The shutdown comes as a result of Blizzard and NetEase’s failure to reach an agreeable term on the extension of another licensing agreement, which expired on January 23, 2023. The Chief Executive Officer of NetEase, William Ding, had described it in an earlier statement released in November as a result of their inability to reach an agreement due to “material differences.”

“We have put in a great deal of effort and tried with our utmost sincerity to negotiate with Activision Blizzard so that we could continue our collaboration and serve the many dedicated players in China,” said Ding.

“However, there were material differences on key terms and we could not reach an agreement.”

With the contract expired, all Blizzard’s games available within the region including Warcraft III: Reforged, World of Warcraft, the StarCraft series, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch 2, have been taken offline in China. This development has left fans and players in China without access to any Blizzard games as the company works to figure out how to bring the games back online.

Five Overwatch League teams are affected by the shutdown, including the Chengdu Hunters, the Guangzhou Charge, the Hangzhou Spark, the Shanghai Dragons, and the Los Angeles Valiant, who still have their base of operations in China. These teams are now left in a state of limbo as they don’t have access to the game and it is unclear when the game will be back online.

The Chengdu Hunters were the first to announce the news, posting a tweet that simply said “Goodbye and see you again.” Fans of the franchise expressed their shock and questioned the reason being their exit. This forced the Chinese franchise to further clarify that the esports title has been shut down and as such, they are unable to compete.

The future of the Overwatch League remains uncertain as the league’s start date is yet to be announced by the event organizers. The free agency has been delayed on multiple occasions as the game developer attempts to find a last solution that sees its games back online in China, and teams have been asked to sign the minimum of players on or before March 13, having previously pushed the date from January 16. This is causing major concern among fans as they are speculating that the league could commence in April or later.

Teams were originally required to have six players signed by March 1, but that deadline has been pushed back without a new date being announced. The uncertainty has raised questions about whether teams will relocate in order to continue competing, or if they will wait for the game to come back online in China. Overall, the situation has left the Overwatch League community in a state of uncertainty and anticipation as they await further updates from the league and Blizzard.

The Overwatch League is one of the most popular esports leagues in the world, with a significant following of the league coming from China. The situation is a difficult one for the league, teams, and fans likewise, as they are now unable to access the game and compete. Fans are teams are eager to see everything back to normal.

In a statement, the Head of the Overwatch League, Sean Miller, commented on the ongoing crisis. While he anticipates the commencement of the 2023 season, he revealed that the organizers will be sharing more details with the Overwatch community in the coming weeks.

“We can’t wait for the 2023 season to start and have been working hard behind the scenes to iron out details,” Miller said.

“We’re hoping to share more with the community in the next couple of weeks and are looking forward to OWL’s sixth season where we expect a full slate of teams from the East and West.”
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As a result of this, the Overwatch developer is set to exit the China domain if it does not find a new publisher before January 23, which is the stipulated time for its existing contract with NetEase to expire.

“We approached NetEase again last week for assistance in exploring a six-month extension of our existing agreement … to allow everyone to continue playing without disruption and for Blizzard to continue exploring a reasonable and long-term path forward in the China region,” it said in a press release.

“Unfortunately, NetEase did not accept our proposal to extend the existing game service agreement following last week’s extension negotiations. We will therefore have to comply with NetEase’s offer. Therefore, we will have to follow NetEase’s suspension announcement to discontinue the game service in China on January 23.”

NetEase also released a statement, explaining what prompted its denial of the six-month extension. According to them, the agreement that was proposed by Blizzard was unfavourable and “unfair”, hence they could not come to an agreement to extend their partnership.

“Considering the unequal, unfair, and other conditions attached to the cooperation, the two parties failed to reach an agreement in the end,” a NetEase statement read. “We believe that Blizzard’s proposal–including today’s sudden statement–is outrageous, inappropriate, and not in line with business logic.”

