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Blizzard completely lost their ability to operate in China today after they lost a corporate game of chicken with their Chinese partner NetEase https://www.pcg

Blizzard completely lost their ability to operate in China today after they lost a corporate game of chicken with their Chinese partner NetEase https://www.pcgamer.com/netease-smashes-up-world-of-warcraft-statue-after-its-nasty-breakup-with-blizzard/ https://www.pcgamer.com/netease-smashes-up-world-of-warcraft... it will likely be months (if not years) before they are permitted to operate again, likely killing the habit for a large percentage of their player base I wonder how the droid that initiated that contract re-negotiation was ranked?

tenpies 4y ago
Should my gamer heart flutter at the idea that this might be long good-term for Blizzard? NetEase seemed to have an extraordinary influence in making modern Blizzard as financially extractive as possible of its player base. And surely, there are other relations that have made modern Blizzard into what it is, but you can see the NetEase fingerprints on every title released since 2008.
- blibble 4y ago
  I don't think so I know WoW in china operated under a completely different business model where you pay by the hour instead of a expansion packs and a monthly subscription (no idea about their other games)
- ramesh31 4y ago
  I'd be more optimistic about the Microsoft deal than anything. There's a potential that they could treat Blizzard's IP as a loss leader into the MS ecosystem, and lighten up on that stuff.
- Ygg2 4y ago
  > Should my gamer heart flutter at the idea that this might be long good-term for Blizzard? No. WOW and it's planetary popularity killed Blizzard not some deal with CCP backed company.
- kibwen 4y ago
  > Should my gamer heart flutter at the idea that this might be long good-term for Blizzard? Why would you want that? Companies don't make games. People make games. All the people at Blizzard who made the games that you remember fondly have moved on. There's nothing left but an empty shell of a brand running on the fumes of inertia.
  - leidenfrost 4y ago
    Yeah. I watch closely the development of games made by Frost Giant Games and DreamHaven. That's where the people who made those good games went.
  - jrockway 4y ago
    Yeah. I can tell from playing OW2 that there are literally 0 "old Blizzard" employees left. Even ignoring the things that players really hate like monetization strategies, you can tell the culture is gone. New characters say their own name wrong for months after release ("Hey, it's Keiko!" did get fixed). New characters have identical silhouettes to existing characters (try identifying Nemesis Ramattra versus Sigma through a wall). It's just little things like that where they've given presentations and written blog posts on how it's so important to not mess things like that up, and then you watch them mess it up and charge you $10 a month to play a game you already bought. It's sad to watch because the figureheads go off to start their own companies, and the games just aren't as good. Blizzard spent way more money on game design (mythology, iteration after iteration of characters before release) than any startup could ever afford to, and they really reaped the rewards. Then Activision buys them, decides they should focus on Candy Crush, the employees all sexually harass each other, and it's over! (To be fair, I think a lot of people left because they made more than enough money over their career. Who wouldn't leave when you have enough to retire.) It's sad because it will be a long time before we see a similar game studio appear again. If you like their games, pray and take up a hobby like fishing. It will be a while before we're having the same kind of fun that we used to have.
    - bob1029 4y ago
      > If you like their games, pray and take up a hobby like fishing. It will be a while before we're having the same kind of fun that we used to have. No. I will take to my keyboard and begin work. Someone has to actually do this or it will never happen. I can't sit idly by anymore. What they did to OW1 was unforgivable to me. I intend to build my own arena shooter at this point. We need to learn to work within our new constraints. You are right - Getting as much original capital involved would be impossible. Doesn't mean we can't do it a different way. There are other ways to have fun that don't require 8 figure art budgets or selling our souls to the various platform vendors.
- confidantlake 4y ago
  Fingers crossed, the future is frostgiant. That is where a lot of the ex blizzard people ended up.
voz_ 4y ago
The real truth is that a CCP backed entity, known for stealing IP, decided to take the whole pie for itself. Not blizzards fault.
- blibble 4y ago
  > The real truth is that a CCP backed entity, known for stealing IP, decided to take the whole pie for itself. Not blizzards fault. real truth? if you're privy to the exact details of the NetEase' negotiation would you mind sharing? (personally I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard wanted an increase in their cut, mistakingly believing that they had leverage in the negotiation)
  - sidlls 4y ago
    The notion that a native-Chinese company isn't trying to steal every ounce of IP it can from foreign businesses is naive at best. One should start with the assumption that theft of IP is a primary goal of these companies and work from there.
    - qbasic_forever 4y ago
      [flagged]
  - oefrha 4y ago
    I followed the story with mild interest a couple months ago. According to insiders Blizzard (1) wanted a very substantial increase to their cut; (2) demanded that NetEase develop more of those money sucking mobile games like Diablo Immortal for them but NetEase wouldn’t see any profit from the international market. On mobile now so won’t dig up links; also some of the reporting might be in Chinese. Given gp’s post history I doubt they are privy to details, more likely a knee jerk shot given the chance.
  - mensetmanusman 4y ago
    Aren’t you familiar with their business culture?
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tenpies 4y ago

