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World Of Warcraft, one of the most seminal online games in history, is going offline today in China.
Millions of players will be forced to bid an emotional goodbye to their fantastical characters as a very public fallout between developer Blizzard and publisher NetEase brings a 14-year deal to an end.
Warcraft, which first released in North America in 2004, was initially given permission to launch in the notoriously restrictive Chinese gaming market back in 2005.
Since 2008, Blizzard’s massively multiplayer title has had its servers managed in China by NetEase, which also operates bespoke versions of a few other popular Western games like Minecraft.
Blizzard – which is owned by Activision Blizzard, the gaming giant Microsoft is trying to buy in a record $69bn (£56bn) takeover deal – first announced its deal with NetEase would end last November.
It impacts not just Warcraft, which has an estimated three million players in China, but Blizzard’s other hits like multiplayer shooter Overwatch, card game Hearthstone, and sci-fi strategy title Starcraft.
Ugly dispute goes public
NetEase’s president of global investment, Simon Zhu, said he had spent “10,000 hours” playing those games in a damning statement about the break-up.
“One day, when what has happened behind the scene could be told, developers and gamers will have a whole new level of understanding of how much damage a jerk can make,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
NetEase rejected an offer earlier this month to extend the agreement by six months, describing the proposal as “commercially illogical” and accusing Blizzard of “seeking a divorce but still remaining attached”.
Citing a person close to Blizzard, Reuters news agency reported that the dispute was down to NetEase wanting structural changes that would impact the US firm’s control over its intellectual…
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