Blizzard Reportedly Partnering With Netease Again For Chinese Market Comeback

gameranx.com:

Blizzard is reportedly back to working with Netease again to bring their video games to China.

As reported by Dexerto, a Chinese language website called 36Kr broke the rumor that Blizzard shopped their games around with several Chinese companies, but eventually chose to partner with NetEase.

While this should be welcome news for Chinese gamers, this comes at a time when China’s video game industry faces the harshest regulation it has ever seen. Under these circumstances, it will take at least six months, and more likely even more, for the two to finish arrangements and reopen for business.

When Blizzard first broke the news that they were leaving China, the circumstances were somewhat mysterious. They were allowing their contract with Netease to end without renewing, and even stranger, the company, under now retired CEO Bobby Kotick, were leaving a lot of money on the table.

And then, in January of last year, Netease employees made a public showing of destroying a giant World of Warcraft statue they commissioned for their partnership with Xbox. Netease aired their grievances about Blizzard being a difficult partner to work with. It later came to light that Bobby Kotick himself felt threatened by some communications Netease made. Bobby’s interpretation was that Netease made veiled threats about the Chinese government intervening in their deal, but Netease claims that this was a misunderstanding from poor translation.

Well, as heavy as this drama had been when it played out early last year, all of that is likely forgotten. Both companies are in a completely different place and situation. Activision Blizzard King, of course, has been purchased by Microsoft. Bobby Kotick has exited the publisher. Matt Booty now has