NetEase, Blizzard To End Deal That Brought Warcraft To China

NetEase and Blizzard Entertainment plan to end their 14-year partnership after January, depriving the Chinese firm of a slice of revenue and suspending service for some of the country's most popular games. From a report: The Hangzhou-based publishing giant and Activision Blizzard Inc. subsidiary failed to agree on an extension to their long-running collaboration, which had encompassed famed franchises like StarCraft, Diablo, Overwatch and World of Warcraft. Blizzard will suspend most online game services in mainland China from Jan. 23, the US company said on Wednesday. Game sales will also halt in the coming days. Beyond financial terms, key sticking points to the NetEase extension were ownership of intellectual property and control of the data of millions of players across China, people familiar with the discussions said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks weren't public.

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