World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC) > Articles
bids
15
15
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
WoW "loses" 6m users
WoW "loses" 6m users
GamesBrief - July 7, 2009
Submitted by deftangel (291) at 5:52AM PST on July 7, 2009
I have added the quote-marks to the headline myself as there is plenty of context needing to be taken into account when reading this article. Please read in full & see commments.
It discusses the ongoing lawsuits between The9 & Blizzard following the latter's decision to move WoW to a new Chinese operator, NetEase.
The WoW servers in China have been down for around a month which is estimated to be 6m players.
Discussion - Submit a comment
bids
15deftangel posted on World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC) at 5:52AM PST on July 7, 2009. Article: WoW "loses" 6m usersI have added the quote-marks to the headline myself as there is plenty of context needing to be taken into account when reading this article. Please read in full & see commments. It discusses the ongoing lawsuits between The9 & Blizzard following the latter's decision to move WoW to a new Chinese operator, NetEase. The WoW servers in China have been down for around a month which is estimated to be 6m players.[ Oracle ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 291 ]
About Us - The simExchange is the video game stock market and the source
for video game sales forecasts.
3
I have already posted about the Chinese WoW servers being down, it's now been about a month. This article speculates as to why they haven't come back up sooner. From the article;-
The current issue may be political. Activision Blizzard ended its relationship with former WoW operator The9 due, I believe, to EA’s 15.8% stake in The9. But it is also geopolitical: the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has to approve the release of “an electronic publication belonging to an overseas copyright holder”. Marbridge Consulting reports that:
“At the 2008 Annual Meeting for China Online Gaming, GAPP said that in order to protect the interests of domestic gaming enterprises, it would suspend review of all games belonging to foreign companies in the event of lawsuits or arbitration between foreign companies and Chinese companies.”
So perhaps unsurprisingly, The9 has brought four lawsuits against Blizzard in Shanghai. And the Warcraft servers stay down. I’m sure that competitors are swarming to attract former WoW players to their own MMORPGs even as we speak.
The new operator, NetEase needs a licence to operate WoW in China. The Chinese government have neglected to give them one, presumably at present because of the filings from The9. The GAPP ruling to which the article refers essentially allows a domestic company to raise objections about foreign companies operating in China which may or may not result in them being taken offline for a period of time. If that sounds like a lot like a protection racket for the Chinese MMO operators, that's because essentially, it is.
Now lets be clear.
Blizzard will get this sorted out eventually. Despite the fact it's not the biggest earner for them, the Chinese market is by far the biggest and also still growing at a rapid rate.
What I think is up for debate is how many of the existing subscribers come back when this is sorted out.
The flip side of this is that it might encourage Blizzard to pull their finger out with the Lich King expansion to entice back any lost customers.
It's also worth pointing out that even when NetEase get the licence for WoW sorted out, to release the Lich King expansion they will still need a new licence. The Chinese regulators already declined that once on the basis of some of the content in it. It will be in Blizzard's interest to localize and make changes where appropriate though in the Lich King's case these would be fairly extensive.
The issue however that if there is anything remotely borderline about the whole thing, another domestic MMO regulator could simply raise an objection and it will get suspended and reviewed again.
Clearly, NetEase did not enter into a deal with Blizzard for nothing so WoW will be back at some point. For now though, the ongoing dramas continue.
Disclaimer
1) I'm short on the expansion
2) I'm obviously posting the news as I believe it to be a) relevant and b) over-valued
3) I've attempted to be both balanced and upfront on my opinion. If you disagree, downbid all you like.