A year after breaking up, NetEase and Blizzard, a pair of gaming CPs, once again have the possibility of getting back together. On the evening of December 25, there were reports that Blizzard was negotiating with many domestic game manufacturers about the "return of the national server" and finally chose to re-join hands with NetEase. In this regard, Sina Technology and other media have sought confirmation from NetEase Games. As of press time, neither NetEase Games nor Blizzard have confirmed the matter.


Text丨Sina Technology Zhou Wenmeng

A person close to NetEase Games said, "The current conditions between the two parties have not been fully negotiated, but the degree of certainty on the matter is very high."

At the same time, the "World of Warcraft" community has recently been re-launched on "NetEase Master", and the "World of Warcraft" community has begun to update relevant "blue stickers" content, including new content including the Battle for the Center of the Earth and the World of Warcraft Exploration Server. Many game industry anchors also revealed the news: "Blizzard's national server is about to return."

In a poll on "Will you return to Blizzard's national server?", 1,225 people participated in the vote. The results showed that about 44% of users said they would not return to Blizzard's national server because they were worried about "something happening again."

Nearly half of the veteran players are unwilling to return to Blizzard’s national server

On November 27, 2022, Blizzard China announced that since the licensing agreement with NetEase will expire on January 23, 2023, most game services in mainland China will be suspended. This sudden announcement heralded the end of the 14-year close cooperation between the two companies.

Subsequently, because NetEase and Blizzard did not properly handle the aftermath of the breakup, after the China agency partnership between Blizzard and NetEase Games was terminated on January 24 this year, a large amount of Chinese player game data, equipment titles, collectible toys and other electronic assets were directly sealed on NetEase servers, but players were unable to obtain them!

Amid the wailing and lamentations of many netizens who said "youth is gone" and "you can no longer use the gold you just spent", NetEase and Blizzard resolutely terminated their cooperation, and the ones who were most hurt were the players who loved them the most and were the most loyal.

The end result is that a large number of former fans eventually turn into negative fans. In August this year, when Blizzard’s “Overwatch 2” launched on Steam. Tens of thousands of players jumped over the wall and went abroad, scolding Blizzard in the comment area for putting "Overwatch 2" at the top of the Steam negative review list, with the negative review rate once as high as 90.51%.

Regarding the reunion of NetEase and Blizzard, neither party has responded directly. However, there have been multiple clues indicating that the relationship between NetEase and Blizzard is easing, and new cooperation is expected to begin.

On the one hand, recently, the "NetEase Master" re-launched the "World of Warcraft" community and began to update related "blue post" content. The updated content includes Battle for the Center of the Earth, Warcraft Exploration Server, etc. Previously, the news about NetEase stopping the agency of "World of Warcraft" in community circles could not be found.

On the other hand, Huang Xudong, a game industry figure who is close to Blizzard recently, has continuously revealed the news of Blizzard's return in live broadcasts. He even directly stated during the live broadcast that the new agent was NetEase. Previously, when Blizzard and NetEase broke up, "Blizzard proposed to renew the contract for another six months based on the existing conditions, but NetEase rejected it" was what he first broke, which was later confirmed to be true.

But for most players, the news that NetEase and Blizzard may "reunite" not only arouses their excitement, but also comes with a lot of worries. In a poll "Will you return to Blizzard's national server?" initiated by Sina Technology, 1,225 people participated in the vote. The results showed that about 44% of users said they would not return to Blizzard's national server, citing concerns about "what might happen again." In addition, 4.5% of users said they had never played the national server before, and the two combined were close to half of the voters.


Some players said, "It doesn't matter if you don't play. Every time they are optimized, they are negative optimizations. How can players enjoy it? The next patch will be against you, and only European and American players can give feedback. Our Chinese server is born from concubines and doesn't care about our feelings at all. Your feedback and what you want will not be biased towards you at all. Since you don't care about Chinese players, then it's okay not to play."

Some players directly pointed the finger at NetEase and said, "If this can get back together, I will look down on NetEase to some extent. If you restore my account data, it is not impossible to download it again, but don't even think about recharging. Come and leave as you like. What do you mean by being a player, a leek?"

Even if Blizzard and NetEase come back together, players who were heartbroken by the breakup are no longer so easy to serve.

One year after breaking up, what is the current situation of NetEase and Blizzard?

In the past year, after experiencing the "pain" of breaking up, NetEase and Blizzard are also working hard to get back on their own track. Among them, NetEase has invested more resources in promoting more of its own old products and developing and investing in new products. Blizzard, on the one hand, sold itself to Microsoft, and on the other hand, it continued to look for new agents in China.

Data shows that in November 2022, on the day Blizzard announced that it would cease cooperation with NetEase, NetEase's stock price plummeted 15% during the session. In NetEase's 2022 Q4 financial report later released, the company's net profit attributable to its parent company also declined by more than 30%. After all, the suspension of cooperation directly means that NetEase’s source of revenue from being an agent of Blizzard games is directly interrupted.

According to NetEase's 2021 performance report, in 2019, 2020 and 2021, revenue from agent games (Blizzard, etc.) accounted for 7.5%, 9.1% and 9.5% of NetEase's total revenue respectively. At the same time, game products developed jointly by NetEase and Blizzard, such as "Diablo: Immortal", also experienced a decline in sales after the termination of the cooperation between the two parties.

According to MobileGamer data, since its launch in July 2022, the global revenue of "Diablo: Immortal" has exceeded US$300 million in the five months since it was launched, of which domestic revenue has reached US$145 million and overseas revenue has reached US$156 million. It will become NetEase’s best-performing new game in 2022 in domestic and overseas markets.

But entering Q1 of 2023, the revenue of "Diablo: Immortal" has declined significantly. According to point data, the iOS revenue of "Diablo: Immortal" in the first quarter since the beginning of the year is approximately US$8.85 million. This revenue has shrunk by nearly 80% from the iOS revenue of approximately US$45.8 million in 22Q4.

Of course, except for the significant changes in NetEase's financial report revenue in the quarter when it terminated its cooperation with Blizzard, the performance in each subsequent quarter gradually stabilized. Looking back at Blizzard, after breaking up with NetEase, Blizzard was acquired by Microsoft along with parent company Activision Blizzard to gain more resource support. At the same time, Blizzard also made changes in terms of revenue and financial status.

According to Activision Blizzard's second quarter 2023 financial report, the company's net sales increased by 50% year-on-year in the second quarter; GAAP operating profit and segment operating income both increased by more than 70% year-on-year. The launch of "Diablo IV" pushed Blizzard to achieve quarterly net sales of US$1 billion for the first time, setting a segment revenue record.

"After the breakup, the performance of both parties was affected, but after the sharp decline in the quarter, the performance subsequently stabilized." According to Zhang Shule, a senior TMT industry commentator, "Blizzard is destined to come back, and the shortcut is naturally NetEase. However, whether NetEase will focus on operating Blizzard's existing games in the future has also become a question."

After all, after Blizzard finally cooperated with NetEase, while NetEase's "Diablo: Immortal" experienced a sharp decline in sales, the company's self-developed "Eggman Party" became a great success and became the company's star product with the best growth momentum.

There are no permanent friends in the shopping mall, only permanent interests. With the interests of both parties negotiated, NetEase, which has a long-term cooperation foundation with Blizzard, is still the most convenient choice for the return of Blizzard's national server. However, for players and partners, can a heart that has been broken once really return to the past?