The9 may release WotLK to China on February 19th
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 11th 2009 at 11:30AM
Rumor has it that The9, the company that runs World of Warcraft in China, will be releasing the game's latest expansion there a week and a day from today, on February 19th, after holding a press conference a day earlier. We just recently got sent a question here at WoW Insider asking why the US and EU kills were often called "world firsts," and this is why: China usually gets expansion content much later than the other regions of the game do.But recently, Blizzard mentioned that they were aiming to release the content closer together, and this appears to be a result of that: it's still not simultaneous, obviously, but a few months is better than a year or so. Apparently 17173.com has heard that China will be getting Wrath of the Lich King next week, so if that does happen, we can look for the first Chinese level 80 and the first Chinese clears of Naxx and the other endgame raids soon after that.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Arcaria Feb 11th 2009 11:42AM
"we can look for the first Chinese level 80 and the first Chinese clears of Naxx and the other endgame raids soon after that."
yeah, but will we care?
Nemesis Feb 11th 2009 12:07PM
Nope.
jam Feb 11th 2009 12:09PM
As much as we care about you accomplishments.
JALbert Feb 11th 2009 1:49PM
I rather enjoyed the Chinese BC release, when Illidan went down in 2-3 weeks to a raid that was still largely in Tier 3 gear. It's a great counterpoint to the "zomg gear > all" mentality I see a lot. For some reason people think you needs epics to start in Naxx, or even Heroics.
jrb Feb 11th 2009 7:07PM
enough for people to make xenophobic comments, yes. we're not living in 1800's any more people.
voodoo Feb 11th 2009 11:49AM
I hate to be the one to say it, but we can look forward to "first gold farmer to 80" and "first gold farmer to ninja loot a pug in Naxx" as well.
wordsofivory Feb 11th 2009 12:00PM
Right, because there's no legitimate WoW players in China.
Your post reeks of ignorance about gold farming. You do realise that characters can't be transferred between regions, right? I.E. you can't move a character from a Chinese account to a US or EU one, and vica versa.
The game being released in Chine isn't going to increase the occurrence of gold farmers. Said gold farmers register on US and EU accounts, and download the US and EU version of the game, all of which can be done entirely online regardless of where you live in the world.
voodooatl Feb 11th 2009 12:10PM
I am very happy to be ignorant about gold farming and how it all works, who would be proud of that.
Liel Feb 11th 2009 2:10PM
The Asian market makes up the bulk of the mmo market. More than half of wow's population is from the Asian market on Asian server.
Brad Feb 11th 2009 11:53AM
soon = 3 hours
SaintStryfe Feb 11th 2009 11:55AM
The same reason it's the World Series.
Ponch Feb 11th 2009 12:03PM
agree with Arcaria
Lemons Feb 11th 2009 12:19PM
It's probably because the chinese version of the ESRB has to peruse the entire game looking for anything that would go against their government in any way. They wouldn't want to expose their impressionable people to an anti-communist quest.
peagle Feb 11th 2009 12:41PM
If they were concerned about capitalist elements of the game, the entire Goblin race would have to be removed.
Eternauta Feb 11th 2009 2:01PM
...and don't forget the Auction House
Muse Feb 11th 2009 6:35PM
...and it takes a while to translate it, too. Particularly since transcribing names and places can be tricky.
rayn Feb 11th 2009 10:46PM
actually the goverment thinks the game to be too violent and bloody. All the undead in wow in chinese server puts on a lot meat and barely you can see any bone. The reason for this is people from different ages can buy the game and play. Is not like US or EU, you may be need to be above 18 to play the game or something like that. Is it good for a 10 year old boy to play Counter Strike or any game contain bloody images in it?
JustSomeGuy Feb 11th 2009 12:27PM
And here I thought gold spam messages in /2 went down because of something Blizzard did.
InsaneAssault Feb 11th 2009 1:00PM
I'm very interested in seeing what sort of content differences China's WoW version will have from the rest of the world. I believe there are certain Chinese laws that prohibit showing images of skeletons and corpses in media? I remember they had to modify some of the ghoul/skeleton artwork in certain Chinese versions of Magic The Gathering cards a few years back. And with the heavy undead theme in Wrath, I would assume that it would be heavily edited.
Cyanea Feb 11th 2009 1:53PM
How easy is it for me (in the US) to get a character onto a Chinese server? (I'm guessing it's not cause it's a different company, different pay schedule, etc). I ask this because a friend and I both play the game, both are Chinese language majors, and both think it's a good way to practice the language.