While Blizzard Tries Finding A New Partner, WoW Chinese Players Will Be Able To Download Their Characters Before Shutdown

World of Warcraft General Manager John Hight released a statement (via Wowhead) that addressed the elephant in the room for Chinese players. With the imminent WoW shutdown in China due to the expiring licensing agreement between Blizzard and NetEase, the WoW developer offered a rather unusual solution for those players: a feature to download their characters to personal devices.

According to the statement, Hight explains Blizzard is "currently in conversations with a number of new potential distribution partners in China and this process will continue" until they find a suitable partner. In the meantime, the developers are making "a feature that will allow" CN players to "save [their] characters, items, and progress in Azeroth" through "personal devices before the game goes out of service on January 23rd."

Hight reiterated how the feature is a part of the "Sealed information" described in NetEase's previous announcement. As things stand now, Blizzard aims to "finalize the plan" with NetEase and "will release more details" on how to use the feature come January.

Note: Activision Blizzard is still under investigation by the state of California for serious harassment charges. CEO Bobby Kotick is alleged to have known about such actions within his company – and performed some himself – and shielded the perpetrators from consequences.