Last November, it was announced that starting in 2023, the Blizzard company will stop its cooperation with the gaming giant NetEase, which distributes its games in China.
This means that Blizzard will lose Chinese market share when its huge titles such as World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch will not be available in the country.
The public was told that the two companies simply "did not reach understandings and agreements", but it seems that the relationship behind the scenes was much more strained than originally reported.
One of NetEase's investment managers, Simon Zo, hurled accusations at "one idiot who did a lot of damage" at Activision.
Apparently he meant Bobby Kotick, the CEO.
This week the conflict between the two escalated: NetEase closed the Chinese branch that was responsible for Blizzard games and fired all the employees, and if that wasn't enough - the company's employees were recorded on social media smashing with hammers a huge statue of World of Warcraft placed at the entrance to the company's offices located in the city of Hangzhou.
During the whole event (which was broadcast on Tik Tok) you can see that the workers were served a local drink that was nicknamed "green tea".
This is a familiar derogatory nickname in the Chinese networks that is aimed at a person who seems kind and innocent, but in reality is fake, manipulative and immoral.
The same drink that was served to the workers in the crushing job received the one-time nickname "Blizzard's Green Tea".
This act of protest comes in response to Blizzard's offer to Netease: it will continue to distribute its games in China for about six months, and Blizzard will meanwhile look for another local distributor.
NetEase executives said it was an unethical offer and refused.
One of them quoted a Chinese saying that Blizzard "rides a donkey, but looks at a horse".
In an Israeli translation it means "trying to dance at both weddings".
The partnership comes to an end after 14 years in which Blizzard games were a huge and massive success in the Chinese market.
Netease is considered the second largest gaming company in China after Tencent, and even owns the Shanghai Dragon team in Blizzard's official Overwatch League.
The Chinese player base is so large and significant for Blizzard that it has proven in the past that it has no problems bending over to the Chinese government in order to maintain good relations with it: in 2019, it suspended a player from the Hearthstone Championship because he spoke out against the government during the riots in Hong Kong.
If Blizzard does not find a replacement (and soon), it may certainly expect financial consequences in the future.
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Gaming
Blizzard
China