why is blizzard working with netease for diablo immortal

A free-to-start or free-to-play Android and iOS versions of Diablo Immortal can probably replicate the one-year $1.2 billion revenue generated by NCSoft’s free-to-play Lineage M mmultiplayer Android/iOS game. Making Android/iOS versions of Diablo is a smart move for Blizzard’s parent company, Activision. Diablo Immortal could possibly generate more revenue than the estimated $370 million gross of NetEase’s Android/iOS battle royale game, Knives Out.ĭiablo Immortal Can Replicate Lineage M’s Success

Reaching $11 billion in annual revenue requires NetEase to have more hit games for the International market. There’s a suspensed/more strict approval process for new games in China, NetEase will therefore focus on publishing Diablo Immortal for Asia, Europe, and North America. Revenue from games can reach $2 billion per quarter if NetEase starts attracting 10 to 30 million Diablo Immortal mobile players from outside China. Diablo 2 sold 17 million copies, and Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction sold 17.5 million. The PC version of Diablo 3 had lifetime sales of 30 million by August of 2015. Nevertheless, this brouhaha should not affect the monetization potential of Diablo Immortal.NetEase can exploit the cult-like status of Diablo. However, it was indeed a blunder of Blizzard announcing Diablo Immortal during Blizzcon 2018 ( without mentioning updates about the PC/console Diablo 4). Blizzard Entertainment made it very clear it is working on multiple Diablo projects. I ignored the virulent fan backlash over Activision Blizzard’s ( ATVI) decision to let NetEase ( NASDAQ: NTES) co-develop the iOS and Android ports of its PC Diablo action role playing game. For this year, NetEase will probably end up with $9.6 to $10 billion. The company’s 2017 gross was $8.01 billion. The chance of this double-digit growth rate pattern continuing is now better - NetEase won the right to co-develop and publish Diablo Immortal.ĭiablo Immortal can accelerate NetEase’s path toward $11 billion in annual sales. The 3Q2016 revenue of online games services was only $946.64 million. Online games services contributed $1.5 billion (+27.6% Y/Y). Net revenues for the third quarter were $2.5 billion (+35.1% Y.Y).

I applaud the excellent Q3 earnings report from NetEase.

Why is blizzard working with netease for diablo immortal