Beijing: A 14-year licensing deal between US game publisher Blizzard Entertainment and Chinese video game juggernaut NetEase has come to an end, fueling speculation about possible future moves by the two companies as mainland gamers lament the breakup. which will become official at the beginning of next year.

Hangzhou-based publishing licenses for several Blizzard-developed games, including World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone and Diablo III on the mainland, will not be renewed because the two sides were unable to come to an agreement.

The announcements were made on Thursday by NetEase and Blizzard Entertainment, a division of video game holding company Activision Blizzard. The license will expire on January 23.

Also Read: Foxconn iPhone factory offers incentives for employees to stay longer

Blizzard may seek a new partner in China, the world's biggest market for video games, while NetEase may develop flagship games of its own for a global audience, according to an analysis published Thursday by Nico Partners. is a market research and consulting firm covering Asia's video gaming market.

Blizzard president James Ybarra hinted at a possible new alliance in a company statement on Thursday, when he said: "We're exploring options to bring players back their games in the future."

According to Nico, this isn't the first time Blizzard has terminated a publishing contract in mainland China. For World of Warcraft, Blizzard's first partnership was with Shanghai-based online game provider The9 in 2004.

Although there was some initial success, with the game having over 1 million peak concurrent players in the nation, Blizzard terminated the contract in 2009, according to Nico. 

Blizzard and The9 jointly announced in April of that year that the American company would switch to NetEase for its publishing deal.

NetEase's founder and CEO, billionaire William Ding Lei, promised in his company statement to continue supporting only gamers. He made no mention of what his company would do after Blizzard.

We will keep our promise to provide well to our players till the end, he said. "We will ensure that all of our games properly protect our players' data and assets."

The fact that Blizzard is still hoping to sign a licensing deal with another Chinese company shows just how important China's large mainland market is to the global video game market.

Also Read: First UP Varanasi airport to receive 5G service

Since Activision Blizzard and Tencent Holdings had previously partnered to develop and publish "Call of Duty: Mobile in China," Nico suggested Blizzard could turn to Tencent Holdings, the world's largest game console by revenue. Manages the large video gaming industry.

According to Nico, Tencent is the only logical partner for Blizzard to replace NetEase because of its powerful distribution network and experience managing foreign game franchises.

However, Tencent has denied rumors that it would talk to Blizzard about a deal. Shanghai-based Mihoyo, the maker of action-adventure game Genshin Impact, also denied any plans to cooperate with the US business, according to local media reports.

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, may prefer to make its own games rather than obtain licenses for Blizzard games for the mainland market.

Nico said that if Blizzard were to partner with a different Chinese gaming company, the games would have to go through the approval process again under the new operator. This suggested that a quicker procedure might be available.

"For example, the game Warframe was able to use this different approval process when it changed operators from Changyou to iDreamSky. 

This process is also used when the game's name needs to be changed or license requires adding an additional platform," Nico said. The process may still take months to complete, it was added.

Despite the fact that Chinese regulators have not commented on the breakdown of the NetEase and Blizzard partnership, many gamers have expressed their displeasure on domestic social media.

He Qian, a 37-year-old gamer from Chengdu in China's southwest, said Thursday he was "shocked" to hear about the split and added that he had played World of Warcraft since it was published by The9. 

Gozei, a gamer who has been playing the online digital collectible card game Hearthstone for nine years, said there is "little chance for a turnaround."

According to Chinese gaming industry insiders, it will be challenging for a new Blizzard licensee to quickly gain approval from the National Press and Publication Administration, which has not authorized any imported games so far this year.

Also Read: Indonesia: GoTo lays off 12% of its workforce

According to Nico's most recent forecast, the country's revenue from video game software and services will total US$45.44 billion this year, with 701.8 million gamers using desktop, mobile and console platforms.