NetEase and Blizzard plan to end their 14-year partnership after January 2023, leaving Chinese players’ access to games like Diablo and Overwatch in question (Bloomberg)

Cissy Zhou / Nikkei Asia:
Chinese regulators approve paid games from Tencent and NetEase for the first time since July 2021, as part of granting 73 games licenses  —  Beijing gives nod to licenses as it gradually loosens crackdown on tech sector  —  HONG KONG — Tencent Holdings and NetEase, two of China’s biggest …

Andy Chalk / PC Gamer:
Blizzard will require Overwatch 2 and Modern Warfare 2 players to use SMS Protect, a 2FA system, to combat toxicity, but won’t accept prepaid and VOIP numbers  —  Just like Overwatch 2, you’ll need to attach a phone number to your Battle.net account to play Modern Warfare 2—and prepaid phones aren’t allowed.

Mariella Moon / Engadget:
Blizzard President Mike Ybarra says Overwatch 2 is “experiencing a mass DDoS attack” on its servers, preventing hundreds of users from joining the game’s launch  —  Overwatch 2’s early access launch has been marred by a few bugs and a massive DDoS attack preventing players from getting into the game.

Adele Peters / Fast Company:
GiveDirectly and Google.org are using AI mapping and satellite imagery to find low-income hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico and Florida and send cash payments  —  Storms worsen inequality.  These $700 cash payments can help lessen the blow.  —  After a disaster like Hurricane Ian …

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Amazon’s senior VP of global media and entertainment Jeff Blackburn will leave in early 2023; Blackburn left Amazon in February 2021 and rejoined in May 2021  —  – Blackburn will remain at the company through early 2023 to “ensure a smooth transition.”  — Blackburn joined Amazon in 1998 …

TechCrunch:
BrandTotal and Unimania agreed to a permanent injunction banning them from using and scraping Facebook and Instagram, and will pay a “significant financial sum”  —  Facebook parent Meta has settled a lawsuit in the U.S. against two companies that had engaged in data scraping operations …