Immortal was originally slated to hit store shelves in mainland China on June 23, but the Hangzhou publisher announced a surprise postponement just days before the launch, citing the need for content enhancement. — Activision Blizzard
NetEase Inc is planning to debut the Diablo Immortal mobile game in China on July 25 – a month after the highly anticipated title was originally scheduled to launch in the world’s biggest gaming market.
China’s largest game company after Tencent Holdings Ltd has won the go-ahead to release the game it co-developed with Activision Blizzard Inc, following a controversial social media post that halted the rollout, people familiar with the matter said. The date is still subject to last-minute changes, they added, asking to not be identified discussing private information.
Diablo Immortal, the latest installment of Blizzard’s iconic franchise, is one of China’s few blockbuster releases this year, following a months-long drought imposed by regulators. China’s US$44bil (RM195.88bil) gaming arena is expected to be Immortal’s biggest market, and the game’s debut will lift a cloud of uncertainty hanging over long-time partners NetEase and Blizzard. Shares in NetEase jumped more than 5% in pre-market trading in New York.
Immortal was originally slated to hit store shelves in mainland China on June 23, but the Hangzhou publisher announced a surprise postponement just days before the launch, citing the need for content enhancement.
In reality, the delay was due to a deleted social media post interpreted as criticism of Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to other people familiar with the situation. The official Diablo Immortal account that NetEase operates on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo has been blocked from posting for “violating relevant laws and regulations,” according to a banner notice affixed to the feed.
A NetEase representative declined to comment.
Diablo is one of Blizzard’s most popular franchises. Immortal garnered 10 million downloads in the first week after its international launch outside China on June 2, but the game’s devotees criticised its pay-to-win elements and in-app purchases, leading to a 0.4 out of 10 user score on rating site Metacritic.
On the same day NetEase paused Immortal’s debut in China, Blizzard also pushed back the game’s release in other Asia-Pacific markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, to July 8 from June 23.
New video games are subject to increasingly tight scrutiny in China, where publishers need government approval to sell copies or virtual in-game items. The licensing process resumed in April after a months-long suspension, but neither Tencent or NetEase have been included in the three batches of approved titles so far.
Immortal was greenlit by Beijing regulators before the recent gaming halt, and users have eagerly awaited its launch in China, where players are more accustomed to a freemium business model, instead of buying copies outright. – Bloomberg
