One of these, a free-to-play 'tower offence' game titled Arclight Rumble, was announced in May, but its unveiling was accompanied by another Bloomberg report claiming a separate project - a long-rumoured Warcraft-themed take on Pokémon Go - had been cancelled.

Warcraft Arclight Rumble was announced in May. While no World of Warcraft MMO has been officially announced, controversial Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick confirmed back in 2021 that the publisher had 'multiple mobile free-to-play Warcraft experiences' in advanced development. However, despite the project's already lengthy development, NetEase is now said to have disbanded its creative team - consisting of more than 100 developers - after a disagreement with Activision Blizzard 'over financial terms' resulted in both parties pulling the plug. The studio, which is based in Taiwan, later started selling a DRM-free version of Devotion on its own storefront.Activision Blizzard and Chinese publisher NetEase have reportedly cancelled an unannounced World of Warcraft MMO following a disagreement between the two parties.Īs reported by Bloomberg, the unannounced project - internally known as Neptune and in development for three years - wasn't a direct adaptation of the existing WoW MMO, but rather an MMORPG spin-off set in the same universe but during a different time period. Publisher Indievent lost its license to sell Devotion in China, leading it to cut ties with developer Red Candle Games, which included a blatant dig at Xi in the game itself. It's not the first time a game developer has run into issues with Chinese regulators over a Winnie the Pooh reference. Engadget has contacted Blizzard for comment. NetEase declined to comment to the Financial Times. China is the biggest gaming market on the planet and not being able to release Diablo Immortal there would likely have a severe impact on the game's expected revenues. According to reports, it raked in $24 million in two weeks as a result of its aggressive approach to monetization. The PC and mobile title debuted in other territories this month.

It promised players an 'exclusive thank-you package containing legendary equipment' as a makegood for the delay. Currently, Diablo Immortal does not have a release date in China, though NetEase still expects to ship the game in the country.

Diablo immortal cancelled?