Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase have extended their online games partnership for mainland China up to January 2020.

The partnership covers all of Blizzard's games, including cross-platform CCG Hearthstone, and all future updates and content additions to the games.

The collaboration has NetEase bringing Blizzard's games and updates to mainland China in line with their release elsewhere in the world.

The agreement initially began in 2008 in an effort to bring Blizzard's Battle.net online platform to the region.

A great partner

"NetEase has been a great partner for many years now, and we've always appreciated their hard work and dedication to providing the best experiences for our players in China," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment.

"We look forward to continuing to work closely with them on delivering even more great content in the years ahead."

Blizzard recently announced that it would be dropping the Battle.net name over the coming months, and naming the platform after itself to cement its own brand.