rumours are saying that blizzard tried to get 2years upfront and net ease wanted more input into the games and neither side would budge.

So blizzard announced that the 14yr partnership was over before net ease could and net ease stock dropped immediately after. Apparently according to net ease they were still in negotiations when the announcement was made and the timing of the announcement was done in such a way that net ease couldn’t respond quickly.

The negotiations ended and blizzard couldn’t find anyone else who would deal with them and net ease didn’t blink and were also upset about the announcement and how it was handled.

Blizzard tried to do an “emergency” extra 6 months when they realised they fucked up but net ease said no. Blizzard than released a statement to their Chinese customers about how they were on their side and trying to do their best for the fans that was also very negatively received as they realised they were full of shit. It was likened to “divorced your wife after 14 years and then trying to stay at the house whilst you get a new gf” and “riding a mule while you look for a horse”

Very quickly after the statements release net ease filmed their workers tearing a blizzard orc statue apart and were selling “blizzard green tea” which subsequently sold out very quickly. Green tea is a slang Chinese term for a manipulative female who plays innocent but is a lying villain.

Blizzard offered a way for players to save their accounts but the server broke pretty much immediately and people started losing their data/ having it corrupted.

Basically blizzard lost a very sizeable portion of their player base and unless the Microsoft deal goes through then the company is/will be in very dire straights.