NetEase Sues Blizzard for Nearly $44 Million Over Bitter End of Chinese Publishing Deal
NetEase is suing Blizzard over issues resulting from the tense end of their 14-year publishing deal in China. The company is asking for nearly $44 million over several issues that stem from the bitter end of the contract back in January.
According to a report over at WoWhead, which cites Chinese media site Sina Technology, the lawsuit covers several areas. The first claim is that NetEase was left to cover refunds that Blizzard had promised to players that had wanted them when the servers went offline. NetEase claims to have refunded over 1.12 million players since that time and wants to be paid back.
Other claims have to do with unreleased games and leftover merchandise. “The amount includes full refunds paid by NetEase in connection with discontinued games such as World of Warcraft, prepayments for the inventory of unsold games, and prepayment deposits for several undeveloped games,” the report says.
The “prepayment deposits for several undeveloped games” is an interesting one, since these, of course, have to do with unreleased games that NetEase’s legal filings claim they paid deposits towards, but received nothing in return when the games never happened. One game we do know of that was canceled was an in-development mobile MMO set in the World of Warcraft universe.
Blizzard and NetEase do have a remaining contract for Diablo immortal, which continues a successful run. Their long publishing deal in China came to an end after negotiations failed. While Blizzard had requested a six-month extension in order to keep things running and find a new publisher, NetEase found it insulting, and the end was announced. NetEase staff laterlive streamed the destruction of an orc statue outside the Blizzard office.
Clearly, there
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