(Yicai Global) Dec. 13 -- Laying hold of a new distributor in China for Activision Blizzard’s hit video game World of Warcraft will be no easy task, according to an industry insider, after the firm’s local unit said it is in talks with potential new partners in the Chinese mainland.

Finding another publisher for World of Warcraft in China will not be straightforward for Blizzard, an expert told Shanghai Securities News today.

“There are not many powerful domestic game publishers with rich publishing experience,” the person said, adding that Tencent Holdings and ByteDance are widely considered the most likely big contenders.

In a letter to Chinese players posted on the Weibo account of Blizzard China today, John Hight, general manager of Warcraft Productions, said that the team is looking to develop a feature that allows players to save their characters, items, and progress in the Azeroth gaming world to their personal devices before the game goes out of service on Jan. 23.

Blizzard China is also working with NetEase to finalize the plan, and will announce more details in January on how people can save their game progress, he added.

NetEase was unable to find a way forward with Blizzard as the US game developer’s stipulations on some key issues were unacceptable, NetEase Chief Executive Ding Lei said on Nov. 17 after Blizzard said it was pulling out of their partnership and that most of its games would soon no longer be available in the Chinese mainland.

Among the other games that will be unavailable in the mainland from Jan. 23 are Hearthstone, Overwatch, Starcraft Warcraft III: Reforged, Diablo III, and Heroes of the Storm.

Shares of Perfect World Games rose by their daily trading limit today after Warcraft Productions’ letter was released. But PWG staff told Guangdong Southern All Financial Media Group that it was not clear whether there will be any partnership between it and Blizzard, and suggested waiting for any official announcement.

Game developer MiHoYo Network Technology said earlier that it had no intention of cooperating with Blizzard.

Editor: Peter Thomas