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An enthusiastic gamer who bumped into the intricacies of video game journalism in 2021 and has been hustling ever since. Obsessed with first-person shooter titles, especially VALORANT. Contact: [email protected]","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/the_pomegranate_girl\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/sharmila-ganguly-403902118\/","https:\/\/x.com\/g1_sharmila"],"url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/author\/sharmilaganguly"}]}},"raw_content":"Popular Blizzard titles like Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, and others might be looking to make a return to mainland China if reports about Blizzard\u2019s plans to renew its contract with NetEase in 2024 are to be believed. According to a local outlet named 36Kr\u2019s report on Dec. 25, which Dot Esports translated using Google\u2019s language conversion program, multiple sources have claimed Blizzard is currently in talks with NetEase to renew their agreement, which was possibly made easier with Microsoft\u2019s recent acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. While attempting to bring back its servers and business to mainland China since the services closed back in January 2023, the American publisher has reportedly been trying to negotiate with other Chinese publishers but seemingly settled with NetEase in the end. If the report is to be believed, gamers residing in China will be able to enjoy existing titles like Overwatch 2, World of Warcraft\u2019s old and upcoming expansions, Diablo IV, and more, as well as future releases, once the Chinese Battle.net servers are back up. 36Kr claims the process of reinstating the servers and completing other crucial steps needed for Blizzard\u2019s return can take six months or more, so players in the region might have to wait a substantial period of time before they get to play their favorite games again.\u00a0 Back in November 2022, Blizzard announced it\u2019d be discontinuing most of its IPs in mainland China due to the imminent expiration of the licensing agreements with NetEase in January 2023, leading to the suspension of extremely popular IPs like World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch, the StarCraft series, Diablo III, and Heroes of the Storm in the region. Announcing the end of a 14-year partnership that allowed Blizzard games to be available in China, the publisher said it was unable to reach a renewing deal with NetEase that was \u201cconsistent with Blizzard\u2019s operating principles and commitments to players and employees.\u201d Needless to say, Blizzard\u2019s abrupt decision to end its services in China broke the hearts of several gamers in the country, becoming a major talking point in the video game community. But now, things seem to have changed in favor of the contract\u2019s renewal in 2024, possibly due to Microsoft\u2019s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, which was finalized in October 2023, leading to several changes within the company.","apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Blizzard_titles-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079513"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1079540,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079513\/revisions\/1079540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1079517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079513"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=1079513"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=1079513"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=1079513"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1079513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

• Rokurou