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‘Warcraft’ return to NetEase signals extension of China’s gaming relaxation
新达成的一项交易，将离开中国一年的大热游戏《魔兽世界》回归中国市场，此事对在国内游戏运营商的影响相对较小。
中国本土游戏巨头网易(NTES.US；9999.HK)本周宣布新达成一项协议，让暴雪娱乐旗下这款热门游戏，在离开中国市场一年多后重新回归，这似乎是个大新闻。但市场反应的却是另一个更加微妙的故事。 6park.com 6park.comThe bottom line was that shareholders never fretted too much about the fracturing of the partnership between China’s second-largest gaming company and Blizzard more than a year ago. Instead, the bigger significance seems to be the agreement’s reflection of a recent shift in Beijing’s attitude towards China’s gaming sector. That shift has seen the government start showing new respect for the group in the last year, following several years of just the opposite when it was subject to repeated crackdowns. 6park.com最重要的是，股东们对一年多前中国第二大游戏公司与暴雪合作关系破裂，根本就没有太过担忧。相反，更大的意义似乎是协议反映了北京方面，最近对中国游戏行业态度的转变。政府在去年开始对该行业重新表现出尊重，而之前几年的情况却恰恰相反，中国游戏行业屡遭打压。 6park.com 6park.comThis agreement also seems to reflect a more recent signal by Beijing that it wants China to remain an active player in major global industries like gaming. And last but not least, there’s a certain element of pride about China’s important role in the global gaming sector, which was evident in NetEase CEO William Ding’s statement with the new announcement. 6park.com协议似乎也反映北京最近发出的信号，希望中国继续在游戏等全球主要行业中保持活跃。最后但并非最不重要的一点，是对中国在全球游戏领域的重要作用的自豪，这点网易首席执行官丁磊在最新公告中的说法可见一斑。 6park.com 6park.comThe 15-year-old partnership fell apart last year, reportedly over issues involving intellectual property and data control. In particular, NetEase reportedly felt it wasn’t being given due credit for creating mobile versions of some Blizzard titles like “Diablo Immortal,” which are quite popular among Chinese gamers. 6park.com去年，双方长达15年的合作破裂，据称是因为涉及知识产权和数据控制的问题。尤其是据报道网易认为自己没有得到应有的认可，该公司开发了《暗黑破坏神：不朽》等暴雪旗下一些在中国游戏玩家中非常受欢迎的游戏手机版。 6park.com 6park.com“Celebrating our collaborations, we are thrilled to embark on the next chapter, built on trust and mutual respect, to serve our users in this unique community that we’ve built together,” said NetEase CEO William Ding in the statement announcing the partnership’s renewal. 6park.com网易首席执行官丁磊在宣布续签合作关系的声明中说：“我们很高兴能够在信任和相互尊重的基础上，开启下一个篇章，在我们共同建立的这个独特的社区中，为我们的用户提供服务。” 6park.com 6park.comBlizzard reportedly looked for new partners in China after the split, but apparently couldn’t find anyone to match NetEase. That’s not too surprising since NetEase and rival Tencent (0700.HK) are China’s clear top-two gaming companies, well ahead of any other rivals in the huge market. It’s possible that Blizzard approached Tencent, though NetEase’s position as number-two probably made it more willing to offer Blizzard favorable terms. 6park.com据报道，双方分手后，暴雪曾在中国寻找新的合作伙伴，但显然找不到能与网易匹敌的公司。这倒是不让人太意外，因为网易和竞争对手腾讯(0700.HK)显然是中国前两大游戏公司，遥遥领先于市场上的其他竞争对手。暴雪可能接触了腾讯，不过排名第二的网易可能更愿意向暴雪提供优惠条件。 6park.com 6park.comUnder their renewed deal, Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft,” along with many of its other titles, including “Hearthstone” and its “Diablo” series, will start returning to China this summer, the two sides said, adding they were “working diligently on relaunch plans.” In a separate development, they also announced a new plan to bring some of NetEase’s self-developed titles to the popular Xbox gaming console owned by Microsoft (MSFT.US), which completed its acquisition of Blizzard’s parent, Activision Blizzard, last fall. 6park.com双方表示，根据续签的协议，暴雪的《魔兽世界》以及包括《炉石传说》和《暗黑破坏神》系列在内的多款游戏，将于今年夏天开始回归，并补充说双方“正在努力制定回归计划”。另一项进展是，宣布一项新计划，把网易自主开发的部分游戏引入微软(MSFT.US)旗下广受欢迎的Xbox游戏机上。微软去年秋天完成了对暴雪母公司动视暴雪的收购。 6park.com 6park.comNext, we’ll review each of the threads we’ve mentioned above, starting with the big yawn the new deal received on Wall Street. NetEase shares rose 3.8% the day of the announcement, but they gave back most of the gains over the next two trading days. 6park.com接下来，我们会回顾上面提到的各个方面，首先是华尔街对新协议的无动于衷。网易股价在公告发布当天上涨3.8%，但在接下来的两个交易日中回吐了大部分涨幅。 6park.com 6park.comAt the time of the original deal’s collapse, NetEase said the loss of Blizzard’s titles wouldn’t have a material impact on its revenue or profit, adding that those games were contributing a “low single-digit” percentage of its profit. Reports at the time said the relationship provided about 3% of Activision Blizzard’s revenue. 6park.com在双方结束合作时，网易曾经表示，失去暴雪的游戏不会对其收入或利润产生实质性影响，并补充说这些游戏对其利润的贡献只有“个位数”。当时有报道称，这一合作关系为暴雪贡献了约3%的收入。 6park.com 6park.com
