China's second-largest gaming company, NetEase, said it will indefinitely postpone the release of Diablo Immortal, a long-awaited installment in the 25-year-old Diablo franchise, for players in mainland China.
NetEase shares fell 10 percent in Monday morning trading in Hong Kong after the postponement was announced on Sunday.
NetEase said the game, which was licensed in China back in February and was set to launch on June 23, needs to be adjusted and optimized to provide better experiences for Chinese players. The decision came after the game's official Weibo account was banned from posting for "violating relevant laws and regulations."
A version of the game for Asia will be released on July 8 instead of the originally scheduled June 22.An international version debuted two weeks ago and has already grossed about $24 million for the studio, according to Appmagic, a game tracking system.
The company did not reveal a revised release date for the Chinese version in a separate post on Sunday.
Beijing-based NetEase, the second-largest video game company in mainland China after Tencent , co-developed the game with U.S.-based Blizzard Entertainment . NetEase declined to comment further on the decision.
The title's official Weibo account remains "posting prohibited," accordingto a tag on the platform, as of the time of publication. It's unclear when or if new posts will resume.
Weibo has not provided an exact reason for the ban. Banning new posts is a relatively light punishment on Weibo compared to more serious sanctions such as account cancellation. All existing posts, including the most recent one on June 6, can still be viewed.
The video game community has been eagerly awaiting the game, after a four-year wait since Blizzard Entertainment announced that it would be producing a sequel to the internationally acclaimed Diablo franchise. Its initial announcement caused a wave of controversy at the time, as no PC version was planned, although the company later said that it would be making versions for PC, iOS , and Android devices.
“We view the debut of Diablo Immortal as a huge opportunity to show the world, especially the Western gaming community, NetEase’s strong R&D capability,” NetEase CFO Charlew Zhaoxuan Yang said on the company’s most recent earnings call in May.
NetEase is expected to receive a share of the title's global revenue. Last month, it had acquired over 15 million subscriptions in China as the total number of pre-registrations worldwide reached 35 million.
