On January 18, a NetEase employee posted a picture in the circle of friends saying that NetEase Cafe launched a new product called “Blizzard Green Tea”, which aroused heated discussions among netizens. Previously, on January 17, Blizzard China issued an announcement stating that it contacted NetEase and sought assistance, hoping to extend the agreement signed in 2019 for 6 months, but was rejected by NetEase; in response, NetEase responded on the evening of the 17th, saying Considering the unequal, unfair and other conditions attached to the cooperation, the two parties failed to reach an agreement in the end.
“I didn’t hold back early in the morning, I couldn’t hold back my laughter, Blizzard Green Tea.” On January 18, a screenshot of a circle of friends posted by a NetEase employee caused heated discussions on the Internet. The picture in the circle of friends is the small program order interface of the cafe in Hangzhou Park of NetEase. A “Blizzard Green Tea” priced at 13 yuan is launched as a new product. At the same time, a number of NetEase employees posted photos of buying “Blizzard Green Tea” on social platforms.
▲”Blizzard Green Tea” sold in NetEase Hangzhou Park
According to NetEase’s “Easy Room” applet, “Blizzard Green Tea” has different prices in different parks. The Beijing park shows that it is 25 yuan a cup, and the Guangzhou park shows that it is 18 yuan a cup, and the products are all displayed as “sold out”. The mini program does not include the stores in Hangzhou, but a NetEase employee in Hangzhou Park told the Red Star News reporter that the price in Hangzhou Park is 13 yuan a cup, and the sales are hot. When the employee went to buy before noon, the queue number was “300+”.
▲ A staff member of Netease Hangzhou Park said that when he bought “Blizzard Green Tea”, the number was 300+
A number of NetEase employees confirmed to the Red Star News reporter that the incident of selling “Blizzard Green Tea” was true. The staff of the “Yijian” Beijing Park Store of the Beijing NetEase R&D Center said that by 4 pm on the 18th, not only the “Blizzard Green Tea” product had been sold out. , and “even the materials for making (drinks) are used up”. The sales volume of “Blizzard Green Tea” in the Beijing park that day was more than 200 cups, but according to the staff, the Hangzhou park will be “more popular”.
Previously, on January 17, Blizzard China issued a statement saying that NetEase was unwilling to postpone the game service for 6 months based on the existing cooperation terms while it was looking for a new partner. In response to this, Netease issued a statement on its official Weibo on the evening of the 17th, saying, “As far as we know, all negotiations between Blizzard and other companies during the same period were based on a three-year contract period. Conditions, so in the end the two sides could not reach an agreement.”
In response, Netease denied the statement that “Netease wants IP control” and other claims, saying that “as an agency company, Netease has never sought IP control of Blizzard Games or other partners. The long-term cooperation in the past 14 years During the process, NetEase’s use and authorization of any Blizzard IP is in accordance with the terms of the contract, and has obtained the consent and approval of Blizzard. The IP cooperation with other partners is also based on this principle.”
▲Screenshot of Netease Fashion Channel Weibo
Netease believes that Blizzard’s behavior is “arbitrary, inappropriate and not in line with business logic. Its overconfidence does not take into account this kind of behavior of getting what it wants, riding a donkey to find a horse, and never leaving the body, which puts players and Netease in a dilemma. where.”
It is understood that the cooperation between Blizzard and NetEase began in 2008. The two reached an agency agreement to launch a variety of Blizzard games to China. At the end of 2022, the dispute over agency rights between Blizzard and NetEase began to emerge. On November 16, 2022, Blizzard Entertainment issued a statement stating that since the existing licensing agreement with NetEase will expire on January 23, 2023, most Blizzard game services in mainland China, including “World of Warcraft” and “World of Warcraft”, will be suspended. Hearthstone, Overwatch, StarCraft, etc. In this regard, Netease responded that after a long period of negotiations, it was still unable to reach an agreement with Blizzard on some key terms, and had to accept the “termination of cooperation” announced by Blizzard in advance. On December 13, Blizzard China’s official Weibo released a letter to all players of the national server of “World of Warcraft”, stating that it is “currently negotiating with new potential distribution partners in some regions of the national server.”
On January 17, 2023, Blizzard issued an announcement to update the national server player community, confirming that the negotiation with NetEase had failed.
Red Star News reporter Lu Yanfei intern Chen Jiaxin
Original title: Netease Cafe launched “Blizzard Green Tea” and sold it very well. Some employees said that the materials for the drink were all used up.
Source: Red Star News Network
Editor: Tian Yuan