Blizzard is the developer of games such as Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and a couple others. This news has definitely plagued Chinese gamers, as in a few days they will not have access to these titles.

However, with the hope and motive that it will find a new publisher in China, Blizzard has advised its Chinese gamers to archive their gaming history and items so that when they get a new partnership, they will be able to continue gaming from where they left off.

“It’s important for everyone at Blizzard to properly save your game progress, items and memories – we create these worlds so that you can feel you are a part of them. We want you to be able to move on from where you left off. We hope that NetEase will follow its previous end of service announcement and properly seal all players’ game data. To give CN World of Warcraft players an additional peace of mind, in addition to the game data sealing provided by NetEase; Blizzard will also launch a feature tomorrow (January 18, Beijing time) that will allow CN World of Warcraft players to download their game progress for the future,” Blizzard stated.

“When the game comes back online in the future, you will be able to upload your saved game history in order to continue playing. This feature will continue to be available until the game ends service in China. We will share more information about the World of Warcraft progress archive with you on Weibo.”

The Blizzard game titles for China users will cease to be available; this does not include Diablo Immortal, as this game was born out of a different long-term partnership agreement with both parties.

The Overwatch developer also briefed the public on its progress towards finding a new partner in China. It said it is already in talks with some potential partners and is hoping that its goals align so it can commence a partnership as soon as possible. Blizzard also promised to keep its Chinese players abreast of its plight in finding a new partner.

“We have started talks with a number of potential partners who share our player-first values. We continue to prioritize potential partners that can provide high quality and consistent game play, create a positive gaming environment both inside and outside of the game, and work with us to bring our games back to our players in China,” Blizzard revealed.

“We will share new developments with you in the future. Unfortunately, NetEase is unwilling to extend the service for six months based on the terms of the existing partnership while we look for a new partner. However, we will not give up and will still do our best for everyone. We want you to understand that it’s not over yet. We will still try to find a national partner who shares our beliefs.”

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Riot Games claims that the NetEase mobile title, Hyper Front, features similar maps, weapons, characters and charms to its FPS title.

Hyper Front was released earlier this year, and it was not long before players noticed the similarities that the two games shared.

This isn’t NetEase’s first alleged copy of another game, as the company has also been accused of developing titles that are clones of PUBG and Fortnite in the past.

Riot claims that the development of Hyper Front began right after Valorant Project A was revealed worldwide.

Riot Games lawyer Dan Nabel accepts that Hyper Front does has some modifications on the Valorant model, but says it does not exempt NetEase from copyright infringements.

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” Nabel said, when referring to the minor changes to the colours, maps and character abilities.

Riot has already filed lawsuits in the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Singapore in order to stop NetEase from distributing Hyper Front.

The lawsuit includes screenshots of the game’s maps, characters, weapons and other factors that are supposed to infringe on the copyright.

Riot Games has been planning to release a mobile version of Valorant in 2024, which could be another reason as to why the developer is going after Hyper Front so aggressively.

NetEase should be wary of Riot Games, which has not been shy about taking other developers to the courts over potential copyright infringements.

Riot sued Shanghai Moonton, which develops Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, after claiming the company was copying League of Legends.

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This partnership came into being in 2008; hence, by January 23, 2023, all of Blizzard’s actions and new sales will cease to be granted to gamers in China.

The game titles that will be put on hold because of the suspension are Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Diablo III, the StarCraft series, and Heroes of the Storm.

Although the newly released Diablo Immortal, which was co-developed by NetEase and Blizzard, will remain available in China as part of a standalone long-term deal.

According to reports, the two companies could not reach an agreement to extend their partnership. NetEase has made claims that the release of Blizzard’s services will have little or no impact on its profit margin. The company noted that the revenue generated from the game amounted to almost nothing.

The Chief Executive Officer of NetEase, William Ding, stated that the company had made every attempt to strike a deal with the Overwatch developer.

