Blizzard's Chinese partner NetEase sees revenue, profits rise in Q2

Business is good for Blizzard's Chinese partner NetEase, which has posted financial results for the second quarter of its current fiscal year. The company reports a modest rise in both quarterly revenue and profits year-over-year for its online game services business, which includes a variety of original online and mobile games alongside localized versions of Blizzard hits like Hearthstone, StarCraft II and World of Warcraft. For the quarter ended June 30, 2014, NetEase reported revenue of 2.34 billion Chinese yuan (~$376.6 million USD) for its online game services business, up roughly 13 percent year-over-year. The growth was fueled primarily by revenue from the company's internally-developed titles, most notably its flagship MMORPG Westward Journey II and the launch of a mobile game spinoff called Mini Westward Journey. Blizzard's digital card game Hearthstone also continues to be a strong earner for NetEase, which launched the iPad version of the game in China during the quarter. Finally, NetEase is beginning to integrate some of its mobile games into its mobile messaging platform YiChat, which is billed as a WeChat competitor. The company plans to continue adding new games to YiChat alongside new features like a carpooling service and a mobile payment system. Overall, the company posted revenues of 2.95 billion Chinese yuan (~$475.8 million USD), up roughly 22 percent year-over-year, and profits of 1.2 billion Chinese yuan (~$195.2 million USD), 9 percent more than the company reported during the same quarter last year. NetEase plans to continue capitalizing on its partnership with Blizzard, and the two companies are still working to bring localized versions of Diablo III and Heroes of the Storm to China.