Bad news for World of Warcraft fans who have been waiting a long time for a mobile version… although given what Activision Blizzard did with Immortal Devil (in a model that the company insists is considered a success despite being clearly proven to be a mistake) I think deep down it’s more like that something they, or rather their economies, will greatly appreciateEven if it’s in your subconscious.

As we can read in The Verge, Blizzard and NetEase worked on this project for three years, which would be canceled, in a collaboration maintained by both companies since 2008 that bore fruit as Diablo Immortal. In addition, NetEase publishes Blizzard games such as Hearthstone and World of Warcraft in China and is a shareholder in Blizzard’s Overwatch League. In short, it is (or perhaps we should say was) a very extensive and, as far as can be assumed, mutually beneficial cooperation.

And I say maybe we should talk in the past tense because according to Bloomberg the reason for the cancellation of World of Warcraft for smartphones is a conflict between the two parties over financial terms. The positions of both parties have not been made public, but given the economic success of Diablo Immortal and the fact that the cancellation has not occurred until now, it suggests that NetEase may have wanted to improve the originally agreed upon terms.

However, we must remember this Activision Blizzard is in the process of being bought by Microsoft which started earlier this year and is therefore subject to scrutiny which we can assume is much higher than before. Therefore, we cannot rule out that the pressure came from the other side, that is, from Blizzard itself, to try to improve their conditions.