Original hedgehog commune editorial department hedgehog commune
Top stream remarriage bureau, but the game circle.
Wen | Xinghui
Editor | director
The wolf is coming again.
On December 25th, 2023, nearly a year after Blizzard Games withdrew from the China market, the entry of "Netease Blizzard Composite" suddenly reached the first place in the hot search list of Weibo, which suddenly set off the game circle.
According to 36Kr, it learned from several independent sources that in the past, Blizzard negotiated with many domestic game manufacturers about the "return of national service" and finally chose to cooperate with Netease again.
The first time the news came out, the blizzard players who had been "slipped" by various rumors for a whole year could not believe it for the first time. They looked at each other in the comment area of each major platform and skillfully posted the picture that was forwarded to the patina-"the historical periodic law of national clothes". Among them, the incisive stage summary is the lesson of blood and tears accumulated by players after opening the wrong champagne again and again for more than 300 days.
Tuyuan network
So, what is the step of the periodic law this time? Or is it that the national service "refugees" who have been waiting for a long time finally have a chance to really jump out of the cycle?
Periodic law of rumors
In the memory of the old player Dayu, in the last two months alone, the gossip about the return of Blizzard has been circulated no less than three or five times.
"People are already numb." Dayu sighed. This is why, when the rumor of "Netease Blizzard Compound" was hotly debated by the whole platform, his first reaction was not to celebrate, but to doubt.
For example, at the end of last month, Dayu witnessed a hot discussion that attracted many eyeballs, and the rumored protagonist at that time was also quite weighty.
On November 30th, some media reported that Tencent’s Rubik’s Cube Studio had a live broadcast of World of Warcraft in bilibili. Although the live broadcast was suspended, it still left an imaginative screenshot, which was saved and forwarded by many players.
However, afterwards, Tencent did not give the response imagined by Blizzard players, but said that the matter was only a live test and it was over, and the rumors were not accurate. People close to Tencent explained that Rubik’s Cube Studio is one of Tencent’s self-research studios and will not represent external products.
Since then, the speculation of Tencent and Blizzard’s "marriage" has disappeared.
Tuyuan Mofang Studio Group official website
Besides, in the middle of this month, another company that was speculated to take over Blizzard’s national service also came forward to clarify, once again killing one of the rumors circulating in the player community.
The protagonist this time is the Oriental Pearl. On December 18th, Oriental Pearl responded to relevant questions on the investor interaction platform, saying that at present, the company has not cooperated with Blizzard Games. Please refer to the information disclosure for the company’s operation. In fact, as early as February this year, the Oriental Pearl positively denied outside speculation. Not long ago, at the third quarter performance briefing in 2023, Oriental Pearl also responded to the same investor’s questions.
Tuyuan Oriental Fortune Network
Of course, the "rumors" staged in these cycles are not all groundless.
For example, people who say that Tencent enters the market will say that as one of the domestic game leaders, Tencent itself has rich experience in game agency and is likely to have the strength and willingness to take over Blizzard’s national service. For another example, the reason why the Oriental Pearl is frequently reported as the agent of Blizzard National Service is because it has a cooperative relationship with Microsoft for many years.
In 2013, Oriental Pearl and Microsoft established Shanghai Baijiahe Information Technology Development Co., Ltd., which is the sole publisher of XBOX platform game content in Microsoft Greater China. With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, the Oriental Pearl is naturally close to Blizzard games in the eyes of outsiders.
All in all, when the hope of the player community has nowhere to express, any clue will inevitably be over-interpreted. Over the past year, "Blizzard National Service Agent" is comparable to the mysterious pie in the entertainment circle, and stars from all walks of life can’t escape the fate of being "slipped away".
In addition to Netease, Tencent and Oriental Pearl, you can also pull out a long list of suspected candidates: Perfect World, Giant Network, century huatong, Ninth City, and even Miha Tour, which is not familiar with the end-game market …
However, even after repeated "official denial" or "no response", the enthusiasm of many Blizzard players has not completely cooled down.
On the 25th, despite his "vigilance", Dayu couldn’t help forwarding the news screenshots to his friends. His idea was very simple: "They all came first in hot search, so it’s estimated that it’s a little different."? “
Tuyuan Weibo
That night, Dayu brushed out the new video released by the game information blogger for the first time, and followed the crowd and left a sentence: "My will is as strong as steel." Not long after, players in the barrage wrote a slang tacit reply: "Oh? Mana crystal, and so on. "
Just like the addicts who are hard to get rid of the temptation in the story of World of Warcraft, although the players have been disappointed by various rumors for countless times, when the new rumor version comes, everyone can’t help but click in and look around. While arming themselves with the "historical periodic law", they all pretended to encounter each other in the next stage of rumor-telling, and then teased and exposed each other’s fragility under sunglasses.
