‘I cried all night’: Millions of Chinese lose access to ‘World of Warcraft’ and other hit games | CNN Business

Hong Kong
CNN
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Millions of players in China have lost access to the iconic “World of Warcraft” franchise and other popular video games as Blizzard Entertainment’s servers in the country went offline after two decades.

The company’s services in China were suspended at midnight local time on Tuesday, marking the end of an era for fans, after a licensing agreement with local partner NetEase (NTES) expired.

“World of Warcraft”, also known as “WoW”, is a very popular online multiplayer game that allows users to fight monsters and travel on expeditions in the medieval world of Azeroth.

Many players around the world have grown up on the big hit, including China. This was underlined in recent days, when Chinese fans expressed their disbelief at the loss of their long-time pastime in social media posts.

“When I woke up, I still didn’t want to accept [it],” one user said on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, on Tuesday. “I cried myself to sleep all night because the game went offline. I dreamed I was crying in the middle of class.”

Another player described “World of Warcraft” as “my first love.”

“I really can’t forget it,” they wrote.

The suspension follows a bitter dispute between Blizzard, a unit of Activision Blizzard (ATVI), and NetEase.

Foreign publishers must work with local partners to offer video games in China. Last November, however, Blizzard and NetEase announced that they would not be renewing their licensing agreements that were set to expire this month.

Those deals had included publishing several popular Blizzard titles in mainland China, including “World of Warcraft,” “Hearthstone” and “Diablo III,” since 2008. In separate statements at the time, both sides said they couldn’t get there. a new agreement in key terms, without giving further details.

Now, the arguments seem to have become more acrimonious.

In a statement last Tuesday, Blizzard said it had reached out to NetEase to seek “its assistance in exploring a six-month extension of the current agreement.”

The US company said it had appealed to NetEase to allow fans to continue playing without interruption, “based on our personal feelings as players and the frustration expressed to us by Chinese players”.

“Unfortunately, after further discussions last week, NetEase did not accept our extension proposal,” Blizzard said.

NetEase responded with its own statement last week.

In uncharacteristically terse comments, the Chinese tech and gaming giant accused Blizzard of blindsides it with its “sudden statement” and called the US company’s proposal “outrageous, inappropriate and not ‘in line with business logic’.

NetEase also noted that Blizzard had already “started work on finding new partners” in China, putting the Hangzhou-based company in an “unfair” position.

The public dispute marked an unexpected turn in the companies’ 14-year partnership.

In a separate deal, the companies are working together on the joint development and publication of “Diablo Immortal,” another massively popular multiplayer game that lets users slay demons in an ancient world. NetEase said in a statement in November that this partnership would continue.

snow storm said in December that “World of Warcraft” fans could back up their game history and make sure all progress was saved as it ended its deal and looked for a new one Partner.

This week’s closing has been emotional, even for NetEase’s top executives.

In a LinkedIn post on Monday, Simon Zhu, president of global investments and partnerships at NetEase Games, detailed how he grew up with Blizzard games in China, including the older “Warcraft” and “Diablo” titles.

“Not more [a] just hours before Blizzard Games’ servers were shut down in China, and that’s a big deal for players in China,” he wrote.

“Today is such a sad time to witness the server shutdown and we don’t know how things will go in the future. The biggest casualty would be the players in China who live and breathe these worlds.”

Activision Blizzard, which previously had another Chinese partner before teaming up with NetEase, said it is continuing to search for a new distribution partner.

“Our commitment to players in mainland China remains strong as we continue to work with Tencent to distribute ‘Call of Duty: Mobile,’ as well as continue active discussions with potential partners to resume play for Blizzard’s iconic franchises,” an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told CNN.