Activision Blizzard and NetEase are frequent collaborators. In fact, the two companies most recently worked together on Diablo Immortal, which saw one player spend $100,000 on the game in microtransactions. So, it wouldn't be surprising if the two were actually cooking up something new. Unfortunately, it appears that an upcoming joint venture between the two gaming giants has fallen through.
According to Bloomberg, the canceled project was in development for three years only for financial disagreements to spell the end for the game. The development team, which is said to be composed of 100 developers, is no more. However, the report adds that a handful of employees received offers for internal transfers. Bloomberg claims that neither NetEase nor Activision Blizzard was open to comments after the news company reached out.
Codenamed "Neptune", the massively multiplayer online RPG set in the World of Warcraft universe would have been a spin-off set in the same universe but during a different period in time.