China loses its Blizzard

Divine Tether Severed

There is something to be said about backing the winning horse. It's a safe bet, simple, low risk and an utterly pathetic move. I mean, come on; where's you sense of danger? Of adventure and risk? If you're going to gamble- then gamble those odds! Make something special all for yourself, defy the possibilities! And if you're an artist- then going the easy and risk-free route is the surest indicator that you've lost that edge which kicked you to the world you enjoy so much. And considering that the team at Blizzard used to be considered artists, then their pathetic move would be flushing away all their integrity, morality and empathy to guzzle up the drip-feed of their pay masters whenever a potential situation with China could reflect badly on the western audience. They never left any illusion obfuscating the horses that they backed, never failed to take a bullet for the good image of China- took the safest and surest path to mutual success. But it would seem that Karma has a way of getting to everyone who wrongs it, because somehow China has now turned around and spat away Blizzard.

The details are surprisingly vague given what a huge development this is for one of the most beloved successful developers in the world (or 'formerly beloved' as the case may be.) but I don't exaggerate on this. Blizzard and NetEase have ended their partnership just as they announced it would be happening at the end of last year- and as China refuses to allow foreign companies to operate on their soil without partnering with one of their locals- this marks an end. An end to over 10 years of World of Warcraft coverage in the country, a premature end to Overwatch 2's tenure, and a decisive end to Blizzards extensive plans to shift it's game design philosophy to better exploit the easier cajoled Chinese gaming public. Or perhaps I should say, an 'indefinite pause'; because this wasn't some seismic bout of morals that shook Blizzard free- it was cold, hard business.

As I mentioned, details are criminally sparse as to what could have ended Blizzard's extended partnership with NetEase, all we know is that both companies are slinging mud at each other where they can and neither of them have proven to be trustworthy sources of information in the far and near past. But doing the rounds is the infamous Tweet wherein one high ranking Chinese NetEase official lamented his many hours dedicated to Azeroth and ominously declared "One day, when what has happened behind the scene could be told, developers and gamers will have a whole new understanding of how much damage a jerk can make." Vague, but the popular conjecture on the 'Jerk' in question tends to trend towards the one man who can never be held accountable for his many breaches in ethics and professionalism, Bobby Kotick- CEO of Blizzard's partner Activision. Which would imply that NetEase broke off their renewal with Blizzard based on their sheer disgust of Bobby's conduct and lack of accountability; which is certainly a lot of damage for the jerk to make, if indeed the assumption holds water.

But whatever the cause the consequence is obvious. Gamers on Chinese servers have had their access to Battle.net entirely revoked with servers that, it would seem, have been totally scrapped. At least, that's the only thing I can assume given that Blizzard decided to pass the onus of keeping player character safe onto the player, but making them back-up their World of Warcraft characters locally on the 'of chance' that they manage to sneak in another deal and return. And, of course, the other consequence is that Blizzard has just lost it's biggest single market available. Now all the sacrifices in development ethics, the pivot towards ugly monetisation strategies and everything that Diablo Immortal was... well, it all feels like wasted effort now. And so it should. Blizzard deserves to feel cold and alone across the world right now, with nary a single candle flame in the blanket darkness for comfort or succor. Do not cry for them. DO NOT CRY!

And how has NetEase handled their side of the divorce? Not... gracefully. NetEase have done pretty everything they can to make it abundantly clear that they consider Blizzard solely responsible for the breakdown in communications, have disparaged Blizzard's operating methods and professionalism and got straight petty with things. I'm talking petty like livestreaming the destruction of the giant Blizzard Orc statue in the middle of a forest, for which all of the participating workers were served green tea because that's apparently a popular slang slur going around these days in China. I'd tell you what it means, but none of the sources I've read can really agree. It's just not very nice. Short of calling up all of Blizzard's new business partners and spilling dirty secrets; I don't think NetEase could possibly summon anymore 'crazed ex' energy.

But that isn't to say that Blizzard is at all squeaky clean. Beyond everything I've already discussed, alleged rumour is that when Blizzard sent their ultimatum for a six month licencing extension it coincided with their active search for a replacement studio once the deal was up. Which is certainly... pretty crappy conduct. If something like that became public during negotiations it would certainly lead to frosty relations. Frosty enough to clean break away from Blizzard in order to set all their Chinese fans against them? Perhaps. I would ordinarily say that no company would possibly be so personally attacked and petty in this day and age, but NetEase is proving to me just how different Chinese companies can be. I'm sure that both sides of this equation are at least equally terrible in their own ways if we were to compare and contrast.

Of course, this isn't by any means the only scandal that Blizzard has been caught up in, with another being the recent reveal that Blizzard is employing an archaic 'employee rating' system which not only digitises performance of humans in numbers, but apparently mandates a certain percentage of 'underperforming marks' each month in order to justify lower bonuses and promotion prospects. Which is just both insanely evil and right up the alley of a Chinese government subsidiary company- Blizzard should really look into partnering with Tencent, I bet they'd have tons in common. Of course, at it's route this ties back to the Activision influence in Blizzard, which is allegedly also responsible for the NetEase split. Wow, when it put it like that it almost sounds as though Activision's mere collusion is enough to tarnish the good names of those around them, like some sort of evil corrupting font of diseased miasma that seeps out of it's mortal bounds and sickens the earth it touches. Oh wait, no that's just a vivid description of Bobby Kotick's personal office. My bad.

At the end of the day the real victim are the Chinese players who are already being bent over the coals by the anti-gaming Chinese Government as it is. Now they have to deal with the few companies that were supplying their games cutting off and the ecosystem of entertainment in China has been cut off by one more rung. It's a sad fate to be locked in that sort of state and the players who are having to safe guard their character data on the maybe-chance of a return don't deserve this sort of treatment. But thus is probably going to become more the standard as the art of game development shifts further up into the ethereal clouds of hook-nosed executives tossing insults at one another atop thrones of broken worker bones. That's the modern world of gaming, we're just being crushed to dust in it.