Battle.net registration now online in China
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 2nd 2009 at 9:00PM
World of Warcraft has, as you have probably heard, been offline in China for a while now. Even though The9 originally said they'd transfer over their servers to NetEase, they later decided to fight it out, leaving WoW offline for a matter of weeks. And it isn't quite up yet, but they're getting there -- this (very roughly) translated article says that Battle.net servers are now up and running, so Chinese players can now at least sign in to Battle.net, if not into the game itself. We already went through the same thing here in the US and the EU, so Azeroth should be back online in China any day now.Meanwhile, the poor folks at The9 have not been doing so well -- they were on top of the world last year, but when World of Warcraft up and flew the griffon out of there, they lost the majority of their business. A new AP article has them revising their expected earnings down by an "estimated 55 to 75 percent." Ouch.
Let that be a lesson, NetEase. Keep your instances running and your downtime low, because if Blizzard pulls the plug on a game you're running, they'll be taking a ton of money with them.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Economy, Hardware
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zalvi Jul 2nd 2009 9:20PM
and we care because.................................................................
Hivetyrant Jul 2nd 2009 9:23PM
Because its WoW related news, and this is a WoW related blog/news site.
If anything, we should read this and recognize that despite how big Blizzard and AT&T are, things can go wrong, and despite many other ISP wanting to pick up the responsibility, it's entirely possible that the same thing could happen to US and even EU players one day.
Superthrust Jul 2nd 2009 9:32PM
its china...and its battlenet...prolly waiting for starcraft already...plus, this don't affect us. i agree with Op.
Magma Jul 2nd 2009 9:44PM
Asia holds 6 million of the subscribers. The majority of those are Chinese. You should care about half your player base.
Roflpanda Jul 3rd 2009 12:28AM
It's called empathy.
Retropally Jul 3rd 2009 4:14AM
Zalvi, stop being an idiot and living 20 years ago.
Every gaming company works on a global scale these days. The reason China has gotten so much press from wowinsider as well as other websites is because there was a confusing, yet interesting legal problem between Blizz and The9.
If you really care that much about not wanting to read about places outside of the USA...then there are multiple other blogs you can read.
You should also note that there are actually quite a few Asian players, as they themselves have commented on past posts on the topic.
Bunkki Jul 2nd 2009 10:26PM
You don't have to read this is you dont care..
Roflpanda Jul 3rd 2009 12:30AM
Zalvi: I TALK SHIT ABOUT STUFF I DON'T READ TOO.
Reuben Jul 3rd 2009 1:07AM
@Zalvi
It would of been in your best interest to not have mentioned that little fact.
catxp Jul 3rd 2009 1:13AM
i am a chinese wow player,i often visit famous wow sites including wow insider mmo-champion or world of raids,after all,i can only get the latest wow news from these sites.
i wish wow can be online as quickly possible,most of us really want to get back to the world of warcraft.
we also wish that we can play wotlk instead of tbc.
Bossy Jul 3rd 2009 4:17AM
Hello dear Chinese friend,
I am sure you all suffer from not having WOW these last few weeks.
My sympathy and when the game gets relaunched soon, I am sure it will be a massive fight to get back to Azeroth.
I hope it will be fices in the next couple of days.
I am crossing my fingers fellow.
Of course the new expansion will hit soon. Dictatorships are running on their last legs tx to the web.
Greetings.
catxp Jul 3rd 2009 4:49AM
Greeting,dear friend.
During this time without wow,many people,including some of my firends,turned to play wow in Taiwan realms ,or play other games.
Of course most will come back to wow but many may not,i hope my firends will back to wow,however wow is the most wonderful game i've ever met and it's the only western mmorpg which can be so successful in China.
But the government decided to limit import games to protect native games,and wow is so famous,so wow will never be easy in China,this is really the misfortune of people who really like wow.
jayus Jul 3rd 2009 1:36AM
I wonder how something like this would play out in the west? I mean wow suddenly going down for a month or two, would be interesting to see who's really an addict and who just plays a lot, the shaking of the true addict would give them away :p
Might actually be a boon for the games industry though if WoW was suddenly offline for a few weeks as people turned to other games for a bit.
Hivetyrant Jul 3rd 2009 3:46AM
Lol, maybe they will "accidentally" take it offline just as Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 are released....
(Not that most of us won't be playing one or the other anyways)
Bossy Jul 3rd 2009 4:19AM
My guess?
When Wow relaunches over there it will be a BOOM for WOW.
It is like a guy refinding his stolen toy.
It is a boomerang after suffering.