Until January of this year, Activision Blizzard’s games were published in China by the giant NetEase. In order to be able to legally offer a game in the world’s most populous market, it must be distributed by a local concern. However, after 14 years of operation, the license agreement expired and the parties failed to agree on the continuation of cooperation. Which in practice means that popular games led by World of Warcraft in China ended on January 23rd.
The breakup of the video game goliaths did not go smoothly, and it seems that the toppling of the statue of the iconic Gorehowl ax outside the NetEase office was just a token act of defiance, and the real battle is just beginning. NetEase is now suing Activision Blizzard for roughly $43.5 million (converted to less than a billion crowns).
According to Chinese news site Sina Technology, NetEase is demanding damages for shutting down games such as World of Warcraft, Hearthstone Legend and Overwatch. The Asian publisher has allegedly already compensated over a million Chinese players and now wants the money back from the American company. He also wants to pay lost profits for unsold merch and deposits for unreleased games he had to pay Blizzard.
After shutting down the Chinese servers, players can create accounts in other regions, but Blizzard has promised to compensate affected players. Over 1.12 million players ended up taking advantage of this offer. However, the money was paid to them by NetEase, which is now logically demanding it through the courts. Publisher Activision Blizzard has not yet commented on the situation.
