A year ago, global gaming company Blizzard Entertainment officially left China due to contract disputes, and all its games in the region announced their closure. One year later, how has this affected gamers in China?
As one of the multinational game companies that has achieved great success in the global game market, Blizzard Entertainment – which has launched vastly popular games such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch – is undoubtedly one of the leaders in the industry.
However, in early 2023 it announced that it would withdraw their services in China, its largest audience region, with the reason behind the move being failure to successfully negotiate several contract disputes.
With the closure, Chinese Blizzard players experienced several issues — servers for their games in the region were shut down, all registered accounts’ assets were cleared, and e-sports events were disrupted.
Blizzard officially issued an apology statement, claiming that they were “deeply regretful”, but there’s no doubt that the players are suffering greatly.
Zirui Liu, 25, is a veteran player of Blizzard’s games, holding an account for over 15 years. He says: “Before this, I was the most loyal supporter of the company. The first game in my life was World of Warcraft, which I played from when I was a child.
“I can say that without World of Warcraft, I would not have had any further interest in the gaming world. Since then, I have not missed any of the company’s games, playing StarCraft, DOTA, Overwatch, and Hearthstone.”
Zirui explains that in the past ten years, he’s spent a lot of time and money operating his game accounts, with the recharge amount for one World of Warcraft game alone being as high as £2000.
“I may have recharged nearly 5,000 pounds in their games. They only said, ‘I’m sorry’, and then all my investments over the years disappeared instantly. It’s like the account I cultivated with all my heart no longer exists, like Thanos’ snapping fingers.
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“To be honest, in the first two months when the games were shut down last year, I fell into an extremely depressed state, because my most important way of entertaining myself disappeared. I didn’t know what to do, and even started working hard on myself to stop the sadness.”
Having said this, Zirui showed a smile. He says: “I think this is the real winter for us Chinese Blizzard players.”
The shutdown of the industry not only means that gamers lose out on entertainment, but also seriously affects the careers of e-sports players.
Chenjun Wang, 34, is a Chinese streamer who plays video games on TikTok. A year ago, his identity was ‘Killer Sol’, a professional Hearthstone player for IG, the most prestigious e-sports club in the country.
Chenjun was among the top 50 Hearthstone players in the global rankings with his excellent strategic insight and card layout capabilities. Because of his strong and dominant style, Chinese players even nicknamed him “His Majesty.”
He was also one of the victims of the Blizzard dispute. The suspension of professional competitions and games caused him to lose his job, and because he had only focused on developing Hearthstone skills before, it was difficult for him to transition to other games.
“I have moved past this.” Chenjun said: “Actually, the incident didn’t happen suddenly. Professional players heard rumours a month or two before the incident.”
“At this point, there is no solution. Many players are willing to use VPNs to access the global version sof Blizzard games. I’ve had countless people advise me to do this, but I refused.”
A look of regret flashed across Chenjun’s face when asked about the reason.
“I can still play their games, but that’s not what I care about. I’m a professional Hearthstone player, and I’ve represented the top teams in this country at international events.
“For me, there is nothing more exciting than standing on an international stage and competing against the top Hearthstone players in the world.
“But now, Blizzard e-sports competitions in China have been directly banned, and it is difficult for me to have such great moments again. My old team’s boss once advised me to consider other games to become a professional player, but I refused.
“I’ve been training in as a Hearthstone player since I was a teenager, and I was loyal to it.”
When asked about his current life, Chenjun said that although he is not as prosperous as before, he still retains the support of fans of the games, and his monthly live broadcast income is relatively generous. But he always felt like something was missing.
“If I had to look for an answer, I would say motivation is missing. Although a long time has passed, I still miss the game atmosphere created by Blizzard’s games, where Chinese gamers compete and play together.”
