Activision Blizzard, the major US game developer behind hit franchises Warcraft and Overwatch, has taken to Chinese social media to state that its offer to extend its licensing agreement with NetEase has been declined, Reuters reports. Blizzard posted a statement on its official Weibo account saying that the Chinese gaming giant had turned down its proposal to extend the two companies’ 14-year partnership for a further six months rather than let it expire on Jan. 23. The failure of the erstwhile collaborators to reach agreement on their long-running licensing arrangements was first reported in November, with Blizzard Entertainment President Mike Ybarra saying at the time that, “we are looking for alternatives to bring our games back to players [in China] in the future.” A December report by Chinese media outlet Caijing stated that major Chinese firms including Tencent, ByteDance, Perfect World, and Bilibili were all talking with Blizzard about the possibility of publishing its titles locally once the NetEase deal ends. NetEase’s stock price took an immediate hit when news of the break-up first emerged, but the company has since played down the significance of the deal to its overall revenue. [Reuters]