- NetEase, Inc (NASDAQ:NTES) ditched an offer from U.S. games publisher Activision Blizzard, Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI) to extend their China licensing agreement by six months.
- The denial signals the exit of global titles like World of Warcraft from the top gaming market, Bloomberg reports.
- Blizzard's content and online services will be unavailable in China from January 23 under the existing agreement.
- Blizzard and NetEase failed to reach a new licensing agreement in 2022 that would have prolonged their 14-year partnership of delivering Blizzard titles to the Chinese market.
- The report added that the collaboration helped build NetEase into China's second-biggest games distributor, after Tencent Holdings Ltd (OTC:TCEHY), and offered the Blizzard unit a reliable partner for franchises like Diablo, Warcraft, and Overwatch.
- Blizzard remained in discussions over alternative distribution partners to help avoid the cutoff of its services in China.
- Separately, Microsoft Corp's (NASDAQ:MSFT) deal to snap Activision Blizzard faced opposition from the Federal Trade Commission, Sony Group Corp (NYSE:SONY), Alphabet Inc's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google and Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) over anti-competitive concerns in the video game industry.
- Price Action: ATVI shares closed lower by 0.31% at $76.66 on Friday.
- Photo Via Wikimedia Commons
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