Netease Coffee Launches "Blizzard Green Tea" in Response to Blizzard Gaming's Arbitrary Business Logic!

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The Blizzard-Netease Drama

Chances are you've been following the Blizzard–Netease saga this week with considerable enjoyment. It has all the ingredients of great entertainment: a giant publisher, a wounded partner, and a parting shot delivered via a beverage menu.

Some background. In 2008, the renowned American game developer and publisher Blizzard signed an agency agreement with Netease, giving Netease the right to operate titles like "World of Warcraft" and "Hearthstone" in China. Across more than a decade of partnership, the collaboration built up a deeply loyal base of Chinese players.

Then, as the agreement approached its end, Blizzard announced it would not renew with Netease. Netease responded by gradually dismantling the local team that operated Blizzard's games — most of those employees have already resigned.

Meanwhile, Blizzard went hunting for a new agency partner in China. The awkward part: they found none!! After a round of scrambling, on January 17th they came crawling back to Netease, proposing that Netease continue running the company's game services for another six months, under different conditions.

Netease was having none of it. The company replied that the proposal was arrogant and inappropriate — conduct that defies business logic, showing excessive confidence without regard for the behavior of taking while giving nothing back, shopping for a replacement while still in the relationship, and seeking separation without ever completing the divorce.

Netease's "Blizzard Green Tea"

And then came the masterstroke. On January 18th, Netease launched a drink called "Blizzard Green Tea" in every coffee shop across its China-based company campuses — and it was an instant hit with employees. (For context: "green tea" carries a pointed double meaning in Chinese internet slang, implying someone who acts innocent while playing games behind your back.)

The price was deliberately petty: just 13 yuan. Netizens were quick to decode it — "thirteen" sounds like "to scatter, to part ways" in Chinese.

The promotional posters from the design department dripped with equally polite venom: "After working so hard for so long, let's part ways once you finish this cup." Netease Beijing's catering department even sent out a dedicated WeChat public account push, just in case anyone somehow missed it!

Some Netease employees reported that demand was so overwhelming that the queue exceeded 3 hours, and the shop had to temporarily suspend sales of Blizzard Green Tea and other items. The internet's verdict: well, what did you expect from the company whose masterpiece of craftsmanship is "Onmyoji"?

More Creative Responses

Think it ended there? Not even close. Though Blizzard Green Tea and "Blizzard Little Weakling" were temporarily pulled, while processing the half-finished queue Netease Coffee rolled out yet another drink: "Blizzard Has No Heart"! Priced at 28 yuan! (Compared to Blizzard Green Tea, that price is, as advertised, truly heartless.)

And because too many Netease employees never got a cup, the catering department folded the joke into the daily cafeteria menu: Blizzard Green Tea with rapeseed, and "Blizzard Green Tea Little Weakling" bai cai — Chinese cabbage, with a name that sneaks in yet another pun. You could call it the ultimate in passive-aggressive subtlety.

Conclusion

By now, Blizzard's "divorced but still living together" approach is famous across the entire internet. The real question everyone is asking: who will take over Blizzard's business in China? That, at least, is genuinely worth looking forward to.

Image source: Internet

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