Activision Blizzard in Asia – China, Japan and South Korea

New Format Limited | Gaming • Business • Technology • Asia

Activision Blizzard’s story is not only a Western gaming story.

For more than two decades, Blizzard’s biggest franchises have had an enormous presence across Asian markets — particularly in China, Japan and South Korea.

From World of Warcraft and StarCraft to Diablo, Overwatch and Call of Duty, these markets have played an important role in Blizzard’s international strategy.

But the relationship has not always been straightforward.

There have been major partnerships, licensing agreements, cultural adaptations, commercial successes and, most importantly, the dramatic breakdown and eventual restoration of Blizzard’s relationship with NetEase.

After Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the Asian strategy entered another phase.

So what exactly is the relationship between Activision Blizzard and these three major Asian markets?

China: Blizzard’s Most Complicated Asian Relationship

China has arguably been the most strategically complicated market for Blizzard.

The company established licensing arrangements with NetEase in 2008, allowing Blizzard games to operate in mainland China.

The partnership became one of the most important international distribution relationships in Blizzard’s history.

Games including:

• World of Warcraft

• Hearthstone

• Warcraft III

• Overwatch

• StarCraft

• Diablo III

were made available to Chinese players through the partnership.

Blizzard itself confirmed that its licensing relationship with NetEase dated back to 2008.

This was more than a normal publishing arrangement.

For Blizzard, NetEase provided the local infrastructure, operational expertise and market access required to run Blizzard’s online games in one of the world’s largest gaming markets.

2008–2022: The NetEase Era

For roughly fifteen years, Blizzard and NetEase operated an unusually long-running relationship.

The partnership covered multiple generations of Blizzard games.

That meant that Chinese players could experience Blizzard’s major franchises while NetEase handled the local publishing and operational side of the business.

The arrangement became particularly important for World of Warcraft.

China’s enormous PC-gaming audience helped make the market strategically significant for Blizzard.

The relationship also demonstrated an important feature of international game publishing:

A global game does not necessarily operate globally under identical commercial conditions.

Licensing, local regulation, distribution and technical operations can determine whether a game can actually exist in a particular market.

2022: The Relationship Breaks Down

In November 2022, Blizzard announced that most of its game services in mainland China would be suspended because its licensing agreements with NetEase were due to expire on January 23, 2023.

Blizzard said the two companies had been unable to reach a renewal agreement consistent with its operating principles and commitments to players and employees.

The affected games included World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch, StarCraft, Diablo III and Heroes of the Storm.

Diablo Immortal was covered by a separate agreement.

It was an extraordinary moment.

One of the world’s largest game publishers had effectively lost access to a major market for some of its most important franchises.

2023: Blizzard Leaves the Market

In January 2023, the licensing agreements expired.

Blizzard’s major online games went offline for Chinese players.

The consequences were not simply financial.

Millions of players suddenly lost access to games and communities that they had used for years.

For Blizzard, it also demonstrated the risks associated with relying on a major local publishing partner.

For NetEase, the end of the partnership meant losing an important portfolio of internationally recognised game properties.

Both companies therefore had reasons to reconsider the situation.

2023: Microsoft Enters the Picture

The situation changed fundamentally after Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October 2023.

Blizzard was no longer negotiating from the same corporate position.

Microsoft now controlled the broader Activision Blizzard portfolio, while also operating Xbox, Game Pass and a much larger international gaming ecosystem.

The relationship with NetEase could therefore be reconsidered under new ownership.

And that is exactly what happened.

2024: Blizzard and NetEase Rebuild the Relationship

In April 2024, Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft Gaming and NetEase announced a renewed publishing agreement.

The companies announced that Blizzard titles would return to mainland China beginning in summer 2024.

The agreement covered major Blizzard universes including:

Warcraft.

Overwatch.

Diablo.

StarCraft.

Microsoft Gaming and NetEase also announced a broader strategic relationship exploring ways to bring additional NetEase games to Xbox and other platforms.

This was significant for another reason.

The new arrangement was no longer simply a Blizzard–NetEase relationship.

It became part of a broader Microsoft–NetEase gaming relationship.

2025: Blizzard’s Return Gains Momentum

The renewed partnership continued developing during 2025.

