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Xbox Year of the Horse.
Flag of America and flag of China. | Credit: Xbox | NetEase
Xbox has announced plans to integrate NetEase’s UU Accelerator directly into the Xbox PC app for users in China.
For those unfamiliar, UU Accelerator is a network optimization service developed by NetEase. It is widely used in China to improve connection stability when playing online games, where standard internet routing can often lead to high latency, disconnects, or unreliable matchmaking.
By integrating the service directly into the Xbox PC app, Microsoft is reducing the need for players to manually manage third-party tools to stabilise their connection. As far as I’m aware, this marks the first time a major platform holder has offered this type of network acceleration as a built-in feature at the app level.
Online games in China often suffer from unstable connections, despite fast internet speeds, and are often tied to routing and congestion. This leads to many players relying on third-party tools like UU Accelerator to keep games playable.
Integrating this tool directly into the Xbox app on PC removes extra steps users would typically have to take to comfortably play online games.
Also, this isn’t the first time Xbox and NetEase have worked together. The two already have a long-standing partnership in China, with NetEase acting as Blizzard’s licensed publisher in the region, handling server infrastructure, localization, and live operations.
That relationship has already led to China-specific changes. World of Warcraft, for example, is set to receive China-only Titanreforge servers, designed exclusively for the local player base rather than being rolled out globally.
Xbox also appears to be aligning itself with traditional Chinese messaging by embracing the Year of the Horse, the Chinese Zodiac for 2026. This Lunar New Year-themed branding is commonly used by brands across China and helps position Xbox as more culturally aware and approachable to local audiences.