Blizzard will be suspending Overwatch 2, World of Warcraft, and other services in China from January next year
Activision Blizzard today announced that it will be suspending its services in China from January 23, 2023.
This means that players will not be able to enjoy games like Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft once services in the region go offline.
The date marks the end of the licensing agreement between NetEase and Blizzard. The agreement, which has been in place since 2008, covered the publication of Blizzard’s games in China.
Since the two parties have not yet reached a deal to renew the agreement between them, Blizzard will be looking to suspend its services in the region. Fortunately, the company will look into alternatives to try and bring its games back to mainland China.
Starting January 23, 2023, Blizzard will be suspending their services on the following games:
However, it’s uncertain how the two organizations will deal with the fact that co-development and publishing are covered under a separate agreement.
When talking about the latest announcement, Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard Entertainment, said:
He continued:
As mentioned earlier, Blizzard will be looking for ways to bring games like Overwatch 2, Diablo Immortal, and World of Warcraft back to the region. These games enjoy a tremendous amount of popularity in mainland China.
Considering the publishing policies in the country, the games will not be coming back online again if Blizzard does not find a new publisher that is greenlit by the government.
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