A year and a half after its bitter breakup with NetEase, Blizzard has reportedly made a new deal to bring its games back to China—with NetEase

Blizzard confirmed tonight that it has struck a new deal with NetEase to bring all the games covered by the previous publishing agreement, including World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, "And other titles in the Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft universes," back to the Chinese market. "We at Blizzard are thrilled to reestablish our partnership with NetEase and to work together, with deep appreciation for the collaboration between our teams, to deliver legendary gaming experiences to players in China," Blizzard president Johanna Faries said in a statement. NetEase began publishing Blizzard games in mainland China in 2008, but that deal expired in January 2023, and was not renewed. Each company naturally pointed the finger at the other: NetEase said it "Put in a great deal of effort and tried with our utmost sincerity to negotiate with Activision Blizzard," but that "Material differences on key terms" prevented a new deal from being reached; Blizzard said NetEase was to blame for the shutdown because it wasn't willing to extend the existing deal by another six months while Blizzard looked for someone else to take the reins. Rumors of the new deal first surfaced by way of a leaked photo posted to Twitter by CN Wire purporting to show NetEase CEO Ding Lei in a meeting with new Blizzard president Johanna Faries, who took over the role in January 2024; the account also said NetEase was expected to announce the return of Blizzard games to the Chinese market on April 10. A short time later, the South China Morning Post reported the same thing, citing "a person familiar with the matter" and "Local media reports." The SCMP report echoed CN Wire in saying that the new deal will be announced on April 10, but claimed that Blizzard's games won't actually return to China for at least another month. "Returning Blizzard's legendary games to players in China while exploring ways to bring more new titles to Xbox demonstrates our commitment to bringing more games to more players around the world."