World of Warcraft, Diablo, and more set to leave China over licensing disagreement

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Blizzard couldn't reach a new agreement with NetEase

Diablo Immortal players gather on a hill
(Image credit: Blizzard)

Blizzard games will depart China after the developer and NetEase failed to reach a new licensing agreement.

As announced by Blizzard yesterday on November 16 in a press release, the company announced that many Blizzard-developed games will depart China at the end of January 2023. This includes games from series such as Diablo, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Starcraft, and Heroes of the Storm.

"We will suspend new sales in the coming days and Chinese players will be receiving details of how this will work soon," the release from Blizzard reads. "Upcoming releases for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Hearthstone: March of the Lich King, and season 2 of Overwatch 2 will proceed later this year."

A news outlet based in Shanghai claims to shed more light on the proceedings. As posted on Weibo (and later translated via Twitter), an outlet called The Observer claims Blizzard wanted NetEase to "work for nothing," and the former also wanted to revise the 50/50 profit split between the two companies, granting Blizzard more profit revenue than NetEase.

China was, and likely remains, an incredibly important market for Blizzard. When Diablo Immortal's launch in China was delayed earlier this year in July, it was claimed that the delayed launch was costing Blizzard millions of Dollars per day, simply from missing out on capitalizing on the huge mobile gaming market there.

This ultimately means Blizzard won't be releasing any games in China going forward, likely meaning a significantly missed opportunity for added revenue for games like Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4. Whether Blizzard rectifies this with a new licensing agreement with another Chinese developer or publisher remains to be seen.

Head over to our games like Diablo guide if you're bored of waiting around for Diablo 4. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.