Blizzard Servers In China Shut Down Today

64K · Jan 24, 2023

Blizzard servers have been shut down and there is no return of the servers in sight right now. Apparently this is due to Blizzard and Chinese Publisher NetEase being unable to reach an agreement to continue. All video games in China are required to have a Chinese Publisher but Blizzard was fine for 14 years in China until the NetEase negotiations fell through and Blizzard puts the blame solely on NetEase.

Games affected are World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Diablo 3, and Overwatch. It is estimated that there are 3 million World of Warcraft players in China alone. Gamers can still access these games in other regions but unfortunately China has its own unique edition of World of Warcraft which means that any money spent on cosmetics or DLC is effectively gone.

Blizzard is seeking another Chinese Publisher to gain access in China again but no luck so far. There is a rumor that they may seek some agreement with Microsoft to host their Chinese servers even if Microsoft Doesn't buy Activision/Blizzard.

Please don't turn this thread into a Political Tirade against China because it's not what's going on. It's about failed negotiations between Blizzard and NetEase.

Blizzard games go dark in China, with no return in sight: 'This is so tragic,' says former Hearthstone director

Blizzard is still looking for a "new partner" to bring its games back to Chinese players, but for now, they're out of luck.

www.pcgamer.com

Count von Schwalbe · Jan 24, 2023

Was the Diablo player that spent $100K from China?

That would be adding insult to injury.

kilo · Jan 24, 2023

Read a few other articles on this. Kind of not sure what's going on. Is this authentication to battle dot net, or downloading games, or multi-player services? And secondly, why wouldn't blizzard migrate to another cloud before shutting down if they were unhappy with NetEase?

64K · Jan 24, 2023

kilo said:
why wouldn't blizzard migrate to another cloud before shutting down if they were unhappy with NetEase?

From what I understand wherever they migrate to it must be a Chinese Publisher. Blizzard just haven't found one yet. NetEase could have been nice and allowed a 6 month grace period to continue Blizzard operations in China until Blizzard could find a new Publisher but they didn't.

kilo · Jan 24, 2023

64K said:
From what I understand wherever they migrate to it must be a Chinese Publisher. NetEase could have been nice and allowed a 6 month grace period to continue Blizzard operations in China until Blizzard could find a new Publisher but they didn't.

64K said:
Please don't turn this thread into a Political Tirade against China because it's not what's going on. It's about failed negotiations between Blizzard and NeNetEase

I must respectfully say no more but leave it at "it is what it is."

Sithaer · Jan 24, 2023

Fear not Tencent is already working on a WoW replacement

:

I'm not even a WoW player just know some minimal stuff about it but that looks like Deathwing to me.

InhaleOblivion · Jan 24, 2023

Sithaer said:
Fear not Tencent is already working on a WoW replacement:

I'm not even a WoW player just know some minimal stuff about it but that looks like Deathwing to me.

Great point. This is how you wipe out your competition, and basically give the player base in China WoW+TERA+Elyion=The WoW 2 they always wanted. Someone at Tencent hit up NetEase and was like "thanks guys" :toast:

Sithaer · Jan 24, 2023

InhaleOblivion said:
Great point. This is how you wipe out your competition, and basically give the player base in China WoW+TERA+Elyion=The WoW 2 they always wanted. Someone at Tencent hit up NetEase and was like "thanks guys"

I'm gonna be honest here, given the chance I would actually try that out for the lolz/curiosity even if only for a short period. :oops:

maxfly · Jan 24, 2023

Ah, so that's what the goofy article about wow players "literally crying when they tried to log in" was about. Didn't read anything but the clickbaity lead in as I browsed the news this morning.
It's never good when gamers can't get their fix man, never good.

Selaya · Jan 24, 2023

64K said:
From what I understand wherever they migrate to it must be a Chinese Publisher. Blizzard just haven't found one yet. NetEase could have been nice and allowed a 6 month grace period to continue Blizzard operations in China until Blizzard could find a new Publisher but they didn't.

they kinda did give them a grace period, this had been known since fall 2022 at the very latest (at the very least, thats when i became aware of it)

they just failed to find anything in the meanwhile

dirtyferret · Jan 24, 2023

64K said:
Apparently this is due to Blizzard and Chinese Publisher NetEase being unable to reach an agreement to continue.

reach an agreement? they seemed like they wanted to come to blows

BSim500 · Jan 24, 2023

64K said:
Please don't turn this thread into a Political Tirade against China because it's not what's going on. It's about failed negotiations between Blizzard and NetEase.

It's hard to fully depoliticize it though due to the reason mentioned in your linked post : "All videogames in China are required by law to have a Chinese publisher". As soon as the home-grown production market starts to reach the point of wanting to produce equivalents of what they're "partnering" with, all of sudden "partner publishers" may be under pressure to offer significantly less favourable conditions due to being 'leaned on' by a senior official without actually being seen to ban competition. Something that's been observed in other sectors in the past. ie, why couldn't Blizzard find a partner? Is it 100% Blizzard's fault for not looking hard enough / demanding too much? Or were the new 'partnership' terms not very good by design at the same time as China's domestic game production industry coincidentally has reached a certain stage of growth? The only way you'll get the truth here is to examine the actual contract as I wouldn't take the word of either company involved at face value...

64K · Jan 24, 2023

Here's the thing. I understand that there is a political aspect involved in this discussion but if this thread slips off into politics and bashing China from a political standpoint then a moderator will just close it so please don't. At least until everyone that wants to has had an opportunity to comment on this situation.

95Viper · Jan 24, 2023

Please use "News" thread for further discussion --> Blizzard is Closing its Servers in China Today. China Market Future Uncertain

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Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Logitech G105
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Display(s)	XV340CK x2, 1080p x2
Power Supply	Corsair RM750x \| Stock
Software	Windows \| Proxmox 7

Processor	i7 7700k
Motherboard	MSI Z270 SLI Plus
Cooling	CM Hyper 212 EVO
Memory	2 x 8 GB Corsair Vengeance
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 2070 Super
Storage	Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB and WD Black 4TB
Display(s)	Dell 27 inch 1440p 144 Hz
Case	Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNova 850 W Gold
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Logitech G105
Software	Windows 10

System Name	Regular PC \| Server HP Z440
Processor	9700k \| E5-2698v3
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X-CF \| Stock mobo
Cooling	Scythe Mugen 5 rev. B \| Stock HS
Memory	32 GB (8x4) \| 112 GB (8x2 + 16x6)
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super \| K4000
Storage	970 EVO+ 1TB \| 860 1TB x2
Display(s)	XV340CK x2, 1080p x2
Power Supply	Corsair RM750x \| Stock
Software	Windows \| Proxmox 7

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Memory	4x8gb HyperX Predator RGB DDR4 4000
Video Card(s)	Asrock 6800xt PG D w/ Byski A-AR6900XT-X
Storage	WD SN850x 1TB NVME M.2/Adata XPG SX8200 PRO 1TB NVMe M.2
Display(s)	Acer XG270HU
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Audio Device(s)	Klipsch Promedia 2.1
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus PX-850 w/CableMod PRO ModMesh RT-Series Black/Blue
Mouse	Logitech G502
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Software	Win11pro

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Blizzard Servers In China Shut Down Today

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