This week, reports of NetEase having sued Blizzard over the end of their 14-year publishing contract in China was released, and today, things got very bizarre. Turns out NetEase is not suing Blizzard, and the lawsuit was filed by one unaffiliated person. Who files a lot of lawsuits.
Even though Blizzard and NetEase ended most of their publishing agreements in China, and Blizzard is still without an official publisher there, there is no validity to NetEase filing any lawsuit. According to a new report at PC Gamer, there was a mistake in the original court documents naming NetEase as having originated the lawsuit when it was really filed by one man, Yang Jun.
Yang Jun is listed along with NetEase on the suit, but he doesn’t represent them, and he isn’t associated with them. In fact, the report says that he has even sued them in the past. He’s one guy who files a lot of lawsuits, and the filing has been corrected to remove NetEase’s name from the legal paperwork in this, his newest lawsuit.
A previous lawsuit he filed against NetEase was, in fact, seeking a refund for World of Warcraft game time and was dismissed. It seems that he was looking to take advantage of the reports of the disputes and end of the long-running publishing deal to mislead the courts and maybe make a few headlines in the process).
So, there is no lawsuit against Blizzard by NetEase. There might be one by Yang Jun that proceeds, but it doesn’t seem like Blizzard has much to worry about here.
Blizzard gave a statement to PC Gamer that said, “We have enjoyed nearly two decades of positive experiences operating in China, and remain committed to serving players and protecting their interests”. The company has said that they are searching for a new Chinese publisher that would let them continue in the market.