Nine cities announced that World of Warcraft would be suspended from 0: 00 a.m. on June 7. At 0: 00 on June 7, all the servers in World of Warcraft in China were shut down. Nine cities eventually lost the game, which accounted for more than 90% of its total revenue.

The suspension notice issued by Nine City on June 6, 2009, according to the "notice on standardizing the examination and declaration of the content of imported online game products" issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Culture on April 24, 2009, imported games need to re-declare the game version number when changing operators. After stopping service for more than 3 months, World of Warcraft, operated by Shanghai Netezhiyi Network Technology Development Co., Ltd., reopened in September 2009.

The previous year, NetEase had won the management rights of many games except World of Warcraft under Blizzard. On August 13, 2008, Blizzard and NetEase simultaneously announced that NetEase would be granted the exclusive operation rights of StarCraft 2 and Warcraft 3 as well as Blizzard Battle.net platform in the Chinese mainland region. NetEase Hong Kong Company was changed into a joint venture company, with NetEase and Blizzard each holding 50 per cent.

After that, NetEase established the "NetEase Blizzard Cooperation Department", which is actually in charge of Shanghai Netezhiyi Network Technology Development Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned company under NetEase's Ding Lei, and operates independently of NetEase's structure. In December of the same year, Blizzard set up a Shanghai branch to assist technology operations in China. Blizzard and NetEase officially entered the era of comprehensive cooperation.

In 2010, Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion of World of Warcraft, was launched at National Service. In the next 12 years, through NetEase, Blizzard launched eight "World of Warcraft" expansion films in China-"Wrath of the Lich King", "fission of the Earth", "Panda Mystery", "King of Delano", "Legion return", "struggle for dominance of Azeroth", "Shadow Nation", and "Dragon Age", which will be launched on November 29 this year. Among them, the Mystery of the Panda, released in 2012, impressed many Chinese players. The addition of "Chinese elements" also marks a new peak in the cooperation between Blizzard and NetEase in China.

The image of the panda man that impressed Chinese players in the following years, every move of the two giants will attract wide attention in the industry. The Wolong Legend-biographies of the three Kingdoms in 2014 and the 2015 World of Warcraft case have repeatedly attacked the issue of plagiarism infringement. In operation, on the eve of the launch of the World of Warcraft: the Legion return expansion in 2016, NetEase announced that he would change the national service charging model from a point card to a monthly card, sparking a wide range of discussions among players. In May of the same year, "Watch Vanguard" was launched at the same time as the whole world.

Blizzard also saw the prospect of mobile games when hearthstone was launched on PC, tablets and mobile platforms in 2014. In 2018, Blizzard announced at the Blizzard Carnival that it would jointly develop the mobile game Diablo: immortality with NetEase. Despite the formation of some public opinion at that time, Diablo: immortality later achieved good results. Diablo: immortality will be launched in June 2022, while the Chinese mainland region will be launched on July 25. According to statistics, Diablo: immortality earned more than $300 million as of November.

On July 15, Diablo: immortality opened a national service test to mention the cooperation between Blizzard and NetEase. Zheng Hongsheng, general manager of Blizzard China, said in an exclusive interview with the media in 2018: "Blizzard China is part of the global Blizzard company." the core responsibility and mission is to play a communication role and convey the real experience and ideas of domestic players about the game to the US headquarters. See what is beyond the expectations of developers, and what room for improvement. "

Blizzard in the storm in the past 25 years in China, Blizzard itself is also experiencing turbulence. Blizzard was still under the control of Cendant when it first entered China in 1997 in cooperation with Ogilvy & Mather. A year later, after a series of acquisitions, Blizzard Entertainment became a division of Vivendi Games, a subsidiary of the French Vivendi Group. In December 2007, Activision merged with Vivendi and changed its name to Activision Blizzard. At this time, the ninth city of Chinese mainland agents also experienced changes in the agency agreement. By the time Activision Blizzard redeemed itself for $5.38 billion and left Vivendi Group in 2013, it had already partnered with NetEase to launch three documentary films.

Blizzard, which achieved independence, is not at peace. Activision Blizzard hasn't brought a strong new work for a long time since the release of Watchman in 2016, and Storm Hero and StarCraft II were abandoned in 2018 and 2020. For a long time, Blizzard unexpectedly lived a life of "fried cold rice" and began to launch a variety of "remake". In 2021, the established game company was found to be mired in sexual harassment. On July 20 last year, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, arguing that Activision Blizzard's "fraternity culture" led to discrimination and sexual harassment of female employees. With the escalation of the storm, many senior executives left the company and grass-roots employees went on strike on a large scale. This year, the offline Blizzard Carnival was suspended again.

This year, Blizzard's name is tied to Microsoft. In January 2022, Microsoft decided to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. This was followed by antitrust investigations by governments around the world. So far, we have not seen this giant acquisition come to a definite end.

In such a situation, Activision Blizzard announced the news of suspending cooperation with NetEase. On November 8, with the release of results for the third quarter of 2022, Activision Blizzard said that the renewal of the agreement may not be satisfactory to both sides. At 10:00 Beijing time today, Activision Blizzard issued a unilateral statement announcing that its cooperation with NetEase will expire on January 23 next year, when most Blizzard game services in the Chinese mainland area will be suspended. The statement pointed out that the two sides did not reach a contract renewal agreement in line with Blizzard's operational principles and commitment to players and employees.