Yes, the game circle also has its own "forever young, always in tears".
A long-awaited turning point
From another point of view, although the matter of national service agency has never been accepted, the signal of blizzard’s return has indeed increased with time. If we look back afterwards, the end of 2023 will be a key turning point.
On October 13th, after a long antitrust review, Microsoft announced the completion of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. This $68.7 billion sky-high acquisition case was settled, giving Activision Blizzard a long-promised shot in the arm.
Prior to this, many domestic players believed that the bad decision to quit the China market was one of Blizzard’s many bad moves in recent years, and the acquisition of Microsoft would reverse everything. After the success of "Renewing Life", Blizzard, a legendary entertainment company, will have a chance to regain its vitality, and then all kinds of ills will be solved, including returning to China with the support of Microsoft.
You know, three or four years ago, satyanarayana nadella, CEO of Microsoft, publicly stated that the broader vision of XBOX is to ensure that 3 billion gamers can play games freely. This year, Microsoft also disclosed in the EU investigation document on the acquisition case that it is expected to cover 3 billion gamers by 2030.
For such an ambitious Microsoft, the huge base and broad prospects of China’s game market look particularly attractive, and Blizzard National Service is expected to bring new growth points to Microsoft’s game map.
Tuyuan network
In November after the acquisition came to an end, in an interview, Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard, said: "There are millions of players who love Blizzard games in Chinese mainland, and everyone in Blizzard wants to make sure that they can play our games. We are a global company, and I hope our products are spread all over the world, including Chinese mainland. "
On the other hand, in addition to matching the strategic layout of Microsoft’s game business, Activision Blizzard also ushered in a key node of personnel adjustment.
"Tan You" Hua Zhu, who has been diving in the NGA player community for many years, told me that not long ago, he saw the most exciting good news in the forum.
Since December 21st, the same news has occupied the front row of all Blizzard game sections, with the title: "Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, will step down and leave the company on December 29th". The national service players who have long resented this executive have finally waited for a good day worthy of setting off firecrackers to celebrate.
The following week, Hua Zhu repeatedly clicked on this post from different discussion forums, and then turned to the latest page with great interest, praising those comments with "unrestrained" words one by one. Reminiscent of the recent endless gossip, Huazhu finally felt the long-lost hope: "The culprit has run away, and the national service may really come back?"
There are many people who agree with this view. When Netease Blizzard was exposed to "breakup" last year, Zhu Yuan, president of global investment and cooperation of Netease Games, wrote in LinkedIn: "One day, when the behind-the-scenes situation of the incident can be disclosed to the public, developers and players will have a new understanding of how much damage an asshole can bring."
At that time, players unanimously speculated that the "jerk" he mentioned was the notorious CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick. You know, many scandals surrounding Activision Blizzard in recent years are almost inseparable from this CEO, including sexual harassment and cover-up, gender discrimination, workplace bullying and so on.
Bobby Cotic, CEO of Activision Blizzard, Tuyuan Network
Judging from Netease’s high-level speech, Cotic also played an extremely disgraceful role in the matter of Blizzard’s withdrawal from the China market. It is widely believed that a series of controversial renewal conditions are directly related to Cotic’s decision.
As the acquisition continues to advance, the "culprit" who ended the transition period will officially withdraw from the historical stage of Blizzard on the occasion of the New Year. On December 21st, Bobby Cotic, CEO of Activision Blizzard, announced that he would resign on December 29th, and Lulu Meservey, chief communication officer of Activision Blizzard, will also leave in the near future.
In this winter when the blizzard is constantly releasing positive signals, the turning point of the return of the national service may have emerged.
The most reasonable ending
The drama of going around and returning to the starting point is surprising at first glance, but it is the most reasonable arrangement when you think about it carefully.
First of all, Netease Blizzard’s "compound" is obviously the solution with the lowest running-in cost.
Before leaving the domestic market, Blizzard and Netease had a cooperation history of 14 years. Through long-term operation of World of Warcraft, Hearthstone Legend, Watching Pioneer, Storm Hero, Starcraft and Diablo, Netease and Blizzard have gathered a large number of diehard players in China.
Since 2008, the cooperative relationship between the two parties not only includes the update and operation of the game itself, but also involves the operation of e-sports events, the construction of professional system and many other work. Looking back at the year when Blizzard was determined to build Watching Pioneer League, Netease was also one of the first partners to enter the game. Since the founding season, it has spent a lot of money to support Blizzard’s "NBA Dream".
