NetEase Sues Activision Blizzard: Seeking Compensation and Refunds for Discontinued Games

The Chinese tech giant wants to squeeze a smaller amount out of the Microsoft-looked-for publisher because of refunds for games that are no longer supported.

Earlier, we also reported how NetEase and Activision Blizzard King parted ways in China after fourteen years, so access to World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 officially ended (licensed and accepted by Chinese censors), for example, the world’s second in its most populous country (after all, India took the first place). NetEase is now demanding compensation for unsold merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, etc.) and refunds for discontinued games and services. 300 million renminbi/yuan, that’s what the rumor is about, which is approx. It corresponds to 43.5 million dollars, 14.73 billion forints.

The Chinese Sina Technology was one of the first media outlets to report on the trial. Allegedly, Blizzard did not comply with several licensing agreements, and the balance was quite tilted in favor of the foreign company with unequal deals. There was also talk of betting agreements, as well as larger deposits from NetEase in order to insulate the publisher from risks. Blizzard allegedly did not undertake its obligation to refund, and NetEase did not receive any of the commission that should have been paid in connection with the shutdown of the Chinese service. The Chinese tech giant talked about a sum of 100 million renminbi/yuan and has already compensated 1.12 million Chinese users on its own.

There is even talk of a “unilateral clause” between Activision Blizzard and NetEase. This includes the requirement that NetEase provide a large advance to Blizzard in order to provide multiple games to its partner. And Blizzard did not pay back the deposit in question, because nothing came of the development of the games in question even after the relationship between the two companies deteriorated.

So Activision Blizzard can count on another lawsuit. I wonder what Microsoft was thinking when it looked like this publisher? If they own the company, they will have a lot of work to clean up these matters.

Source: WCCFTech