NetEase Is Suing Blizzard For $43.5 Million (UPDATE: Maybe Not...)

UPDATE 4/25/2023:

It turns out that the original story isn’t exactly correct, in that NetEase is not who is suing Blizzard Entertainment. Instead, according to an update on WoWHead, the suit was actually filed by a player named Yang Jun – who has sued game companies before, including NetEase and The9 (when The9 still existed). That suit sought approximately $288.90 USD in refunds for World of Warcraft. It was also thrown out.

Interestingly, the documents did read as though they were issued by someone associated with NetEase, so the confusion makes sense. That said, according to Sina Technology, Activision Blizzard informed them they hadn’t “received the relevant complaints” but believed they hadn’t “violated any licensing agreements”. Now, it appears we know where that confusion came in.

ORIGINAL STORY 4/24/2023:

Things might have been wild in the early stages of the NetEase/Blizzard Entertainment divorce process. But now they’re getting costly. Because you can never walk away from these things without paying for your mistakes (or hubris), NetEase has filed a lawsuit seeing 300 million Yuan (or around $43.5 Million USD from the World of Warcraft developer.

News of the suit broke on Chinese media conglomerate Sina Technology, (translated and reported on by WoWHead). According to Sina Technology, NetEase is suing Blizzard for violating licensing agreements. In their complaint, they ask for compensation to allow them to refund players. They also seek to address unsold merchandise inventory and deposits on undeveloped games. On top of all that, the company also seeks to address “unequal provision favoring Blizzard Entertainment” in the contracts between the companies. These include deposits NetEase was asked to pay to protect Blizzard from financial risk.

So, don’t put away the popcorn just yet. It looks like things are just going to stay a bit interesting for a while.

Note: Activision Blizzard has been sued by California’s Civil Rights Department, alleging violations of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act and Equal Pay Act. CEO Bobby Kotick is alleged to have known about the alleged violations within his company. These allegations have all been denied by Activision Blizzard and the company points to additional diversity and inclusion training as past examples of taking the accusations seriously at the time they were made.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The original version of this story erroneously contained a closing note from when the CA investigation was ongoing. It has since been updated with the above corrected closing note. We apologize to readers or employees of Activision Blizzard who may have been confused by the previous closing note.