Simon Zhu’s Post

The news about Blizzard and NetEase not being able to come to terms on continuing their relationship in China hit me very hard this morning. As the former 20-year c-suite executive at Blizzard who ultimately owned all global go-to-market activities and drove the company's global expansion during that time period, this outcome is heartbreaking for both me and Blizzard's incredible and loyal player community in China. In my experience NetEase is exceptional in regard to their overall abilities, integrity, fairness, commitment to quality, deep player insights, commitment to partners, and unwavering and relentless commitment to delivering a great experience for their player community. I feel so bad for them and for all of the Chinese players who will suffer from this outcome. I hope and pray that my old friends and colleagues at Blizzard find a way to reconcile with NetEase in order to put their players first in this decision.

Very sorry to hear this.

I am quite sure Simon Zhu that you and your team gives the best in efforts to continue Licenses agreement.

DM me who's d jerk..

Blizzard fans in China might not be the mainstream of the market now - not GenZ or even younger audiences. They are the first generation of gamers in China, spent 15-20 years as gamers and nearly witnessed the entire history of Chinese gaming industry.  And now they lose their start. Really feel pity and angry.

This is what happes when your government has abusive "regulations" that even require you to make these sorts of deals in order to access foreign content

It's a shame what regressive laws can do to a fair market, no?

Sad but not surprised to hear that, NetEase did a great job in running Blizzard’s IPs and most Chinese gamers understand that it is not NE’s fault. Just my guess that ‘jerk’ may refer to B Kotick, the CEO of Activision. Considering the fact that Blizzard becomes less ‘financially’ important, what a pure businessman who has no interest in games can do, is to exploit as much profit as possible from Blizzard’s existing IPs before it dies. A company with a glorious history may have a tragic end. As NE is the only experienced company in running Blizzard’s games in China, I personally think that it would be hard for Blizzard to find an alternative. Hence the non-renewal decision may mark the ending of Blizzard’s existence in Chinese market (simply ignoring Diablo Immortal cuz I do not have mobile phone). As a ex-fan of Blizzard I used to wish that the decision can be reconsidered after Microsoft’s acquisition, now it is impossible since both parties have issued offical statements.

As someone who fully experienced the first transition of World of Warcraft from the9 to Netease, I could not imagine this would happen again.  As someone who fully managed the transition of World of Tanks from Kongzhong to 360, I know exactly how complicated it could be to execute such a transition, even with all parties being positive and cooperative.   Poor our players ... BTW, hope there will be some "a jerk" related gossips!

"Dont be sad, young hero. This is not the first time that Azeroth facing a great evil. Once again, Alliance and horde will united to defeat those jerk, just as what we did before. " "Remember, heroes, fear is your greatest enemy in these befouled halls. Steel your heart and your soul will shine brighter than a thousand suns. The enemy will falter at the sight of you. They will fall as the light of righteousness envelops them!"