Blizzard’s renewed publishing agreement with NetEase set out a staged return of Blizzard games to mainland China, beginning in summer 2024—not a single relaunch date for every game. The April 2024 announcement named World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, plus other titles in the Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft universes. It did not publish a complete game-by-game schedule or establish which services are available today.
What did Blizzard, Microsoft Gaming, and NetEase announce?
On April 9, 2024, Pacific Time (April 10 in China), Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft Gaming, and NetEase announced a renewed publishing agreement to bring Blizzard games back to mainland China. The parties described their prior collaboration as lasting more than 15 years. The announcement covered Blizzard game publishing in China; it did not say that all games would relaunch together or identify a date for each title. NetEase’s announcement is the primary source for the agreement’s scope.
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The announcement separately described a Microsoft Gaming–NetEase collaboration to explore bringing new NetEase titles to Xbox consoles and other platforms. That is an exploratory arrangement, not a confirmed slate of Xbox ports and not a condition of the Blizzard game relaunch.
When were Blizzard games supposed to return to China?
The April 2024 announcement said Blizzard titles would return sequentially, beginning in summer 2024. “Sequentially” means staged returns, not a promise that every covered game would be available on the same day. The announcement did not give a full title-by-title calendar.
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In a player update dated April 10, 2024, the World of Warcraft China operations team said technical preparation was still needed, including rebuilding server facilities and restoring data. It said games would reopen in sequence and that account data would be retained when servers reopened. The statement was a plan and assurance made at that time, not proof of present-day availability. The update is available on the World of Warcraft China site.
These announcements do not establish a complete current list of live services or a current relaunch schedule by game. For a present-day answer about a particular title, players should look for a current official service notice rather than treat the 2024 timeline as a live status tracker.
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- Epic journey from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and outer space exploration
- Play any way you choose in the five evolutionary phases of Spore: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, and Space
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Which Blizzard games are included in the NetEase deal?
The joint release explicitly named World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, then described additional titles in the Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft universes. It did not enumerate every individual game in those franchises. The franchise-level wording should not be read as confirmation that every historic title returned or that all titles followed the same schedule.
For historical context, Blizzard’s November 2022 shutdown notice listed World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch, the StarCraft series, Diablo III, and Heroes of the Storm among the services affected when the then-current licenses expired. That older list explains the earlier service suspension; it is not a definitive list of games covered by, or currently available under, the 2024 agreement. Blizzard’s 2022 notice also stated that Diablo Immortal was under a separate agreement and was excluded from that termination.
Why did Blizzard games leave China in 2023?
Blizzard said in November 2022 that most of its game services in mainland China would be suspended when its existing NetEase licenses expired on January 23, 2023. The expiration ended the prior licensing arrangement for the covered services; the 2024 announcement was a renewed agreement, not a claim that the old licenses had continued uninterrupted.
The distinction matters: the 2022 notice describes the reason for the shutdown, while the 2024 release describes a new publishing agreement and a planned staged return. Neither the historical shutdown list nor the relaunch announcement alone supplies a present-day, game-by-game availability status.
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