Blizzard and NetEase have canceled a spin-off mobile game from World of Warcraft over financial disputes, and the project has been in development for about three years in secrecy, according to a report by Bloomberg.
As a consequence, NetEase dismissed a team of more than 100 developers, while few internal transfer opportunities were provided, the report says.
The title, code-named Neptune, is an MMORPG set in the same universe as World of Warcraft but at a different time period.
NetEase has been the publisher for World of Warcraft in China since 2009. The two companies’ first cooperation in jointly developing a title is the recent Diablo Immortal, which generated 49 million USD in its first month, according to AppMagic.
Both companies declined to comment on this recent cancellation.
Source: Bloomberg