“We have put in a great deal of effort and tried with our utmost sincerity to negotiate with Activision Blizzard so that we could continue our collaboration and serve the many dedicated players in China,” said Ding.

“However, there were material differences on key terms and we could not reach an agreement.”

The President of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, expressed his gratitude to the Chinese community for their unwavering enthusiasm over the years. He also noted that the company was exploring different avenues to restore its games to Chinese players in the long run.

“We’re immensely grateful for the passion our Chinese community has shown throughout the nearly 20 years we’ve been bringing our games to China through NetEase and other partners,” said Ybarra.

“Their enthusiasm and creativity inspire us, and we are looking for alternatives to bring our games back to players in the future.”

Users from all over China, as well as users outside of China who sympathize with fans from the region, have left thousands of comments since the news of the suspension broke.

“My youth was heavily marked by playing Hearthstone,” one user said, while another said: “I’m so sad. I started playing Blizzard games from 2008… how do I say good bye?”

It is currently unknown what will become of the Chinese teams in Overwatch 2 and the Overwatch League.

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Across its official website, MLG and Twitch live-streaming platforms, the Overwatch League’s opening day pulled in an average of 408,000 unique views across all matches.

The opening match between Seoul Dynasty and Dallas Fuel alone recorded over 437,000 concurrent views from Overwatch fans and curious newcomers to the esports scene.

The impressive viewership numbers were helped by Blizzard’s wise decision to broadcast the action in four different languages: English, Chinese, French and Korean.

While in the West we can only tune in to OWL via Major League Gaming or Twitch, the League was also accessible on NetEase CC, Panda TV and ZhanQi TV for Chinese fans.

NetEase CC is a service tied to Netease, Blizzard’s Chinese publishing partner and owner of the Shanghai Dragons.

Securing viewership from China is essential for any esport league, given they are historically the most significant consumers of esports live-streams and television broadcasts for popular games like Dota 2, League of Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Vainglory – and Twitch is banned in the country.

At this time, however, Blizzard did not reveal the exact numbers recorded from each country, but it’s safe to say they’ve done extremely well worldwide.

“We’re thrilled by the overwhelming response to the Overwatch League’s opening week of play,” said MLG CEO Pete Vlastelica in a press release.

“But this is only the beginning. With more than 35 million Overwatch players, the Overwatch League has the potential to become one of the most-watched leagues-of any kind-in the world.”

Last week, Twitch and Blizzard signed a two-year deal for Twitch to secure exclusive broadcasting rights for the first two seasons of Overwatch League, reported to be worth $90 million.

“We had high expectations for the inaugural broadcast of the Overwatch League on Twitch, given our platform’s passionate fanbase for Overwatch,” said Twich COO Kevin Lin, in a statement. “They really put on an amazing show and fans showed up en masse to support and celebrate Overwatch.

“Based on the response from the community, Overwatch League is off to a great start and we look forward to watching how the season progresses. This league demonstrates the power and potential of esports, and we’re thrilled to continue expanding our partnership with Blizzard.”

Outside of Blizzard’s official Overwatch League website and mobile app, which uses MLG’s in-house video service, and the special broadcasting deals in China, fans around the world can now watch OWL action on Twitch.

Where can I watch and bet on Overwatch League?

The Overwatch League’s second week of matches are underway, with the Philadelphia Fusion set to take on San Francisco Shock in a few hours.

Check out our guide best ways to watch Overwatch League to tune into the official action, and check out our weekly power rankings wrap-ups and betting predictions on our favourite Overwatch League match-ups.

Want to bet on Overwatch esports? Readers from South Korea should sign up at GG Bet to bet on Overwatch League legally and safely – create an account through our links to take advantage of some extra bonuses.

Don’t know how Overwatch League works? Need help understanding Overwatch or how to bet on esports in general? We have some handy guides for you, listed below.

• Highest-reviewed Overwatch League betting sites
• How to bet on esports for beginners
• Types of wagers you can place on Overwatch League