In November, it was announced that Blizzard was going suspend your services in ChinaThat’s largely because the company failed to come to fruition with NetEase, the Asian publisher that would serve as the nation’s nexus with Blizzard. Details of the issues were never officially released, but some have transcended indicates that intellectual property and player information would have been the central axis of the dispute.
The cancellation of the partnership between the companies is not only limited to World of Warcraft but also covers all Blizzard IPs such as Starcraft 2, Overwatch, Hearthstone and Diablo.
China says goodbye to World of Warcraft
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John Hight, general manager of the franchise, confirmed that they are looking for a new partner in the country, but in the meantime, players will have the option to save their character data by downloading the data to their devices so that it can be reused when Blizzard resumes operations in China.
Blizzard has always targeted the Chinese market and had to do extensive localization of certain aspects of the game. This includes modifying some character models and textures to accommodate the Asian giant’s policies. For now, players in this region will have to content themselves with saving their characters for possible future use.
Gabriel Fuentes
Translator and localizer of video games passionate about retro titles and simulators. He’s never let go of a controller since he was given an Atari 2600.
