Diablo immortal china winnie the pooh launch date blizzard netease – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
Skip to main content

Diablo Immortal is in trouble in China due to Winnie the Pooh

The delayed game is now expected to launch in China on July 25th

The delayed game is now expected to launch in China on July 25th

Diablo Immortal.
Diablo Immortal.
Diablo Immortal.
Image: Blizzard
Jay Peters
is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.

Diablo Immortal, the free-to-play Diablo game for mobile and PC, was delayed in China last month because of a social media post that could be interpreted as criticism of Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to Bloomberg.

The post, which came from the official Diablo Immortal Weibo account, reportedly alluded to Winnie the Pooh, who has been banned from the internet in China because he is used to make fun of the president. Bloomberg says the account has since been suspended for “violating relevant laws and regulations.”

Diablo Immortal is now set to launch in China on July 25th, though the date could still shift, Bloomberg reports. The game, which was co-developed by Blizzard Entertainment and Chinese tech giant NetEase, has been out for more than a month in many countries, but was delayed just a few days before its scheduled June 23rd Chinese release. In a short post about the delay on its Chinese website, Blizzard said (via a translation from Google Translate) that the development team would be making optimizations to the game but did not reference the social media post.

Even though Diablo Immortal hasn’t come out in China yet, Blizzard said in June that the game had the “biggest launch in franchise history.” But the game has received some criticism for how much it costs to upgrade your character and launching with some bugs when playing on Samsung devices with Exynos chips.

Related

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.