Gaming giant NetEase plunges nearly 7% after it delays release of Diablo Immortal in China
Summary
NetEase shares fell nearly 7% in Hong Kong on Monday after it announced plans to delay the release of Diablo Immortal in China. Diablo Immortal, a mobile and PC game, was co-developed by NetEase and Activision Blizzard, the company Microsoft plans to buy. The delay is due to the development team making some adjustments including support for a wider range of devices and network and performance optimizations, according to a statement on the games official website. But NetEase and Blizzards move comes at a sensitive time for the Chinese game industry which is only just emerging from a months-long freeze of approvals from regulators. The industry has faced intense scrutiny as part of a broader regulatory tightening on Chinas domestic technology companies.