NetEase (NTES, Financial) shares experienced a significant decline in pre-market trading, dropping over 8.8% to $90.7. On the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, its shares closed with a decline of over 10.8%, settling at 141 HKD.
The decline in NetEase's stock price is linked to the recent re-launch of Blizzard's game, "Hearthstone," in China. This re-launch follows the return of another Blizzard game, "World of Warcraft." However, both games are facing severe issues with long queue times, frustrating many players.
The operations team for "Hearthstone" in China acknowledged the existence of "serious abnormal queuing" problems. They addressed concerns that these issues were deliberate on the part of NetEase, clarifying that the problems are indeed genuine and complex.
