NetEase Isn't Suing Blizzard - A Disgruntled Gamer Is

Blizzard Posted 2023/04/25 at 7:06 AM by Archimtiros

suing Blizzard Entertainment for $43.5 millionSina Technology has since reported a response

Sina Technology

Blizzard replied: "Blizzard has not received a lawsuit at this time, but we believe we have not breached any licensing agreements. The contract terms that NetEase is suspected to be dissatisfied with involve standard industry practice and have been mutually beneficial to both parties over the years. While we are disappointed and confused by these ongoing actions, it is important to note that the nearly two-decade operational history in China has been very positive and enjoyable, and we remain committed to serving and protecting the rights of our local players."Chinese media manage to report a lawsuitMisfiled DetailsYang Jun vs. the Worldmany suits seen in the United StatesIn the case of Yang Jun vs. Shanghai The9 Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Shanghai NetEase Network Technology Development Co., Ltd. regarding a network service contract, this court filed the case on May 23, 2019, and conducted a trial according to law. Yang Jun made the following requests to the court: 1. Request confirmation that the contract, dated December 28, 2018, which changed the payment time of 86,793 minutes for the "World of Warcraft" game account gfhXXX@126.com to 178 Blizzard game points and 472 days of free minutes, is invalid. 2. Request joint liability from both defendants. Demand the conversion of the 86,793 minutes of game payment time into RMB 2,000 at market value and refund it to the plaintiff. 3. Request that the defendants bear the litigation costs.

Therefore, in accordance with Article 216 of the "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China", it is hereby ruled that Yang Jun's lawsuit is dismissed. The court fee of 50 yuan is halved to 25 yuan, which shall be refunded to Yang Jun by the court.A Case of Mistaken AppellantsChinese media reported NetEase was suing Blizzard

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Comment by bigityWhat? You mean media jumped the gun to break a story without having facts? Say it ain't so!afterComment by ArchimtirosThen report it as such.Comment by madmurdockGreat example of how misinformation is spread.Comment by ToraziyalLet's make one thing very clear - while I don't think they did anything wrong, since there's no reason to suspect that court documents would change this way, we didn't actually make any error; we simply reported that Chinese media was reporting this story.

That said, we also managed to blow it open and reveal the actual truth of the matter well before they did.
Comment by Dreadnug"We still don't know what allowed this mistake, whether a clerical error or if somehow Jun purposefully managed to add NetEase as an appellant in his case rather than the appelle of his previous suit against them"

Or NETEASE backed down after the public backlash and used its influence to "rectify" the filling afterwards.

I mean, how do you think NETEASE's name got into official filling in the first place? Just because that Yang dude said "hey, NETEASE too" That's not how court fillings work anywhere in the world, China included.

EDIT:
And another thing. Some of you sound very american and very naive about the way the world outside the US works.
This has many signs of a rectification after the fact to avoid further backlash.
But, of course, since "America's topic" is always about the fake news media, this problem must be about WoWHead, right?

Of course.. I must be wowheads fault that a court filling curiously changed after the fact.Comment by Freestyle80The people in the other thread look extremely silly now huh?

LOLComment by jmalminOuch... I guess he really wants to be playing wow and he just dosnt know what to do or act. I do not find this to be funny really. Its sad really that some of these players can no longer play the game they like. Hopefully Blizzard will be able to land a new deal with someone in China to let these players play ones more. Of course lawsuits like this never really helps anyone.Comment by DreadalousExcellent article.

I do wonder though what prompted Jun to think he could take on a multi-billion dollar company and win.
The cards would always be stacked higher against the little man in many ways, wether that be influence, resources, connections, reputation etc.
I'm not saying Blizz did anything shady here but big corps don't exactly make it easy for us to have a good view of them from what history has shown us in respect of how they deal with any potential law suits or even basic complaints.Comment by ProfienJust name the #1 combo platter after him and he'll be fineComment by AzureShadow42Ouch... I guess he really wants to be playing wow and he just dosnt know what to do or act. I do not find this to be funny really. Its sad really that some of these players can no longer play the game they like. Hopefully Blizzard will be able to land a new deal with someone in China to let these players play ones more. Of course lawsuits like this never really helps anyone.Comment by kutana
As for the actual topic of the incorrect court filing and the hasty reporting by Chinese media, I'm honestly not very surprised. Call me prejudiced or racist or whatever, but this sort of thing isn't out of pocket for mainland China, considering the culture they've cultivated over the years. These kinds of things don't get very far in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea as far as I know. Similar things do happen in the US, to be fair, but I'd argue it's because of a culture that values individualism so highly rather than China's communist culture that ingrains in their populace a perspective of clawing as much for you and your family as possible and screwing over everyone else. Basically, that this sort of behavior is frowned upon more here in the US than in China, even if it still occasionally happens in both countries.Comment by SoeroahI've worked in a court-related position for several years and the biggest takeaway I have is "avoid litigation at all costs".

This seems like an extremely bad idea for any individual person.Comment by gh0sth4ndIt's a good thing nobody bothered to fact check before plastering this everywhere lmaoComment by keeindordelGood hope the gamer winsComment by BlackDragonAJ89Thing we have to remember when any kind of news or rumor pops up online, it's rate of spreading to everyone greatly increases when it's something "juicy and controversial".Comment by OswaldovzkiHA! Finally, some sense. I didn't understand what was happening. I mean, "why the heck was NetEase suing blizz?" Thanks :)Comment by ObdojonyJohn Sina?Comment by 2018634Like many suits seen in the United States, he's taken his fight directly against the companies, but these suits often don't go anywhere unless they manage to attract widespread attention.Comment by ArchimtirosYou posted this as a correction to your previous story which obviously was a complete fabrication based on second-hand information that turned out to be false.

Now you've chosen to inject another baseless claim in the update. (Courts, especially in the US, don't base decisions around public opinion or "attention.")

Maybe just stick to actual gaming news, leave out the unnecessary commentary, so you don't have to keep sticking your foot in your mouth?

First, this isn't a correction. The previous article reported that widespread Chinese media was reporting a lawsuit - they were (and some still are), so that statement is not a fabrication and remains true, regardless if the information they were reporting has now been proven as false (although really, false is even a harsh way to put it, given the context of the changed court filing).

Second, a great deal of research went into this article proving their information false, which is something that (at the time of writing) they had not managed to do and we wouldn't have done if not for discovering the changed court filing. This "correction," as you call it, was literally worldwide breaking news.

Third, the claim wasn't that US courts based their decisions around "attention" or public opinion, only that those suits rarely gain any traction without public attention - those decisions don't get made if the suit doesn't actually go to court, which they very rarely do (and even then those which revolve around ToS agreements, like Jun's, are almost always automatically dismissed without any real deliberation).

They are literally a dime a dozen in the sense that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have been subject to dozens of lawsuits from random "interested parties" since the merger announcement and the vast majority of them have gone completely unnoticed - similarly Yang Jun has sued NetEase and The9 four times without notice until now.

Of course, we could argue the role of clout within the U.S. legal system, since the likelihood of a suit actually going to court rises dramatically when public or political pressure is applied by the joining of a partner like the SOC Investment Group or Communications Workers of America, but that's a separate and much longer conversation.

Comment by TheMadTechnicianIt's a good thing nobody bothered to fact check before plastering this everywhere lmao

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