(Yicai Global) Nov. 17 -- Shares in NetEase plummeted as much as 14.5 percent today after Activision Blizzard said that it is pulling out of its partnership with the Chinese internet giant and most of the US publisher’s games will no longer be available on the mainland from Jan. 23 next year.

NetEase’s share price [HKG:9999] closed down 9.1 percent at HKD103.50 (USD13.23) today. Earlier it sank to HKD97.20.

World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch, StarCraft Warcraft III: Reforged, Diablo III and Heroes of the Storm are among the games affected, Santa Monica-based Blizzard said yesterday. Top-downloaded game Diablo Immortal is not affected as it is co-developed by the two parties and falls under a separate agreement.

NetEase has been trying hard to find a way forward with Blizzard, but they were unable to agree on some key terms, and as a result Blizzard has decided to end the co-operation, Hangzhou-based NetEase said today.

NetEase has no choice but to accept Blizzard’s decision but it will make sure that mainland gamers get to play their favorite games until the very last minute, it added.

Blizzard may have chosen this course of action because it is not satisfied with the share of profits with NetEase. NetEase only contributed 3 percent of Blizzard’s net profit in 2021, the US game publisher said in its third-quarter earnings report released on Nov. 8.

The termination of the China licenses will not have a material impact on NetEase’s financial results, NetEase said in its latest financial report released today. Earnings from Blizzard games were a very low percentage of the company’s profit and revenue in the first nine months and last year, it added.

NetEase’s profit in the third quarter more than doubled from the same period last year to CNY6.7 billion (USD941.8 million), while revenue jumped 10.1 percent to CNY24.4 billion (USD3.4 billion), according to the earnings report. The vast majority of revenue, some 77 percent, came from games and related value-added services, itself an increase of 9.1 percent from a year ago.

Editor: Kim Taylor