After more than a year of neglect, Blizzard's biggest games will soon be returning to China, as Blizzard tonight signed a new deal with NetEase to bring World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and "Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, other titles in the StarCraft universe," and will bring all games covered by the previous publishing agreement back to the Chinese market. The new agreement will take effect this summer. [Blizzard president Johanna Faries said in a statement, "We at Blizzard are pleased to reestablish our partnership with NetEase and to work with both teams to deliver legendary gaming experiences to players in China, with deep appreciation for their collaboration. Blizzard said. We deeply appreciate the passion the Chinese community has shown for Blizzard's games over the years, and we look forward to working with NetEase and Blizzard to bring the same passion to the Chinese market."

NetEase began publishing Blizzard games in mainland China in 2008, but that contract expired in January 2023 and was not renewed. Each company rightfully blamed the other: NetEase said it had "made great efforts and attempted to negotiate with Activision Blizzard in the utmost good faith," but "material differences in important terms" prevented a new agreement from being signed, and Blizzard said that while Blizzard was looking for someone else to take the reins Blizzard stated that NetEase was responsible for the closure because it was unwilling to extend the existing contract for another six months while Blizzard looked for someone else to take the reins.

Rumors of a new contract first surfaced in a leak posted on Twitter by CN Wire (via Kotaku) that allegedly showed NetEase CEO Ding Lei meeting with Johanna Faries, Blizzard's new president, who takes over in January 2024. It was a photo.

A short time later, the South China Morning Post reported the same thing, citing "a person familiar with the matter" and "local media reports."

The SCMP report said the same thing as the CN Wire, that a new deal would be announced on April 10, but that Blizzard's games claims that it will be at least another month before they actually return to China.

Now it's official, and not a totally unexpected outcome: Activision Blizzard has stated many times that it is "committed" to the Chinese market since its contract with NetEase ended. However, Microsoft's acquisition of the company, approved by the Chinese government in May 2023 ahead of the UK Competition and Markets Authority and the US Federal Trade Commission (which is still pending), may have helped seal the deal in the end. [Blizzard and NetEase have done an incredible job of renewing their commitment to players. "Returning Blizzard's legendary games to Chinese players while at the same time looking for ways to bring more new titles to Xbox demonstrates our commitment to bringing more games to more players around the world.

Microsoft also signed another agreement with NetEase "to look into bringing new NetEase titles to Xbox consoles and other platforms."