NetEase Games (网易游戏)

NetEase started in 1997 as an internet portal before becoming, behind Tencent, China's second games publisher. Its long-profitable speciality: licensing major foreign games for a closed market — World of Warcraft, Minecraft and Overwatch ran on its servers for years.

The 2023 break with Blizzard cut off that income and accelerated an already-started strategy: opening its own studios in Japan, the United States and Europe, often by recruiting entire teams of known creators. It is the reverse of the 2000s movement, when China imported; NetEase now produces in order to export.