NetEase reported strong engagement for World of Warcraft and Hearthstone among Chinese players.

Overwatch 2 returned to the market in February 2025.

NetEase also reported that Diablo III was progressing toward its return, while later updates showed additional Blizzard titles returning to the Chinese market.

The financial importance of the renewed relationship is also visible from NetEase’s reporting.

In 2025, NetEase said revenue from licensed games increased 37.8%, with the company specifically attributing part of that increase to the launch of Blizzard titles in mainland China.

That provides concrete evidence that the renewed Blizzard relationship was commercially meaningful for NetEase.

Japan: A Different Kind of Relationship

Japan represents a very different environment for Activision Blizzard.

Unlike the NetEase model in China, Blizzard does not depend on a single equivalent local partnership to the same extent.

Japan is one of the world’s largest gaming markets and is dominated by powerful domestic companies and platforms.

For Microsoft, Japan is particularly important because of the country’s console ecosystem.

The Activision Blizzard acquisition received unconditional approval from Japanese authorities in March 2023.

Japan’s regulatory review was particularly relevant because Microsoft was acquiring major multiplatform franchises while Sony’s PlayStation remained a dominant force in the Japanese console market.

Blizzard’s Japanese Opportunity

Blizzard’s major franchises have a natural international appeal in Japan.

But the market is structurally different from the PC-heavy ecosystem that historically helped Blizzard in other Asian markets.

Japanese consumers have traditionally had strong relationships with:

• PlayStation,

• Nintendo,

• domestic role-playing games,

• mobile gaming,

• Japanese publishers and developers.

That makes Blizzard’s multiplatform strategy particularly important.

A franchise such as Diablo can potentially reach Japanese audiences through consoles and PC.

Overwatch has an especially strong visual and character-driven identity that can translate well internationally.

And Call of Duty gives Activision a major presence beyond Blizzard’s traditional PC audience.

Microsoft and Japan

The Microsoft acquisition also changed the strategic picture.

Microsoft has historically faced a much more difficult position in Japan than Sony and Nintendo.

The Activision Blizzard acquisition therefore gave Microsoft access to franchises with global recognition that could strengthen its position across Asian markets.

The importance of this should not be underestimated.

Microsoft does not need Xbox to become the dominant Japanese console immediately for Activision Blizzard’s franchises to be valuable.

The company can distribute games across multiple platforms.

That means the value of the IP can be separated from the success of one specific hardware platform.

South Korea: Blizzard’s PC-Gaming Stronghold

South Korea is perhaps the most culturally important Asian market for Blizzard outside China.

The country’s gaming culture has historically been heavily influenced by PC gaming and internet cafés, known locally as PC bangs.

That environment was particularly favourable to Blizzard.

StarCraft became deeply embedded in Korean gaming culture.

Competitive StarCraft helped establish South Korea as one of the world’s most important esports markets.

Blizzard therefore became more than simply a foreign game publisher.

Its games became part of the country’s wider gaming culture.

StarCraft and South Korea

No discussion of Blizzard and South Korea can avoid StarCraft.

The original game and StarCraft: Brood War became central to the development of professional esports in South Korea.

Professional players became celebrities.

Televised competitions attracted large audiences.

Teams and sponsorships developed around the game.

This gave Blizzard something that few Western game publishers had achieved at the same scale:

a major competitive gaming ecosystem built around one of its intellectual properties.

That history remains relevant today.

If Blizzard eventually develops StarCraft for television or film, South Korea would naturally be one of the markets with the deepest existing connection to the universe.

South Korea and the Microsoft Acquisition

South Korean authorities approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard in May 2023.

The country’s competition regulator noted that South Korea represented approximately 7.6% of the global gaming market, according to the figures cited in its review.

The same report placed China at approximately 20.4% and Japan at 10.3%.

This illustrates why all three countries matter to Microsoft.

Together, they represent an enormous part of the Asian gaming economy.

Three Markets, Three Different Strategies

The most important point is that China, Japan and South Korea should not be treated as one single market.

They are fundamentally different.

🇨🇳 China

Key issue: local publishing, licensing and regulatory access.

Major partner: NetEase.

Key Blizzard franchises: Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, StarCraft.

