Blizzard and Netease share details on China plans for Heroes of the Storm

Historically speaking, Chinese gamers love Blizzard games. Heck, World of Warcraft is still one of the country’s hottest games and it’s now a decade old. So, needless to say, there’s a lot of interest in the company’s new MOBA, Heroes of the Storm. Netease Games recently got a chance to interview Blizzard China GM Dai Jinhe and Netease vice-chair Li Riqiang about the latest developments in the game’s China launch.

(See: Is Blizzard brawler Heroes of the Storm the game for you?)

The two biggest obstacles to launching a foreign game in China, of course, are localizing it and getting it approved. On the localization front, Dai says:

Localization work is going very smoothly. Of course, the game is still in development at the same time; there’s no final version yet. But in terms of the localization progress there are no problems.

The game is apparently on the path to getting government approval, too, according to Li. “The approval work is going smoothly, the future looks bright,” he said when asked if the game would be released in China at the same time as the rest of the world. That’s not a yes, of course, but it’s not a no either.

The pair also said Blizzard and Netease will be putting a ton of emphasis on creating a positive community and game atmosphere in China.

Now for the bad news: the pair said there were no specific details on when Chinese beta players would be able to try out the Chinese servers, nor were there any plans to let China players in on the tech alpha other gamers are now enjoying. So while things are going well for China’s Heroes of the Storm development, it doesn’t sound like gamers will be playing on local servers anytime soon.

(via Netease Games)

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