According to a recent report, the split between Activision Blizzard and NetEase was in part due to ABK’s CEO Bobby Kotick feeling “threatened.”
A recent report from the New York Times has detailed what supposedly happened between Activision Blizzard and NetEase leading up to the announcement of the two parting ways. According to the report, a call took place in October between Activision Blizzard and NetEase to discuss the future of their 14-year partnership, but both apparently left with “drastically different interpretations of what had been said,” according to four people close to the situation, and based on a document the NYT had seen.
As a result, in January World of Warcraft became unavailable in China due to the two not being able to make an agreement. The report noted that tensions had been building between the two companies before the contract renewals, with NetEase executives believing that Kotick had made “unreasonable demands” over the years. In 2018, NetEase invested $100 million into Bungie to make non-Destiny games, which Kotick apparently felt unhappy with as Bungie was behind schedule on making Destiny content.