Filed under:
Analysis / Opinion,
Odds and ends,
Blizzard,
Expansions,
Wrath of the Lich King
The9 has been the target of persistent rumors over the last few months that they're on the verge of losing their license from Blizzard to operate
World of Warcraft in China. First, we heard about
their financial troubles, and then came rumors that
Blizzard was going to ditch them. And now we've got
WorldofWar.net reporting a rumor that
Netease will be the company to take over the reins there. It makes sense -- Netease has been growing a lot during their history, and they successfully
operate Fantasy Westward Journey, an MMO with a US value of $761 million, with 400,000 average concurrent users. They're already supposed to take over Blizzard's
Warcraft III and
Starcraft II in China, so Blizzard will actually be consolidating their properties.
The rumor supposedly comes from a leaked internal memo to The9 employees, which says that an unnamed company (supposedly Netease) is trying to pick up the rights and hardware for the game for a cool $22 million. The9 reportedly paid $73 million for the same capability, so they're losing twice on the deal -- both the license and the money they spent on it.
Not good news for The9 if it all turns out to be true, but maybe this means Chinese players
will get their expansions a little sooner. Of course, a lot goes into releasing new content overseas (translation is definitely not a small part of it), but having a more capable operator probably won't hurt.
Rumor: The9 loses WoW license in China to Netease originally appeared on
WoW Insider on Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
More...