World of Warcraft faces rocky transition to new operator in China

June 25, 2009 | Dean Takahashi | Comments | |

wowIf you take away the drug of the people, you should expect dire consequences. In China, World of Warcraft has been inoperative since June 7. That means that WoW addicts haven’t had their fix for 18 days.

Activision Blizzard announced that it was transitioning WoW to a new operator in China, moving from The9 to Netease. The American game company needs a partner in China because of government regulations that require some kind of locally-based Chinese partner, but also because it helps to have a local operator.

The9 had apparently been making a ton of money from its deal with Activision Blizzard, and the American company apparently made the move becasue Netease was willing to get by with a smaller cut of the pie, according to analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities. But so far the consequences of that decision aren’t looking pretty.  WoW players usually pay by the hour at Internet cafes in China. So all of the downtime means lost revenue.

This represents a golden opportunity for rivals to pick off some of WoW’s customers. Blizzard Entertainment said in a statement that the downtime was expected and players were warned. The companies are still working on getting the game up, but they say they are operating on the schedule that they had anticipated.

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About the Author, Dean Takahashi

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • JohnHamer
    That's what you get if you're being cheap and greedy. Blizzard can't just take advantage and get away from it easily, there are pay off and consequences for this. I bet Chinese are playing private server by now.

    Signature: Beckoning all adroit crusaders to trudge united into the realm where no inept squaddie endure's a staunch union of nobles. Summoning http://apexwebgaming.com/browse/World-of-Warcraft - my bonded pack.
  • JohnHamer
    Actually, Blizzard has stated that they chose NetEase because they have more in common with NetEase (both game developers and publishers) and should therefore be able to offer players a better experience (hence the recent announcement of Blizzard and NetEase's investment in new hardware in China that I bet The9 was reluctant to make). Unlike most other game companies, Blizzard has always made decisions with the players in mind, and that's why they've profited. If you call catering to your players being "greedy," then I think greed must be a good thing.
  • I just wish that Blizzard would be able to get their act together and have WoW back up again in China. After all, the gamers are suffering too. And Blizzard should know all too well how a pissed-off gamer's wrath could be.