Blizzard Games to Return to China This Summer - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 09 April 2024 / 2,334 Views
Microsoft Gaming and NetEase have signed a new agreement to bring Blizzard games back to mainland China starting in the Summer of 2024.
The list of Blizzard games that will be available in China include the games Chinese players had access to under the previous agreement - World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft, and more.
Microsoft Gaming and NetEase have also "entered into an agreement to explore bringing new NetEase titles to Xbox consoles and other platforms."
Our legendary worlds are for all to share & that includes our passionate Chinese community.
— Blizzard Entertainment (@Blizzard_Ent) April 10, 2024
We are pleased to announce a new agreement with NetEase to bring Blizzard games back to mainland China. Thank you for your patience & support.
đź”— https://t.co/zE5XkmE84K pic.twitter.com/W4kxz1XcPF
"We at Blizzard are thrilled to reestablish our partnership with NetEase and to work together, with deep appreciation for the collaboration between our teams, to deliver legendary gaming experiences to players in China," said Blizzard Entertainment President Johanna Faries. "We are immensely grateful for the passion the Chinese community has shown for Blizzard games throughout the years, and we are focused on bringing our universes back to players with excellence and dedication."
NetEase CEO and Director William Ding added, "Celebrating our collaborations, we are thrilled to embark on the next chapter, built on trust and mutual respect, to serve our users in this unique community that we’ve built together. Our commitment to providing more exhilarating and creative entertainment experience remains unwavering, and we are excited to see positive synergies fostered to encourage and empower collaborations to bring the joy of gaming to a broad community."
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stated, "Blizzard and NetEase have done incredible work to renew our commitment to players – Blizzard’s universes have been part of players’ lives in the region for many years. Returning Blizzard’s legendary games to players in China while exploring ways to bring more new titles to Xbox demonstrates our commitment to bringing more games to more players around the world."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times
Woohoo! Now the Chinese can play Call of Duty!! (they can’t wait to play a 4/10 mediocre washed up shooter.)
Is this the game that sold 30 million last year?
If you are going to play based on grades, then you will be another person alienated from the media, being manipulated and always worrying about being fashionable.
At this point, gaming services make a difference, as the user can test and draw their own conclusions about whether the game is enjoyable or not.
Manipulation or alienation is negative for any branch or sector of society, be it political, economic, religious, ethnic, social, sports, electronic games... there are things that you may be surprised by giving a chance.
“Is this the game that sold 30min last year?” Have you ever heard of a bad game selling well? Pokémon, while not terrible, is certainly nothing to marvel at. And since when we’re we fighting for the upperdog COD?? Is it solely because Microsoft now owns the IP? Where were you back in October last year?
“If you’re going to play based on grades“ …a 2.0 according to the MetaCritic community means word-of-mouth is bad, a 56% average according to critic shows that the critics aren’t too receptive, and therefore I reach the conclusion that — knowing how CoD has refused to innovate since 2013 — this game is mediocre and the franchise is washed up. No I’m not actively playing CoD games, and you can say I’m being controlled by the media (though we’re talking about video games…I couldn’t care less whether the media has manipulated my perspective on something so trivial. I’d be a lot more of a skeptic and researching if were talking about world affairs and such, but not when discussing whether the latest Call of Duty game was actually good lmao. What agenda would they even be pushing? The anti-CoD lobby has funded IGN?), but I personally don’t care. These signs don’t lead me to believe it’s worth my money to Activision.
Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, Minecraft, FIFA, are games that cannot be analyzed from a logical point of view. Which one really has a big investment in terms of TLOU, Spider Man, HFW, Gears, Halo...
As incredible as it may seem, most of the best-selling games in history were not big-budget games, with realistic graphics, impressive physics... they were simple games! Palworld and Helldivers are examples of this theory. A low-budget IP sold more units in less time, generated more revenue and had higher profits than several established IPs from Sony and XBox.
What may be rubbish for you is wealth for other people, it's what they wanted.
As for COD, it is the same as Sony, Apple and other renowned brands... it has already won over its audience! If companies do the basics of maintaining quality, then the public will applaud, but if they add one more thing it will be great for their customers. I would recommend testing the product or service, as one person's perception differs from another.
respectfully, Mozart (on VGChartz of all places?? I cannot believe it.), if you could stop talking down to me, I would appreciate it: We aren’t talking about the “theory of video games”. We are literally discussing whether the newest CoD is worthy of being given the label of mediocre lol.
also, I read your response…what on earth lol. Did you mean to send that response to me?? You didn’t address a single thing I said, and start going off about how video games don’t need big budgets in order to see success, and how CoD doesn’t need to innovate anymore because they’ve already succeeded. (In fact, you conceding that they aren’t innovating is truly confirmation to my point that yes, COD is washed up. My original intent in choosing the expression “washed up” here refers to “it has run its formula dry”. By no longer innovating, and pumping the same game out year after year, I’d consider this to be a washed up experience.)
COD may not be worthy of success for you, but for 30 million it is worthy. Your opinion may not be that of others, just like a low media average, it didn't make a difference to 30 million. Is it mediocre? Maybe... but it was successful. Like it or not, the game sells well.
With this I only addressed COD.
…but that’s irrelevant to the discussion? And I never said it wasn’t worthy of success, just that it’s mediocre and washed up. (Stay focused!)
this conversation isn’t really going anywhere, so I’ll end it here. Goodbye Mozart. hope to see you making music again some time…
