With the game offline in China, others aim to step in
by Mike Schramm 
Jun 26th 2009 at 3:00PM
As you may or may not have heard, the World of Warcraft is currently offline in China, thanks to a fight between the game's former licensee, The9, and its current licensee, Netease. Yes, if you think a day or so of downtime is bad here in the US and the EU, that's nothing compared to this: the game has been down since June 7th, and neither Blizzard nor Netease have given an estimate of when the game might be back online. An analyst from China does say that they expect most players to return to the servers once they return, but in the meantime, many players have spread over into Taiwan's WoW server. We don't believe that Blizzard allowed transfers during this time, so they've likely started and leveling brand new characters over there.And don't think that other games haven't noticed this unique window of opportunity: there are currently millions of MMO players looking for something to do in China, and there are at least three big other games looking to give them something to do. Aion, which is currently in beta here in the US but is apparently up and running in Asia already, is making as much of a play as they can, and there are two local Chinese games, Zhuxian Online and Chibi Online, both developed by a company called Perfect World, that are also aiming to steal some of China's WoW players.
Very interesting situation over there -- imagine how much the MMO world would be thrown off here if WoW just completely disappeared for multiple weeks, if not longer. Blizzard is likely scrambling to get things moving over there as fast as possible.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Realm Status, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
impurezero Jun 26th 2009 3:06PM
Well...if that happened here, it's not like it would be the end of the world...
...of Warcraft.
(By the way guys...have you ever wanted to one-shot an entire raid instance?)
Punjab Jun 26th 2009 4:21PM
No but I hear this guy did.
RetadinMan Jun 26th 2009 3:27PM
Estimate of when it will be back online is Soon (TM).
Mykeys Jun 26th 2009 3:41PM
When it's ready.
snowleopard233 Jun 26th 2009 3:34PM
they need to not only get the servers online but get WOTLK released if they want to retain and regain their player base. Would be sad if Blizzard lost five million players because of a company as poorly run as the9.
peagle Jun 26th 2009 3:38PM
To be fair, I was under the impression the Chinese government had/have numerous objections to the primary content in WoLK that has delayed its release indefinitely.
Lemons Jun 27th 2009 2:31AM
Yea the Chinese government's strict standards basically shut down WoW in China. Too bad though, apparently the entire Death Knight class was too death-centric for the Chinese so it wouldn't have even been in the Chinese version of WoW...
Now if they could've somehow found Ret Paladins offensive and realeased the game I would have moved to China...
theholyevil Jun 26th 2009 3:35PM
I got to hand it to china's players 3 weeks is a long time to put your gaming on hold. Thankfully though WOW is in a period where there are no good MMOs and is the king of multiplayer gaming, so I don't think we have to worry about player sniping.
If it was happening in the US, my limit would probably we about 6 weeks before I started looking for a new MMO.
Mordockk Jun 26th 2009 3:37PM
To honor the late great Michael Jackson I want to officially ask blizzard to for the new human dance moves to be a combination of the moonwalk and thriller dance. ty
oh, ya that sux for china. its what happens when you try to apply communism to the AH and honor system in BG's.
/cast Divine Protection
ballistic3188 Jun 26th 2009 3:48PM
human? stop being biased toward alliance thriller should have been the forsaken's dance since the very beginning.
Mordockk Jun 26th 2009 3:53PM
tooshay
impurezero Jun 26th 2009 4:32PM
You wanna have a dance battle?
Mordockk Jun 26th 2009 4:33PM
nope. but I will be getting drunk and thriller dancing all weekend to pay my condolences to the late great mj.
impurezero Jun 26th 2009 4:37PM
Now if only we can stop trade chat from the constant "Michael Jordan is dead?" joke...
Keyra Jun 26th 2009 7:26PM
NO! STOP! CEASE!
(Grammar Nazi enters the room, grasping a very large, spiked yardstick while eyeing your knuckles.)
It's spelled "touché", not "tooshay!"
(What initially followed was a very graphic description involving flesh being ripped from bone in various horrific ways that has been edited for the sake of our more sensitive viewers.)
jbodar Jun 26th 2009 8:14PM
@Keyra
Whatever, you're point is mute anyway. Irregardless, I don't have time to argue cuz I need to set up duel spec on my rouge.
/watches Keyra's head asplode
Keyra Jun 26th 2009 8:38PM
@jbodar -
LMAO!
RogueJedi86 Jun 26th 2009 3:39PM
They could always roll on American servers. The Chinese goldfarmers don't seem to have any trouble doing it, can't be that hard.
Dart Jun 26th 2009 5:12PM
5 Comments ahead of you, new record. Most articles that even include the country China or have the word Chinese in them, first 3 including the painfully cliched "AMG GOLD FARMERSS!!!" post.
All of the people on those servers are just gamers, just like you, me and everyone else.
How about you reroll on a server across an ocean and see if the ping is playable.
Stuart Thompson Jun 26th 2009 3:43PM
I can only imagine the kind of hysteria that is taking place between legal departments right now. There will probably be suits and countersuits over lost profits for years to come on this one. I doubt in the long run that this will hurt WoW in China much more than the lack of a WOTLK release, but those sorts of numbers are so hard to even guess at.
The biggest problem I see for them is guilds breaking up. I've seen on several occasions that just a couple of weeks of finals exams or big projects at work in people's RL's can cause guilds to go off the rails. I can't imagine what multiple weeks of downtown would do.