The return of “World of Warcraft” to China looked like big news when local gaming giant NetEase Inc. (NTES.US; 9999.HK) announced a new agreement this week to relaunch the popular title from Blizzard Entertainment after a more than one-year absence. But market reaction tells a different story that is far more nuanced. 6park.comGaming growth 游戏业务增长 6park.com 6park.comThe relative unimportance of the relationship is apparent in both NetEase’s and Blizzard’s business in the year after the breakup. 6park.com在合作终止的一年里，可以明显看到这段合作关系，无论是对网易还是暴雪的业务来说，并没有那么重要。 6park.com 6park.comNetEase reported its gaming revenue rose 9.4% last year to 81.6 billion yuan, which looks quite respectable and is well ahead of the 3.5% rise in Tencent’s value-added services revenue last year, which includes its gaming business. Blizzard did even better, reporting its revenue rose 160% in last year’s second quarter, its final reporting period before being acquired by Microsoft, crediting the launch of the latest title from its “Diablo” series. 6park.com网易报告称，去年游戏收入增长9.4%，达到816亿元，看起来相当可观，远远超过腾讯去年增值服务收入（包括游戏业务）3.5%的增幅。暴雪的表现甚至更好，去年第二季度（被微软收购前的最后一个报告期）收入增长了160%，这要归功于《暗黑破坏神》系列最新作品的推出。 6park.com 6park.comIn terms of valuations, NetEase remains the clear number-two in China with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 16 compared to Tencent’s 24. NetDragon (0777.HK), which is typical of the many smaller companies in China’s gaming market, has an even lower P/E ratio of 10. Again, all this shows that the new Blizzard deal is having a relatively insignificant impact on China’s gaming order. 6park.com就估值而言，网易仍是中国市场上当之无愧的第二名，它的市盈率为16倍，而腾讯为24倍。网龙(0777.HK)是中国游戏市场众多小公司中的典型代表，其市盈率更低，仅为10倍。所有这些再次表明，与暴雪恢复合作的新交易对中国游戏市场的影响相对较小。 6park.com 6park.comNext there’s the issue of Beijing’s recent changing stance towards the gaming industry, which is at least partly in response to the nation’s slowing economy and China’s growing isolation from the rest of world. The industry was subjected to several freezes on approvals for new gaming titles in recent years, usually lasting half a year or longer. And new rules in 2021 placed strict restrictions on the amount of time that minors could play games each day. 6park.com其次是中国政府最近对游戏产业态度的转变，这至少在一定程度上是对中国经济放缓，以及中国与世界其他地区日益隔绝的回应。近年来，新游戏的审批多次遭冻结，通常会持续半年或更长的时间。2021年出台的新规，还严格限制未成年人每天玩游戏的时间。 6park.com 6park.comBut the regulator has shifted to a far more conciliatory stance since the end of the last freeze in April 2022. That’s included generous approvals of new game titles, as well as the apparent withdrawal of potential new restrictions that sparked concerns about a new crackdown after their publication late last year. 6park.com但上一轮冻结在2022年4月结束以来，监管机构的立场已变得温和多了。这包括许多新游戏获批，以及似乎撤回新的限制草案，该草案在去年底发布后引发了人们对新一轮打击的担忧。 6park.com 6park.comAs we’ve noted, the easing up on gaming is probably partly due to government concerns about the slowing economy, since games are a huge economic engine in China. Then there’s also the “de-coupling” element, which has seen foreign companies increasingly move away from China due to difficulties associated with the market. Beijing has strongly opposed such actions, and thus, this new NetEase-Blizzard partnership can be seen more broadly as China’s recent push to stay engaged with the global gaming community. 6park.com正如我们所指，放宽对游戏的限制可能部分是由于政府对经济放缓的担忧，因为游戏在中国是一个巨大的经济引擎。还有“脱钩”因素，由于与中国市场相关的困难，外国公司越来越多地撤离。北京方面强烈反对这些行为，因此，网易与暴雪重新合作，可以视为中国最近推动与全球游戏社区保持联系的努力。 6park.com 6park.comChina’s share of the global gaming market rose from 15% in 2012 to peak at 33% in 2017, before trending down to about 25% in 2020, according to data from Statista. While Statista doesn’t provide more recent data, it’s probable that China’s share of the market has stayed at that level or even dropped more under pressure from the recent crackdowns. 6park.comStatista的数据显示，中国在全球游戏市场中的份额从2012年的15%上升到2017年的峰值33%，之后一路下降到2020年的25%左右。虽然Statista没有提供距今更近的数据，但中国的市场份额很可能维持在这个水平，甚至在最近的打击压力下进一步下滑。 6park.com 6park.comNow, Beijing seems to be realizing such crackdowns may be good for young people’s study habits but aren’t so conducive to helping China retain its place as a leading global gaming center. That could bode well for more cross-border gaming collaborations going forward, which is where the true significance of the new NetEase-Blizzard deal lies. 6park.com现在，北京似乎意识到，这样的打击虽可能有利于年轻人的学习习惯，但不利于帮助中国保持全球领先游戏中心的地位。这可能预示着，未来会有更多的跨境游戏合作，而这才是这笔新交易的真正意义所在。 6park.com
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