Employees are fired after the end of the alliance between NetEase and Blizzard

In mid-November 2022, Blizzard announced that its video games will no longer be available in Chinese territory from 2023, which means that thousands of fans will be unable to play. world of warcraft, Overwatch, StarCraft, Diablo III, Heroes of the Storm, Warcraft III: Reforged Y hearthstone.

Now, new reports suggest that the NetEase studio tasked with managing those projects in the region has been dissolved, resulting in multiple layoffs of employees.

The definitive end of the relationship between NetEase and Blizzard?

In case you don’t know, Blizzard Entertainment games will no longer be available in China because the agreement it had with the Asian company NetEase was not renewed and will expire on January 23.

Now, a media report South China Morning Post indicates that the Chinese study began laying off staff since November, just after both companies announced the end of the alliance. It is estimated that there were around 100 employees at the NetEase subsidiary.

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According to reports, most of the workers were fired or reassigned within the company. 3 sources familiar with the case told the outlet South China Morning Postt that only a small team of 10 people will remain to handle customer services and technical issues that arise after the end of operations of the games in the region.

The studio is not considered a large department at NetEase, as game development is handled by Blizzard in the United States. Thus, most of the members are operational staff, according to what one of the sources said.

It is worth noting that Devil Immortalthe controversial dungeon crawler spin-off, will remain in China because it is a project co-developed by NetEase and Blizzard, so it has a different agreement.

It is estimated that Blizzard is already in talks with other partners in China, but the media sources South China Morning Post They explain that it seems unlikely that there will be a new agreement before January 23. Thus, everything indicates that many players in the region will have to put up with the urge to play their favorite titles.

But tell us, what do you think of this situation? Let us read you in the comments.

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