Hearthstone, Call of Duty Online, and World of Warplanes all approved for release in China

It’s one of those things that seems like a foregone conclusion, but can still end up delaying games for months or years: regulatory approval. In China, the Ministry of Culture must approve any foreign games hoping for release in the region, and yesterday the Ministry announced a list of newly-approved games that includes Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Call of Duty Online, and World of Warplanes.

It’s no surprise these games passed muster — and in fact we’ve known Hearthstone was getting approved for a month already — but it’s still a relief to see that the approval process has been concluded and all of these games can be legally offered in China.

Hearthstone has been in closed beta in China for a while already, and is being distributed by Netease. Here’s a trailer:

Call of Duty Online is also in closed beta at the moment, and is being distributed by Tencent Games. Here’s a trailer:

World of Warplanes is being distributed by Kongzhong, and has just finished its second round of closed beta testing. It seems likely that with this news, the game could enter open beta quite soon. Here’s a trailer:

(via QQ Games)