Blizzard games including World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Diablo 3, and Overwatch were shut down in China after January 23. [First announced in November 2022 (open in new tab) when Blizzard and Chinese publisher NetEase failed to agree to renew their partnership, and reaffirmed just a week ago. But this is literally the end of an era: NetEase has been publishing Blizzard games in China for 14 years, but NetEase CEO William Ding said the partnership fell apart due to "significant differences (opens in new tab) in key terms.

No specific reason was given for the breakup, but there was understandably a lot of finger-pointing: in a November message on LinkedIn, Simon Zhu, NetEase's president of global investments and partnerships, said that once the full story was revealed, "developers and gamers will be left wondering how much damage a jerk can do. Blizzard said in a statement last week that "it is disappointing that NetEase is not willing to extend the service of our games for another six months under existing terms and conditions as we look for new partners. It is unfortunate that they are not willing to do so," placing the blame for the closure squarely on NetEase's shoulders.

Regardless of who is really to blame, the fact is that the closure is a very big deal. China has a large audience for these games: according to Sky News (opens in new tab), there are an estimated 3 million WoW players in China, and in 2019, Chinese Hearthstone pro Liooon (real name Li Xiaomeng) will be the Hearthstone Grand Masters Global Finals (open in new tab), becoming the first woman to win.

And imagine what would happen if Blizzard did the same thing in North America--one day WoW, Diablo 3, Overwatch 2, and all the other games would suddenly disappear. I don't want to overstate things, but in video game terms at least, it would be absolutely cataclysmic. And VPNs can't save this from happening: Hearthstone accounts are tied to the region in which they were created, and since the Chinese version of World of Warcraft is proprietary, money spent on cosmetics and DLC will effectively disappear.

Many Blizzard fans in China shared their upset over the closure on Twitter and Chinese social media site Weibo (via The Guardian (opens in new tab)):

Former game director of Hearthstone and now Ben Brode, who now directs the production of Marvel Snap, made his thoughts clear on Twitter:

(By the way, Ben Brode and Ben Hearthstone are different people.)

The good news for Chinese gamers is that this situation may not last forever. Blizzard has previously said that it is looking for "new partners" to handle its games in China, and all video games in China are required by law to have a Chinese-language publisher. Guardian that the closure is not "the end," but merely a "temporary and unfortunate interruption. Given the amount of money left on the table, it is unlikely that Blizzard will let this stand for long.

Blizzard confirmed in an email sent to PC Gamer that it is working to restore access to the game; a Blizzard representative said, "We are committed to our players in China and will find alternative ways to get our game back in the future We are committed."

It is also worth remembering that this situation is not unprecedented: prior to NetEase, World of Warcraft in China was published by The9, and the transition to NetEase came amidst increased scrutiny of the game from Chinese authorities, with many of the games ultimately being sold in China. The transition to NetEase took place amidst increased scrutiny of the game from Chinese authorities and ultimately led to a number of changes and an extended closed beta testing period that effectively shut down the game for several months. Interestingly, The9 is rumored to be in talks with Microsoft (opens in new tab) about reacquiring Blizzard's publishing rights in China - possibly in the hopes of completing Microsoft's planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard (opens in new tab)