To say Blizzard and NetEase's relationship is on the rocks is an understatement. Since Blizzard announced the shut down of their games in China since the two could not reach an agreement, the two have been locked in a war of words for months. Earlier this week the latest salvo was fired, and it included a livestreamed teardown of NetEase's Orc statue to boot.
After Blizzard stated earleir this week that the company tried to extend its deal with NetEase by six months to give themselves time to find a new partner for their games in China, NetEase has responded in fiery fashion (via WoWHead), caling the projected deal "commercially illogical." The crux of the deal was to allow Blizzard to search for a new partner while NetEase continuted to provide service for the publisher during the interim.
The scathing response didn't stop short of telling consumers exactly what NetEase is thinking, either, calling out Blizzard's "overconfidence" doesn't account for the players who will lose access to their games, as well as NetEase.
"In our view, Blizzard's proposal - including today's surprise announcement - is brash, unseemly and commercially illogical. Its overconfidence does not take into account where players and NetEase have been placed by this kind of demand everything, Riding a mule while looking for a horse, and divorce but still try to live together behavior."
NetEase apparently took issue with this, as well as other statements made in the past, and responded in kind, such as claims that in the years they have sought to control the Blizzard IP. Reuters reported unnamed sources that it was at the crux of the deal and that NetEase has sought to "make structural changes to the partnership" which would affect Blizzard's IP. NetEase's statement says that they have never once requested ownership over the IP in the 14 years they've held the account and that any usage of the IP was done with the approval of Blizzard.
As an apparent gesture of protest against Blizzard's proposal, the World of Warcraft Orc statue that stood outside of the NetEase Blizzard offices was torn down in epic fashion, via livestream. Via TikTok user ChaijingNDS, the video shows people bashing the statue with hammers, tearing it down.
The saga of NetEase and Blizzard has been ongoing since late last year when Blizzard announced that services for thier games in China would be shutting down at the end of this month. Since then both companies have sent salvos, effectively shifting blame to the other for the deal falling through. This news only cam a few months after NetEase and Blizzard announced they canceled an in-development mobile World of Warcraft MMO the two sides had been working on.
