In an unfortunate turn of events, China and its gamers lost all access to Blizzard games such as Overwatch<\/em>, World of Warcraft<\/em>, and Diablo 3<\/em> in January this year due to the tumultuous relationship between Activision and its Chinese partner, NetEase, ultimately coming to a rocky standstill. But it seems that what ultimately cost the two gaming giants their amicable partnership came down to a simple misunderstanding<\/a>.<\/p>
In January, over three million Chinese players lost all access to the entirety of Activision\u2019s game library when the partnership between them and NetEase, a Chinese gaming company, ended. NetEase employees were so livid about the way things ended that they livestreamed the dismantling of a 32-foot World of Warcraft<\/em> sculpture<\/a> that rested outside NetEase headquarters in Hangzhou, China.<\/p>
According to a report from The New York Times<\/a> on March 29, the executives at NetEase and Blizzard joined a Zoom video conference to talk about the future of their longstanding, 14-year partnership to offer Activision games in China, and to also propose a change to the licensing deal between the two companies.<\/p>