Should my gamer heart flutter at the idea that this might be long good-term for Blizzard? NetEase seemed to have an extraordinary influence in making modern Blizzard as financially extractive as possible of its player base. And surely, there are other relations that have made modern Blizzard into what it is, but you can see the NetEase fingerprints on every title released since 2008.

blibble 4y ago
I don't think so I know WoW in china operated under a completely different business model where you pay by the hour instead of a expansion packs and a monthly subscription (no idea about their other games)
ramesh31 4y ago
I'd be more optimistic about the Microsoft deal than anything. There's a potential that they could treat Blizzard's IP as a loss leader into the MS ecosystem, and lighten up on that stuff.
Ygg2 4y ago
> Should my gamer heart flutter at the idea that this might be long good-term for Blizzard? No. WOW and it's planetary popularity killed Blizzard not some deal with CCP backed company.
kibwen 4y ago
> Should my gamer heart flutter at the idea that this might be long good-term for Blizzard? Why would you want that? Companies don't make games. People make games. All the people at Blizzard who made the games that you remember fondly have moved on. There's nothing left but an empty shell of a brand running on the fumes of inertia.
- leidenfrost 4y ago
  Yeah. I watch closely the development of games made by Frost Giant Games and DreamHaven. That's where the people who made those good games went.
- jrockway 4y ago
  Yeah. I can tell from playing OW2 that there are literally 0 "old Blizzard" employees left. Even ignoring the things that players really hate like monetization strategies, you can tell the culture is gone. New characters say their own name wrong for months after release ("Hey, it's Keiko!" did get fixed). New characters have identical silhouettes to existing characters (try identifying Nemesis Ramattra versus Sigma through a wall). It's just little things like that where they've given presentations and written blog posts on how it's so important to not mess things like that up, and then you watch them mess it up and charge you $10 a month to play a game you already bought. It's sad to watch because the figureheads go off to start their own companies, and the games just aren't as good. Blizzard spent way more money on game design (mythology, iteration after iteration of characters before release) than any startup could ever afford to, and they really reaped the rewards. Then Activision buys them, decides they should focus on Candy Crush, the employees all sexually harass each other, and it's over! (To be fair, I think a lot of people left because they made more than enough money over their career. Who wouldn't leave when you have enough to retire.) It's sad because it will be a long time before we see a similar game studio appear again. If you like their games, pray and take up a hobby like fishing. It will be a while before we're having the same kind of fun that we used to have.
  - bob1029 4y ago
    > If you like their games, pray and take up a hobby like fishing. It will be a while before we're having the same kind of fun that we used to have. No. I will take to my keyboard and begin work. Someone has to actually do this or it will never happen. I can't sit idly by anymore. What they did to OW1 was unforgivable to me. I intend to build my own arena shooter at this point. We need to learn to work within our new constraints. You are right - Getting as much original capital involved would be impossible. Doesn't mean we can't do it a different way. There are other ways to have fun that don't require 8 figure art budgets or selling our souls to the various platform vendors.
confidantlake 4y ago
Fingers crossed, the future is frostgiant. That is where a lot of the ex blizzard people ended up.

voz_ 4y ago

The real truth is that a CCP backed entity, known for stealing IP, decided to take the whole pie for itself. Not blizzards fault.

blibble 4y ago
> The real truth is that a CCP backed entity, known for stealing IP, decided to take the whole pie for itself. Not blizzards fault. real truth? if you're privy to the exact details of the NetEase' negotiation would you mind sharing? (personally I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard wanted an increase in their cut, mistakingly believing that they had leverage in the negotiation)
- sidlls 4y ago
  The notion that a native-Chinese company isn't trying to steal every ounce of IP it can from foreign businesses is naive at best. One should start with the assumption that theft of IP is a primary goal of these companies and work from there.
  - qbasic_forever 4y ago
    [flagged]
- oefrha 4y ago
  I followed the story with mild interest a couple months ago. According to insiders Blizzard (1) wanted a very substantial increase to their cut; (2) demanded that NetEase develop more of those money sucking mobile games like Diablo Immortal for them but NetEase wouldn’t see any profit from the international market. On mobile now so won’t dig up links; also some of the reporting might be in Chinese. Given gp’s post history I doubt they are privy to details, more likely a knee jerk shot given the chance.
- mensetmanusman 4y ago
  Aren’t you familiar with their business culture?
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