Blizzard Renews Netease’s World of Warcraft License in China
Blizzard and Netease (NASDAQ:NTES) announced today that Netease will continue to be the China publisher and operator for Blizzard's smash-hit World of Warcraft. The renewal gives Netease another three years and ensures that they will be around for the launch of the Mists of Pandaria expansion, which is sure to be popular in China because it's about pandas.This news puts an end to rumors that Netease might lose the WoW license to Tencent, and it also makes it much more likely that Netease will also be given the license ...
Does The Old Republic Threaten World of Warcraft in Asia?
This is an interesting time for online gamers. World of Warcraft, the game that has dominated the MMORPG genre for the better part of the last decade, is starting to show signs of weakness as player subscriptions slip. At the same time, EA has just launched Star Wars: The Old Republic, perhaps the best shot yet at the MMORPG heavyweight crown since WoW first took the field. The Old Republic has done well since its launch, and the game promises to be a big moneymaker for EA (NASDAQ:EA), costing $60 ...
Is Blizzard Considering Switching to Tencent for WoW in China
Blizzard's World of Warcraft may be seeing a downswing in its user base, but it's still got more players -- and rakes in more money -- than you probably care to imagine. And, nearly alone among Western-developed games, it's super popular in China, where profits are actually rising even as they fall in other regions.So, being Blizzard's WoW operating partner in China has always been a coveted position, and it's a partnership Blizzard has already shown it is willing to reevaluate. In 2009, for example, they ditched local partners The9 ...
No Choice But to Mine: One World of Warcraft Ore Miner’s Story
Among Western World of Warcraft players, "gold farming" and other kinds of mining -- grinding out in-game resources in MMORPGs and selling those resources to gamers for real money -- are often looked on unkindly. Often, and not without good reason, "gold farming" is associated with China, and Youtube is full of videos like "Chinese Gold Farmers Must Die" (warning: contains music by Beck), which showcases vigilante gamers hunting down and killing off gold farmers.Complaints about their effect on the game world and the in-game economy may be valid, but ...
WoW’s New Expansion Angers Dumb Chinese Nationalists
It's only been announced for a couple days, and it won't be released for who-knows-how-long, but apparently some Chinese gamers have already found a reason to get angry about World of Warcraft's upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. The expansion, which is very clearly China-themed and may represent an attempt by Blizzard to cater directly to Chinese WoW players, managed to draw the ire of some nationalist "angry youths" because of a very short moment in this launch trailer. See if you can spot it for yourself:No luck? OK, it's here. ...
Is Blizzard Panda-ring to Chinese Gamers with New WoW Expansion?
Blizzcon, the annual conference of mega game developer Blizzard, was this weekend, and one of the biggest pieces of news to come out of the weekend has left at least a few people scratching their heads.Blizzard announced it would be releasing another expansion to their ultra-hit World of Warcraft. "Mists of Pandaria" doesn't have a release date yet, but you can check out the official preview trailer below. See if you can figure out why I think this might be an expansion targeted specifically at China:Yeah, maybe it was ...
World of Warcraft Virtual Pet Sale Raises $1.9 Million for Japan
Not long after the tragic March 11th earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we told you about how gaming company Blizzard was taking initiative to tap its community to raise money for relief efforts.Its somewhat unconventional solution was to sell a virtual pet, a winged monstrosity called a Cenarion Hatching. It went on sale for a $10 ‘adoption fee,’ of which 100 percent of the proceeds would go to the Red Cross.When we first reported this, I figured that given the size of the World of Warcraft community that a pretty ...
Chinese Online Gaming: Change is in the Air
MMOs may be popular among Chinese youth, but they generally have a rough go of it in the press. Gaming addiction sometimes has horrifying (and high-profile) consequences -- like, say, a couple selling their children for money to play games -- and moreover, the sharp generation gap in China means that most parents have almost no understanding of what it is that makes their kids want to play video games in the first place. Naturally, when things go wrong, games are often blamed. And World of Warcraft, being both hugely ...
Online Game ‘Gold Farming’ in China Gets Animated
One of the biggest news headlines from last week was a report claiming that some unfortunate Chinese convicts were bring forced into “gold farming” (or earning money in online games) by prison guards. The story also captured the attention of Taiwan-based Next Media Animation who has created one of its trademark animations depicting a wacky visualization of how things may have gone down.Instead of earning online currency themselves, many gamers prefer the shortcut of buying virtual gold with real money. Over the years “gold farming” has emerged to feed ...
World of Warcraft Pet Purchase Proceeds To Aid Japan
While the Japan earthquake has been pushed out of the news cycle over the past few days, people there are still very much in need of help. I’m happy to see World of Warcraft stepping up with a campaign to to raise some funds for earthquake relief.Between now and July 31st, all the proceeds from the sales of Cenarion Hatchlings (a $10 adoption fee) will go towards the American Red Cross’ relief efforts in Japan. I confess that I’m not exactly sure what a Cenarion Hatchling is, but I encourage ...
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