China has become a top priority for the entire entertainment industry. It doesn’t matter if it’s movies or video games. The complicated thing is getting the local government right: to go beyond the Great Wall you have to call cards or be a lot, much less demanding in the content (especially in games). The reward: an excessive volume of consumers. And that Blizzard disappeared from that market almost a year ago It was a blow in the side for the company. Until now.
What happened? To put ourselves in context, Blizzard’s departure from China, including the closure of that part of the world from World of Warcraft, in January 2023 was neither voluntary nor intentional: the government requires that there be a local publisher to be able to operate in the country, and the alliance with China NetEase (since 2009) came to an end.
The reason for the separation between Blizzard and NetEase: disagreements and negotiations with third parties that led to million-dollar demands from both parties. The collateral effect not only affected the fantasy MMORPG, but also games like Overwatch 2, Hearthstone, Diablo…
11 months later, the panorama is different: Microsoft completed – not without complications – the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and, more recently, a gale of regulatory actions in the country took a heavy toll on the plans of large companies like NetEase. An alignment of factors that enabled the parties to reconsider their positions.
According to local media, like the SCMP, NetEase and Blizzard are developing a new agreement to bring World of Warcraft back to China. Well, and all the games that disappeared during these months.
The process, if it goes ahead, would not be immediate since, as indicated, approximately half a year would have to pass to rebuild the business part to reactivate the services. Ultimately, one of the reasons why China demands a local publisher is to control both operations and content.
A new beginning for a more powerful Xbox and a Blizzard without Kotick
We agree that NetEase did not benefit at all from the latest regulations from the Chinese government regarding the video game industry, but to what extent did the acquisition of Activision Blizzard help it take the step?
To begin with, and according to reports from The New York Times, the president of the company Bobby Kotick It was a barrier for NetEase as they saw him as someone who was difficult to do business with. So it is no coincidence that this initiative takes place just a few days before its release, driven by the purchase of Microsoft.
To this we must add a new report from Reuters, published on December 27in which China’s regulatory bodies began to rethink those same measures that dealt a strong blow to large local companies.
And although there are still months ahead for everything to continue its course prior to January 2023, we cannot ignore that now the activities of World of Warcraft, Overwatch 2 o Hearthstone They are part of Xbox Game Studios. A company that just seven years ago managed to bring Minecraft to China and that finds itself with a huge door to expand its project.
Above all, after a fundamental fact: Microsoft received the approval of the Chinese regulatory bodies for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Something that was not easily achieved in either the United States or the United Kingdom. Let’s hope that this leads to a promising future and, above all, for fans of Activision Blizzard games.
Where Genghis Khan failed, Xbox Game Studios aspires to deploy its greatest successes. The plan involves the rebirth of Blizzard’s alliance with NetEase and the wind blows in its favor. And we are not going to deny it: games doing well in the Chinese Market will translate into better opportunities and more ambitious projects for Blizzard, the Xbox brand and, by extension, countless console, PC and cloud players.
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