Although this close alliance has produced cracks in the past year, the old partner is undoubtedly a safer choice than the difficulty of starting over with other local manufacturers. Whether it is Netease’s platform construction and operation experience, or the research and transportation cooperation results such as Diablo: Immortality, it has cut the urgent demand for Blizzard to quickly return to the national service and seek the growth point of the mobile terminal.
"Diablo: Immortality", one of the highlights of Blizzard’s financial report, from Weibo @ Diablo Immortality
Secondly, the issue of version number is also the key factor that contributes to the renewal of Blizzard Netease.
On the one hand, the management and control of online games in China is detailed, which directly determines Blizzard’s decision-making thinking of seeking agents and attaching importance to the version number.
In September, 2009, the General Administration of Press and Publication, the National Copyright Administration and the Office of the National Working Group on Combating Pornography and Illegal Publications jointly issued the Notice on Implementing the "Three Definitions" of the State Council and the relevant explanations of the Central Organizing Committee, and further strengthening the pre-approval of online games and the approval management of imported online games. It stipulates that foreign investors are prohibited from investing in online game operation services in China by means of sole proprietorship, joint venture and cooperation. At the same time, if an online game that has been pre-approved or imported by the General Administration of Press and Publication changes its operating unit, it must go through the pre-approval or import approval procedures again. From the date when the operating unit changes to the time when it is re-approved, online games should stop all operational services.
In December 2023, the Measures for the Administration of Online Games (Draft for Comment) issued by the State Press and Publication Administration also showed that the content of online games that have been approved for publication has undergone substantial changes, or the name of the game, the game publishing unit or the main operating institutions have been changed, and the online game publishing unit shall go through the relevant examination and approval procedures as required. In addition, no unit or individual may lend, lease, buy or sell, or apply the Network Publishing Service License, online game approval number and publication number in any form.
Tuyuan State Press and Publication Administration official website
On the other hand, although the distribution of game version numbers has been normalized recently, the number of imported game version numbers is still relatively rare. In the past three years, the proportion of imported game version numbers in the total version number fluctuated around 10%, and the distribution interval was long.
In fact, in the past ten years when Netease operated Blizzard National Service, the particularity of the examination and approval of imported games was reflected in the actual operation more than once. Waiting for the new version to open the door and waiting for the new game to go on the market is an unforgettable group memory of the old players of Blizzard National Service.
In other words, if Blizzard intends to change the national service agent, it must go through the pre-approval or import approval procedures again. The approval of the version number of imported games is relatively difficult, and these factors will bring uncertainty to the return of national service.
Therefore, from a rational point of view, Netease Blizzard’s "compound" is really the easiest solution for the return of national clothes.
As of December 30, the two sides have not given a positive answer to this rumor. Netease said it would not respond, while Blizzard China said: "Thank you for your attention. We have no information or updates to share here at present."
However, as the rumors continued to ferment, players who raised magnifying glasses found more and more clues. Dayu told me that recently, the bloggers of blizzard game information he paid attention to have been unprecedentedly prolific, and they can bring new gossip almost every day. He summarized this state as "questioning rumors, understanding rumors and spreading rumors".
For example, in recent days, it has been found that the World of Warcraft circle in Netease’s App "Netease God" has been updated, a number of chat rooms have been built, and many announcements about the new version of World of Warcraft have been added one after another, while the news of stopping the agent released here has been quietly removed.
For example, some players noticed that after a long silence, the familiar service number of "Blizzard Game Service Center" suddenly changed to Guangdong, which is consistent with the IP information of the staff in Netease Great God App. Combined with the rumors that Netease Guangzhou restarted the recruitment of Blizzard games, the job description of "MMO game user operation+loss recall data analysis" and the additional information of "non-Netease is editing" are even more imaginative.
For another example, on the evening of December 29th, many media reported that according to Tianyancha, NetEasy (Shenzhen) Network Co., Ltd. was established on November 7th, 2023, and its legal representative was wangyi, Senior Vice President of Netease.
Tu yuan Tian Yan cha
From this point of view, the rumors of the return this time do have the credibility that was rare before. However, the restart of the national service means huge preparatory work, and it takes time to build a team, test and adjust. Even if the news is true, players who are eager to wear it may still have to wait patiently.
Looking back, from the farce of breaking up to the complex hot search, Blizzard National Service has gone through ups and downs for a year. In the future, how to rebuild users’ trust, how to protect virtual property, and how to deal with the "lost year" will still be major questions for both partners.
Note: Dayu and Huazhu are pseudonyms.
Original title: "Blizzard National Service: Leaving for half a life, returning is still an easy family?" 》
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