Strategic question: Can Blizzard maintain a stable long-term publishing relationship?

🇯🇵 Japan

Key issue: console competition and consumer preferences.

Major platform environment: PlayStation and Nintendo.

Strategic question: How can Microsoft maximise Activision Blizzard’s IP without relying exclusively on Xbox hardware?

🇰🇷 South Korea

Key issue: PC gaming, esports and highly engaged gaming communities.

Historic Blizzard strength: StarCraft and World of Warcraft.

Strategic question: Can Blizzard convert its historic cultural influence into a new generation of players and entertainment projects?

Why Asia Matters to Blizzard’s Future

The Asian story is not simply about game sales.

It is about intellectual property.

Blizzard owns universes that already have established communities across all three markets.

That creates opportunities beyond games.

Imagine:

World of Warcraft → animated series → merchandise → live event

or:

StarCraft → esports → animated series → film

or:

Overwatch → game → animation → television

The existing communities give Blizzard something that a new entertainment franchise would have to spend years building.

The Microsoft Era

Microsoft’s ownership changes the scale of the opportunity.

Activision Blizzard is now part of a company with global gaming infrastructure spanning:

• Xbox,

• PC,

• Game Pass,

• cloud gaming,

• Activision,

• Blizzard,

• King.

Microsoft has also demonstrated a willingness to distribute its games beyond Xbox hardware.

That could be particularly important in Japan and South Korea, where PlayStation, Nintendo and PC remain major parts of the gaming ecosystem.

The strategy can therefore be summarised simply:

Own the IP.

Reach the player wherever they are.

The NetEase Relationship Is Especially Important

The renewed NetEase agreement may ultimately become one of the most important Asian developments of the Microsoft era.

The original partnership lasted from 2008 until the beginning of 2023.

The new agreement restored Blizzard’s major universes to mainland China beginning in 2024.

And NetEase’s subsequent financial reporting shows that licensed Blizzard games contributed to growth in its licensed-game business.

This suggests that both sides have a strong commercial reason to make the new relationship work.

What Happens Next?

The next phase could be considerably bigger than simply bringing old games back.

Blizzard is now discussing its universes as potential entertainment properties beyond gaming.

That raises an important question:

Could Asia become part of Blizzard’s next film and television strategy?

A Warcraft series would have an enormous potential audience.

A Diablo animation could travel particularly well across international markets.

An Overwatch series could take advantage of its global character-based appeal.

And StarCraft has perhaps the strongest existing connection to South Korean gaming culture.

New Format Verdict

Activision Blizzard’s relationship with Asia is not one story.

It is three very different stories.

China is the story of Blizzard and NetEase — a fifteen-year partnership, a dramatic breakdown and an eventual Microsoft-assisted return.

Japan is the story of Microsoft’s challenge in a market dominated by PlayStation and Nintendo, and the value of Activision Blizzard’s multiplatform franchises.

South Korea is the story of Blizzard’s deep connection with PC gaming and esports, particularly through StarCraft and World of Warcraft.

Together, these markets show why Activision Blizzard’s value cannot be measured purely through Western sales figures.

The company’s biggest franchises have become global cultural properties.

And Microsoft now owns them.

The Bigger Question

If Blizzard really wants to become more than a games company, Asia could be one of the most important parts of that strategy.

The audience is already there.

The franchises are already known.

The communities already exist.

The infrastructure is already established.

The question is what Blizzard does next.

Could the next Warcraft series launch simultaneously for audiences in London, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai?

Could StarCraft return as both a game and a major screen franchise?

Could NetEase become more than Blizzard’s Chinese publisher and become part of a broader Microsoft gaming relationship?

And could Microsoft’s global distribution strategy turn Blizzard’s Asian communities into the foundation for its next generation of entertainment?

These are the questions New Format will be watching.

Which Market Matters Most?

🇨🇳 China — the NetEase relationship and the return of Blizzard’s games.

🇯🇵 Japan — Microsoft’s opportunity in one of the world’s most important console markets.

🇰🇷 South Korea — Blizzard’s historic PC and esports stronghold.

Tell New Format which market you think is most important to Blizzard’s future.

And if Blizzard takes its next step into film and television, which of these three countries do you think could have the biggest influence on that future?

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