(Yicai) April 10 -- Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase have rekindled ties after one and a half years to bring back the US video game developer's titles to the Chinese mainland.

World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch, and other Blizzard games will be available to Chinese mainland users under the distribution of NetEase for 15 years from this summer, Blizzard China announced on Chinese social media platform Weibo today, adding that the new deal is built on two sides' 15 years of cooperation.

Moreover, Blizzard's affiliate studio Microsoft Games reached an agreement with NetEase to release the games developed by the Hangzhou-based company on Xbox.

If Blizzard does not return to the Chinese market soon, its popularity will significantly decrease, Zhang Shule, a game industry analyst, told Yicai. "Microsoft is very eager, so NetEase should be able to obtain preferential treatments, laying the foundations for a solid in-depth cooperation," he noted.

Moreover, Blizzard games will not have to re-apply for licenses if their distributor remains NetEase, industry insiders said, adding that NetEase had preserved the players' game data it had collected during the pair's partnership that lasted 14 years.

Blizzard pulled out of its partnership with NetEase in January last year, rendering most of its top-rated games, including World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Hearthstone, and Overwatch, unavailable in the Chinese mainland and causing an outcry from the gaming community.

After terminating the agreement, Blizzard approached NetEase to discuss the possibility of extending the original deal by six months in order to buy time to find another partner or to renegotiate a deal with NetEase. NetEase replied soon after that this last-minute proposal "was arbitrary, tactless, and defies business logic."

Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard, the parent firm of Blizzard, for USD68.7 billion last October after the approval of UK competition regulators. The takeover, together with the resignation of Activision Blizzard's Chief Executive Officer Bobbt Kotick, helped the company rejoin hands with NetEase.

Editor: Futura Costaglione