At 11:00 in the morning, NetEase responded, saying that he was very sorry for the decision.

In the evening, NetEase's official account released a letter to Blizzard gamers. What difficulties will Blizzard games face in China in the future? According to Battle. com, the games currently operated by Blizzard in China include World of Warcraft, Watchman, hearthstone Legend, StarCraft: remake, StarCraft 2, Warcraft 3: remake, Storm Hero, Diablo 3 and Diablo: immortal. Among them, "World of Warcraft" includes formal and nostalgic clothes. With the exception of the joint development and release of Diablo: immortal, which was separately signed by Blizzard and NetEase, several other games will temporarily suspend their services in the Chinese mainland area because the licensing agreement expires.

In today's statement, Blizzard used the words "suspend gaming services in the Chinese mainland area." Considering its own business situation and the specific conditions of the Chinese market, Blizzard is likely to resell and operate these games in Chinese mainland in the future in the form of changing agents.

At present, Blizzard has not officially announced whether to change agents. It is worth noting, however, that even with a successful change of agents, Blizzard still faces some real dilemmas if it wants to continue to operate games in Chinese mainland.

First of all, according to the Circular of the three departments of the State Council on further strengthening the Management of online Games issued on September 28, 2009, imported online games must re-go through the formalities of pre-examination and approval or import examination and approval when changing operating units; when adding new versions, new information films or updated contents, they must re-go through the formalities of pre-examination and approval or import examination and approval.

Excerpt from the Circular of the three departments of the State Council on further strengthening the Management of online Games:

5. Online games with pre-examination and approval or import examination and approval by the General Administration of Press and publication shall go through the formalities of pre-examination and approval or import examination and approval again, from the date of the change of the operating unit to the period of re-approval, online games shall stop all operational services. Violators shall be dealt with as illegal online publishing.

VI. Online games that have been pre-examined and approved by the General Administration of Press and publication or import examination and approval must re-go through the formalities of pre-examination and approval or import examination and approval to add new versions, new information films or updated contents. For those who operate new editions, new material films or updated contents without prior examination and approval or import examination and approval by the General Administration of Press and publication, the State Press and publication Administration will cancel the original pre-examination and approval or import examination and approval documents, notify the relevant local press and publication administrative departments to order them to stop operating services according to law, and investigate and deal with them according to illegal online publishing. If a new version, new data film or updated content is added without authorization, and there are violations of laws and regulations in adding or updating the content, it will be dealt with seriously, notify the telecommunications management department to cancel the relevant access service and close the website.

This means that when Blizzard cooperates with new domestic agents, new agents must re-apply for version numbers for at least eight games, and subsequent game versions also need to be re-approved. Compared with domestic games, the approval process of imported game version numbers is often longer and the number of approved games is less. It has been 17 months since the last time an imported online game was approved (June 2021), according to the website of the State Press and publication Administration.

The approval of imported game version numbers is slow and the number is relatively small. At the same time, although Blizzard games in operation (including major expansion updates) have undergone strict pre-approval before launch, they are after all games whose versions have been changed countless times over the years. In the update, there may be a variety of unexpected minor problems, when reapplying for the version number. We also have to face the new audit standards and audit process in recent years-for any new agent, this is not a task that can be accomplished in a short period of time, and may require more manpower, material resources and time.

In addition, as Blizzard games need to log on to Battle. net to run, future agents may also need to submit Battle. net China for review when applying for version numbers for the game, which will further increase the cost of applying for version numbers. Of course, in a sense, re-approval does not mean suspension of service, and operators can also use a completely free form of public testing during the application period to maintain player viscosity-but the cost is also imaginable.

The second dilemma is that from the perspective of content operation, it is not easy for Blizzard to find a new and suitable agent in China. In order for a game to run smoothly from Blizzard in the United States to domestic players' computers or mobile phones, agents need certain abilities in localization, server maintenance, Bug repair, customer service, IP operation, secondary development and other links, at least without obvious shortcomings.

Compared with several agents previously selected by Blizzard, and combined with the development of the domestic game industry in recent years, NetEase's comprehensive strength still has certain advantages. especially in R & D-in any case, Diablo: immortality has brought real benefits to Blizzard. When the agency changes, the performance of Blizzard's IP maintenance and secondary development in China has become an unknown.

Conclusion We may be tired of using "still need to wait and see" to describe some things, but there is no doubt that the future of Blizzard and Blizzard games in China is something we should pay attention to and wait and see-- on the one hand, it has brought unnegligible influence to Chinese game industry, practitioners and players in the past two decades, and witnessed a period of history of Chinese games. On the other hand, Blizzard itself is inevitably in crisis today: the decline in the quality of games, the cancellation of projects, the "fraternity culture", and the acquisition by Microsoft as part of Activision Blizzard. Did these internal upheavals finally affect Blizzard's strategy in China? After the license agreement with NetEase expires, what will Blizzard think of the Chinese game market in the future? Maybe no one can answer.

Since the introduction of Warcraft 2 by Ogilvy Electronics in 1997, Blizzard and its games have been on the road in China for 25 years, among which there are some twists and turns, and the next road will not be easy.

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