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

CTOnews.com January 17 news, today NetEase and Blizzard "break up" event ushered in new progress, Blizzard and NetEase confirmed the failure of negotiations, no longer renew the contract cooperation. Activision Blizzard issued an official announcement that the national service game service was suspended on January 23 in accordance with the notice of easy suspension of service.

Blizzard China said it contacted NetEase again last week and asked for assistance to explore the extension of the existing agreement, which was based on the agreed terms in 2019, for six months, so that everyone can continue to play without interruption. It also allows Blizzard to continue to explore a reasonable and long-term development path in the national service region in the future. However, NetEase did not accept his proposal to extend the existing game service agreement after the deferred negotiations last week. Therefore, Blizzard will suspend the national service game service on January 23 in accordance with the notice of easy suspension of service.

According to China Business News, reliable sources close to Blizzard pointed out that last week's communication was initiated by Blizzard Entertainment President Mike Ybarra, with the participation of senior NetEase, but the latter did not accept the proposal to extend the existing game service agreement. Blizzard has raised objections to the job cuts on NetTech, which may have an impact on subsequent job transfers, but have not been adopted.

According to the report, the reason why the cooperation between Blizzard and NetEase broke, both sides have different explanations. Blizzard Entertainment said in a previous statement that it did not reach a contract renewal agreement with NetEase in line with Blizzard's operating principles and commitment to players and employees. In the third quarter earnings call, NetEase CEO Ding Lei said that NetEase would very much like to continue to represent Blizzard games and has made a lot of efforts to this end, but Activision Blizzard's requirements are unacceptable for some key cooperation terms related to sustainable operation and the core interests of the Chinese market and players.

China Business reported that reliable sources close to Blizzard said that the reason for the collapse of the talks was that NetEase wanted to fundamentally change the form and structure of cooperation between the two sides, which would make Blizzard lose control of the game IP, which Blizzard cannot accept.

Earlier, media reported that Blizzard had put forward sky-high price conditions, such as Blizzard divided into more than 50 per cent of revenue and net profit during the 2019-2022 contract period, and Blizzard game pricing will adopt a global synchronization strategy, while the previous national service pricing is generally about 20 per cent lower than in other parts of the world.

In this regard, people close to Blizzard China revealed that these statements are not accurate. Blizzard did not ask for a big increase in the share of the game, and Blizzard did not ask NetEase to implement the global synchronization strategy, that is, to raise prices in China.

In addition, sources said that Blizzard is still in talks with a number of potential partners, the list is gradually narrowing, but the negotiations are expected to continue for some time.

CTOnews.com learned that on November 17 last year, Blizzard and NetEase issued statements saying they would terminate the cooperation after the agreement expires. From 0: 00 on January 24, 2023, all national service games, including World of Warcraft, Warcraft III: remake, StarCraft series, hearthstone Legend, Storm Hero, Watchman and Diablo III, will be suspended.

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