Certain games will no longer be available at
end of license with NetEase on January 23, 2023
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that it will be
suspending most Blizzard game services in mainland China due to the
expiration of the current licensing agreements with NetEase, Inc.
on January 23, 2023. This includes World of Warcraft®,
Hearthstone®, Warcraft® III: Reforged, Overwatch®, the StarCraft®
series, Diablo III®, and Heroes of the Storm®. Diablo Immortal®
co-development and publishing is covered under a separate agreement
between the two companies.
Blizzard Entertainment has had licensing agreements with NetEase
since 2008, covering the publication of these Blizzard titles in
China. The two parties have not reached a deal to renew the
agreements that is consistent with Blizzard’s operating principles
and commitments to players and employees, and the agreements are
set to expire in January 2023.
We will suspend new sales in the coming days and Chinese players
will be receiving details of how this will work soon. Upcoming
releases for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Hearthstone: March of
the Lich King, and season 2 of Overwatch 2 will proceed later this
year.
“We’re immensely grateful for the passion our Chinese community
has shown throughout the nearly 20 years we’ve been bringing our
games to China through NetEase and other partners,” said Mike
Ybarra, president, Blizzard Entertainment. “Their enthusiasm and
creativity inspire us, and we are looking for alternatives to bring
our games back to players in the future.”
About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®,
Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
(www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:
ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment
experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the
industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over
the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game
of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions
of players around the world with titles available on PC via
Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and
Android.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: The
statements contained herein that are not historical facts are
forward-looking statements including, but not limited to statements
of our plans and objectives, including those related to releases of
products or services. Activision Blizzard, Inc. generally uses
words such as “outlook,” “forecast,” “will,” “could,” “should,”
“would,” “to be,” “plan,” “aims,” “believes,” “may,” “might,”
“expects,” “intends,” “seeks,” “anticipates,” “estimate,” “future,”
“positioned,” “potential,” “project,” “remain,” “scheduled,” “set
to,” “subject to,” “upcoming,” and the negative version of these
words and other similar words and expressions to help identify
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject
to business and economic risks, reflect management’s current
expectations, estimates, and projections about our business, and
are inherently uncertain and difficult to predict.
We caution that a number of important factors, many of which are
beyond our control, could cause our actual future results and other
future circumstances to differ materially from those expressed in
any forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not
limited to: the expected effect of the expiration of the agreement
with NetEase, Inc.; the effect of the announcement or pendency of
the proposed transaction with Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”)
on our business relationships, operating results, and business
generally; risks that the proposed transaction with Microsoft
disrupts our current plans and operations and potential
difficulties in employee retention as a result of the proposed
transaction with Microsoft; the global impact of the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic and other macroeconomic factors (including,
without limitation, the potential for significant short- and
long-term global unemployment and economic weakness and a resulting
impact on global discretionary spending; potential strain on the
retailers, distributors, and manufacturers who sell our physical
products to customers and the platform providers on whose networks
and consoles certain of our games are available; effects on our
ability to release our content in a timely manner and with
effective quality control; effects on our ability to prevent
cyber-security incidents while our workforce is dispersed; effects
on the operations of our professional esports leagues; and
macroeconomic impacts arising from the long duration of the
COVID-19 pandemic, including labor shortages and supply chain
disruptions); our ability to consistently deliver popular,
high-quality titles in a timely manner, which has been made more
difficult as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; our ability to
attract, retain, and motivate skilled personnel; risks and
uncertainties of conducting business outside the United States (the
“U.S.”), including the need for regulatory approval to operate;
risks relating to behavior of our distributors, retailers,
development, and licensing partners, or other affiliated third
parties that may harm our brands or business operations; our
reliance on tools and technologies owned by third parties; outages,
disruptions or degradations in our services, products, and/or
technological infrastructure; data breaches, fraudulent activity,
and other cybersecurity risks; increasing regulation in key
territories; regulation relating to the Internet, including
potential harm from laws impacting “net neutrality;” regulation
concerning data privacy, including China’s Personal Information
Protection Law; insolvency or business failure of any of our
business partners, which has been magnified as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic; and the other factors included in Part I, Item
1A “Risk Factors” of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2021, filed with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission.
The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on
information available to Activision Blizzard, Inc. as of the date
of this filing, and we assume no obligation to update any such
forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ
from those expressed in forward-looking statements. As such, you
should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of
future events. We have based the forward-looking statements
contained herein primarily on our current expectations and
projections about future events and trends that we believe may
affect our business, financial condition, operating results,
prospects, strategy, and financial needs. These statements are not
guarantees of our future performance and are subject to risks,
uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond our
control and may cause actual results to differ materially from
current expectations.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221116006090/en/
Andrew Reynolds areynolds@blizzard.com
Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI)
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