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On April 25, Blizzard China responded to the surging news reporter regarding NetEase’s lawsuit request: “Blizzard has not received the relevant complaint, but we believe that we have not violated any licensing agreement. NetEase’s suspected dissatisfaction with the contract terms, involving standard industry practices, and have been mutually beneficial to both parties in the past few years. Although these continuous behaviors make us feel disappointed and confused, it should be pointed out that the operation history in China for nearly two decades has been It is very positive and enjoyable, and we will continue to work on serving local players and protecting their rights.”
Blizzard related people also told reporters that they do not think that the refunds received by players were unilaterally advanced by NetEase.
The day before (April 24), people familiar with the matter told reporters that recently, Shanghai NetEase Network Technology Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “NetEase”), the operator of “World of Warcraft” in mainland China and a subsidiary of NetEase, has acquired Blizzard Entertainment Co., Ltd. Filed a lawsuit in Shanghai in violation of the serial license agreement, demanding the refund of 300 million yuan in arrears. This amount includes refunds for discontinued games such as “World of Warcraft” that NetEase has paid in full, prepayments for unsold game inventory, and prepaid deposits for several undeveloped games.
According to the aforementioned person familiar with the matter, the case also involves “World of Warcraft” and other national service agency game-related agreements, which contain multiple unequal clauses that favor Blizzard’s unilateral rights and interests, and there are huge disputes over the legality and enforceability of the relevant clauses.
On January 17 this year, Blizzard issued an open letter saying that it had sought assistance from NetEase, hoping to extend the contract for six months, but was rejected. Therefore, it will follow the service suspension announcement and suspend the national service game service on January 23.
At 00:00 on January 24, “World of Warcraft”, “Hearthstone”, “Overwatch”, “Diablo III”, “Warcraft III: Remastered Edition”, “Heroes of the Storm” and “StarCraft” series products represented by NetEase The operation in the Chinese mainland market has been officially terminated. Blizzard has closed the Battle.net login and all game servers, and closed the client download at the same time.
The cooperation between NetEase and Blizzard originated in 2008: at that time, Blizzard announced that it would release its “StarCraft II”, “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos”, “Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne”, and the exclusive right to operate the Battle.net platform in mainland China , all awarded to Netease. After nearly fourteen years of cooperation, the two parties announced their “parting ways” in November last year.
The reporter learned that the two parties had irreconcilable differences in terms of contract renewal conditions and contract time.
It is reported that the primary reason why Netease sued Blizzard is because Blizzard refused to undertake the refund obligation for players of the national server, and refused to pay Netease the prepaid commission related to the refund of the national server. People close to NetEase said that NetEase has fully paid refunds to more than 1.12 million players after the national service of Blizzard games such as “World of Warcraft”, “Hearthstone”, and “Overwatch” was suspended on January 24. Apply.
However, an insider close to Blizzard said that Blizzard does not believe that the refund received by the player was unilaterally paid by NetEase.
“As the operator of Netease, the refund can only be refunded by them, but financially, it should not confuse the public, and return the money on Netease’s account to the player as being refunded by Netease, or Netease unilaterally advances the funds. Yes,” said the person close to the above.
Previously, people close to NetEase revealed that NetEase sued for a refund of the 300 million arrears, including refunds related to discontinued games such as “World of Warcraft” that NetEase has paid in full, prepayments for unsold game product inventory, and several undeveloped funds. The game’s prepaid security deposit, etc.
Source: The Paper
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