Netease Licenses Starcraft II For Mainland China
Xinhua PRNewswire, 8/13/08
Chinese online game developer and operator Netease (Nasdaq: NTES) has announced an agreement to license the operating rights to the Battle.net game platform and a variety of games from computer game developer Blizzard Entertainment, including Starcraft II. Blizzard's Battle.net platform provides online multiplayer services for games such as Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III: The Frozen Stone and the upcoming Starcraft II, and will be operated in China by Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology, an affiliated company of Netease. Blizzard and Netease have also established a joint venture to provide support for the operation of Battle.net games in China.
Under the terms of the agreement, Blizzard will receive revenue based royalties from EaseNet, as well as milestone-based licensing fees from Netease. The license will be for 3 years, commencing from the commercial release of Starcraft II in China, with a mutual one-year renewal period.
Editor's Note: Currently, Blizzard's World of Warcraft MMORPG is operated in China by Chinese game developer and operator The9 (Nasdaq: NCTY).
Keywords: licensing fee Battle.net Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Warcraft III: The Frozen Stone EaseNet Blizzard Internet MMORPG NCTY Netease NTES operating rights StarCraft II The9 JV online gaming WoW pipeline
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