Punishment for NetEase coming this month in China
by Robin Torres 
Jan 6th 2010 at 11:00AM
This announcement raises so many questions for WoW in China. Will NetEase be allowed to resume operations of WoW? If not, will Blizzard be able to find yet another replacement? Or will China continue to block all attempts for playing World of Warcraft, continuing their efforts to not be influenced by western culture?
Many Chinese players are still hanging out in Azeroth via Taiwanese servers, of course. This includes the famous Chinese guild Stars, which was also WoW.com's August Guild of the Month winner. If commercial operations of WoW return to China, Wrath of the Lich King has yet to be released there. So many players who have defected to Taiwanese servers are not likely to return until after the Chinese servers catch up with the rest of the world. We'll keep you up to date on the situation as it unfolds.
[Via GamePolitics.com]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Netherscourge Jan 6th 2010 11:11AM
Why even waste your time with China?
Blizzard already had to water down the graphics with pretty things instead of dead-looking things just to get past the Chinese censors... Arthas will probably be replaced with an angry Pink Elephant because the Lich King is too "evil" looking for the Chinese censors.
And does Blizzard really need to get bogged down in another territory? How much dang money does they need?
You win Blizzard. You are the MMO champions of the universe - WITHOUT China. Why bother pushing this issue? Just focus on the rest of the free world before it all comes to an end in 2012.
(cutaia) Jan 6th 2010 11:26AM
Yeah...why consider 1/5 of the entire world's population in your business plan, Blizzard? N00bs.
Goolie Jan 6th 2010 11:27AM
Repent! Repent!
World server shutdown in 1079 days, 33 minutes.
Ydrisselle Jan 6th 2010 12:35PM
4-4.5 million subscribers are from China. If half of them are playing in Taiwan now, that's still a lot...
Neo S. Jan 6th 2010 1:51PM
yes screw china, but please give me WoW India already!
Fnord Jan 6th 2010 7:52PM
"REST of the free world"? One longs for the day that such a phrase won't constitute question-begging.
Typhonus Jan 6th 2010 11:35AM
You'd think with all their resources, blizz would just setup shop by themselves over their instead of looking for a replacement to provide the services :) Havent followed the story all the way, just my 2 cent :D
arobertmiller Jan 6th 2010 11:44AM
China's market is relatively tightly regulated, especially for foreign corporations, so in order to do business at all they likely had to partner with a native corporation.
HellShogun Jan 6th 2010 11:44AM
It's not legal for a non-chinese company to ask for subscriptions in China.
So Blizzard has to sell the rights of the game to a chinese company that will in turn sell subscriptions.
China might've opened up a bit, but it's still a communist country.
Thander Jan 6th 2010 12:36PM
@HellShogun
Blizzard could still create their own Blizzard company in China for all their games. Their Chinese division would handle all releases there. It's just more costly to do that, because it means having to maintain their own servers like they do in the rest of the world.
The agreement they had with NetEase was all profit. NetEase paid them upfront to be the provider of WoW Chinese and then on top Blizzard gets a percentage of every subscription sale. A big check every 6 months or something.
busuan Jan 6th 2010 12:50PM
@Thander
Yes, they can set up their own division.
No, they still can't publish any product by themselves even with such a division. Because that's the consensus of the industry, the law/regulation and the political will of the governing party.
The independent publication right is the major incentive that NetEase hinted to Blizzard and angered all other game companies. Allowing Blizzard to directly access the market would squeeze their profit. The dispute between the Administration and the Ministry reflects such a struggle between the two camps, Blizz+NetEase vs all others. And apparently Blizz/NetEase lost this round.
gatheringsin Jan 6th 2010 4:39PM
The issue is not legality, but most likely that the required illegal acts of bribery and kickbacks weren't done. This is China we're talking about here folks, where providing 13 year old virgins to government officials for sexual acts is rather common place in business deals.
I for one see Blizzard's issue with getting WOTLK released in China as a sign that they won't sell their soul to do business with devils.
James Riggs Jan 6th 2010 11:36AM
Screw China. Cut off their internet trunks and leave em in the dark ages.
And give the rest of the world the Pandaren race already.
Arbitor Jan 6th 2010 1:05PM
No Pandarens as a playable race (yet) have nothing to do with china.
I think they are considered to much as a joke race to be playable, and if they do release them (hey they made worgens look intelligent, they can make Pandaren look serious) they would also probably have to release the Brew master hero class with it, as that is essentially what Pandaren culture revolves around.
I would roll a Pandaren in a heartbeat, but we are going to have to wait a while before blizzard is willing to release an expansion with two new races and a hero class.
My theory is that blizzard wants to cap the game at level 100 (as in, final expansion will be 95-100) so blizzard will most likely release Pandaren (and their counterpart horde race) in the 90-95 expansion, so their will be no new races or classes in the final legion expansion (another one of my theories).
The reason for this is because they would want to focus on the final expansion's new content as opposed to low level content, and we would get both new races and a new class prior to this (pandaren and brew master I'm talking about here) to make up for it.
P.S. I think we will also get a new hero class in the expansion after Cata, leaving the final race count as we go into the last expansion at 7 horde and 7 alliance, and the final class count at 12 (9 core classes, 3 hero classes).
P.S.S. To stay relevant to the topic and to not get down-voted into oblivion, what you were thinking of was when the chinese felt insulted as warcraft 3 originally featured Pandaren with a Japanese culture and armour, when the panda is the official symbol of China.
Guess they think they own the right to the panda?
I mean, would the Americans get offended if France designed a game featuring a bald eagle wearing a beret and eating a baguette?
Arbitor Jan 6th 2010 1:07PM
I like speculation, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Fatamorgana Jan 6th 2010 11:41AM
These two Chinese government agencies are like two kids fighting over a power-trip.
Blizz has bent over backward changing so many aspect of the game to make it acceptable to play in China. From Variations on some character models to changing corpses from character death.
It's another world away, but I would love to see the game flourish there again.
Let the people decide to play what they want. That would be nice, wouldn't it? But they aren't exactly a democracy there, are they.
Here's to hoping they get it all sorted out soon and kill the drama once and for all.
/cheers
nonexistentnick Jan 6th 2010 11:42AM
Not trying to be ignorant or anything... but it's just a videogame, China. It's just a game! Jeez.
How could a country so big be so lame? China is Earth's Feralas.
Agony Jan 6th 2010 11:52AM
Well, to be fair...
Okay, how's this for an idea? An MMO where you are running around killing Christians. Your characters are all demons or variations of demons. For every Christian you kill, a grave pops up that has an upside-down crucifix showing Jesus in drag.
How well do you think that would fly in the United States?
Yeah, not very well.
Culture, people, is just about governments...but hey, it's just a video game, right?
Jamie Jan 6th 2010 11:53AM
Don't bad mouth Feralas!
Even as an Alliance player I'd find China comparable to Silithus or Desolace.
mtsadowski Jan 6th 2010 12:04PM
@Agony
The game you described sounds like something on the XBox.