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Josh Ye
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard on Thursday turned down an offer from its Chinese publisher NetEase to extend its longstanding partnership for six months. announced.
In a statement on microblogging site Weibo, Blizzard China, a subsidiary of the US company, said it contacted NetEase last week with an offer to extend the partnership, but the Hangzhou-based company declined. .
Blizzard China has announced that its game service will end on January 23rd.
NetEase did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The development comes after Activision Blizzard announced in November that it was ending its 14-year partnership with NetEase, China’s second largest gaming company. The announcement shocked the entire industry as the partnership was widely recognized as one of the most profitable in video games.
NetEase said on its earnings call in November that it had tried its best to negotiate but determined that the proposed terms demanded by the US company were unacceptable.
NetEase then said it would have to end Activision Blizzard’s gaming services in China, the world’s largest gaming market, on January 23rd.
The partnership’s demise left Activision Blizzard without a Chinese publisher, which it said in December was in talks with a potential partner.
NetEase has become a gaming giant, having published Activision Blizzard’s games in China. Since then, the company has accelerated its own game development capabilities, and now own games account for over 60% of his revenue. (Reporting by Josh Ye; Editing by Kim Coghill and Christopher Cushing)
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